Intelligence of the UPR. Unknown Pages in Its Activity

Among the archival documents of the GPU/NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR, which were accumulated in letter cases with the names “Counterrevolutionary Petliurivshchyna (the Petliura movement- Transl.)”, “Petliurites”, “UPR”, etc., there are often references and messages that shed light on hitherto unknown pages of the liberation struggle, which was not stopped by representatives of the UPR Intelligence in exile. The most valuable of this is the information about those who led the unequal struggle, believed in the restoration of Ukraine's independence and did not make any compromises with the enemy and own conscience.

The case entitled “Petliurivtsi” (“Petliurites”- Transl.). 1922” contains materials related to the activities of one of the chiefs of the Intelligence of the UPR, Colonel Mykola Krasovskyi. In particular, the handwritten report, made in pencil on September 1, 1922 and signed “Kaminskyi”, refers to the arrival of this person in Lviv and his meeting with Krasovskyi. At that time, as is known from previously declassified documents of special services, Mykola Krasovskyi, at the head of a special service called “Information Bureau” (“INFIBRO”) of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the UPR, moved to the territory of Poland. But there is very little information about that activity abroad.

It is only known that after the emigration of the Ukrainian government and military units, INFIBRO operated for some time in 1920-1921 on the territory of Poland. However, in the absence of funds for maintenance, the unit was later withdrawn from the General Staff of the UPR Army. A number of its employees, including M. Krasovskyi, by mutual agreement of the heads of the two allied military departments, continued to serve in the II Department of the General Staff of Poland, which dealt with intelligence and counterintelligence. In November 1921, after certain reorganizations, M. Krasovskyi was reinstated to his previous position in Ukrainian structures. He received extraordinary powers to organize intelligence and counterintelligence activities, and his employees intensified their work, in particular in the camps where  Ukrainian military servicemen were staying in Poland.

The newly found documents add to this information. For example, Kaminskyi's handwritten report states that on August 22, 1922, he met with Colonel Krasovskyi and discussed with him transferring “insurgent units” to the territory of Ukraine.

“I asked him about our cause”, – the report says. – He answered that our cause still stands, one might say, well. During this time, 4 units have already been sent: 2 into Skala district, one into Korets district of Rivne region, and one near Ostroh. These units’ trips were successful. One unit already operates in Skvyra district, the second operates in Mohylyanskyi district in Podillia. The third is also in the underground of Kremenets in Podillia, and the fourth, which started on August 21 under the command of Captain Samoshyn with a force of 800 people, operates near Zhytomyr, but there is no contact with this unit”(BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. – F. 1. – Case 8102. – V. 1. – P. 101).

Besides, a document states that M. Krasovskyi at that time lived in Rivne at 35, Dyrectorska Street. And in Rivne, as well as in Dubno, Korets, Ternopil, Kremenets and other border towns, there worked the UPR intelligence’s control (intelligence) points. The staff of such stations consisted of several officers of the Ukrainian Army, who, as a rule, were in touch with Polish liaison officers. They were engaged in reconnaissance in the appropriate lanes, smuggled agents across the border, received couriers arriving from insurgent formations, and interrogated persons coming from the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

Many such persons who were involved in intelligence activities at that time are mentioned in other archival documents. In particular, Oleksandr Mykolayovych Polishchuk, who is called “an agent of the Petliura Intelligence” in the case. It is noted that he was born in 1898 in the village of Lubchytsi, Novohrad-Volynskyi district. During the First World War, at the age of 16, he ran away to the war. He stayed at the front for nine months until his parents found him and forced him to return home. But, against their will, he stubbornly wanted to be a military serviceman. That’s why he passed the exams at the school of ensigns. Even before the completion of training, he filed a report with a request to be sent to the front. The request, according to the documents, was granted.

After the February Revolution of 1917 in the Russian Empire, O. Polishchuk was sent to the Kyiv Cadet School. He did not finish it either, because of the October revolution in St. Petersburg. He returned to his native Novohrad-Volynskyi and got a job as an office clerk on the railway. In 1919, as a former cadet, he was arrested by the Cheka, but soon released.

“In 1920, during the uprising in Novohrad-Volynskyi”, says one of the papers, “he took an active part in the activities of Sokolov’s gang and, after its defeat, joined the Petliura detachment, with which he participated in battles against units of the Red Army (Workers' and Peasants' Red Army- Note) and later evacuated with the remains of Petliura's troops to Poland”.

Through foreign agents, Chekists obtained information that O. Polishchuk was sent to Ukraine “by former Petliura’s Colonel Filonenko for communication with some large insurgent organization, the center of which was allegedly in Kyiv”.

Petro Filonenko, mentioned in the document, was from the village of Yemilchyne, Zviahel povit (now Zviahel district, Zhytomyr region). He served in the tsarist army, fought on the fronts of the First World War. During the Hetmanate, he worked as a member of the military court and in the mobilization department of the commandant's office of Novohrad-Volynskyi, was engaged in the mobilization of young men to the Ukrainian Army. Soon he created a partisan detachment and began the struggle against the Bolshevik invaders, actively acted in the area of Korosten-Ovruch-Novohrad-Volynskyi, received the rank of Sotnyk. He took part in the First Winter Campaign. For some time he was a partisan in Volhynia. He returned to Poland in 1924. Soon he was involved in the second section of the General Staff of the Ministry of Military Affairs of the UPR State Center in exile, which was engaged in intelligence and counterintelligence.

Most likely, the countrymen were well acquainted, together they participated in the insurgent movement, and already in exile Sotnyk P. Filonenko, as older and more experienced, brought his acquaintance to work in the UPR intelligence. The reports of the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR indicate that Chekists for some time monitored O. Polishchuk's activity, collected information about his close relatives, studied the possibility of either luring him out and arresting him, or persuading him to cooperate. “Given that Polishchuk Oleksandr is an interesting figure from the point of view of our recruiting him”, one of the papers points out, “we studied his family ties on the Soviet side” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. – F. 1. – Case 8102. – V. 2. –P. 16).

As of 1935, Chekists did not succeed in their operational plan. There is no information about O. Polishchuk’s further fate  in the case file.

Besides, the case concerns other operational cultivations by the GPU/NKVD. This is evidenced by the “memorandum of agentura materials on the intelligence agent of the UPR Smyk”, dated March 2, 1935. It points out as follows: “Smyk Fedir Yakovych, about 40 years old, was born and resides in Zalawia village, Sarny povit – Poland, works as a forester of the state forest. According to the materials of the INO (Foreign Department – Note.), Fedir Smyk has been involved since 1928 as a most active assistant of Petliurites Nedaykasha and Doroshenko... Until 1932, Smyk maintained written contact with the prominent Ukrainian figure Nedaykasha, who lived in Warsaw”.

The above-mentioned Vasyl Nedaykasha, at that time headed the Intelligence Sector at the Ministry of Military Affairs of the UPR government in exile. The case file states that, on V. Nedaykasha’s instructions, F. Smyk himself recruited needed persons and transported them across the Polish-Soviet border to conduct “insurgent and intelligent work” in Ukraine.

Taking into account Fedir's extensive connections in emigration circles, in 1933 Chekists decided to recruit him. For this purpose, at the end of October 1933, a specially trained courier-recruiter “Bondar” was sent abroad. But he returned empty-handed. In the case file, this is stated as follows: “Smyk categorically refused to work with us and told him not to come to him again”. “In view of the above”, the paper ends, “this recruitment cultivation called “Recruiter” has been submitted to the archive by us” (BSA of the SZR of Ukraine. – F. 1. – Case 8102. – V. 2. –P. 30).

Despite the fact that these documents from the archival funds of the Intelligence do not allow to fully track the life and activities of these persons, they are now revealing new names and hitherto unknown episodes from the functioning of the Ukrainian Intelligence units in one of the most difficult periods of the national history.