Mykola Krasovskyi was born on March 31, 1871, in Kyiv in the family of&nbsp; an Orthodox clergyman. He began his career in 1903 as an assistant of a police officer in Nizhyn, Chernihiv province. From 1908 he worked in the Kyiv City Police, for some time he was the Acting Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), he solved&nbsp; dozens of high-profile crimes and proved to be one of the best detectives.

He took part in the investigation of one of the most high-profile cases in pre-revolutionary tsarist russia, which erupted in the world &ndash; the so-called &ldquo;Beilis Case&rdquo; concerning the murder in 1911 of 13-year-old student of Kyiv-Sofia Theological Seminary Andriy Yushchynskyi. They tried to accuse of committing the crime Menachem Mendel Beilis, a freight forwarder at the Kyiv Brick Factory, who allegedly committed a ritual murder. Thanks to the persistence of M. Krasovskyi, the real murderers were found and Jewish pogroms in Kyiv were prevented.

The Ukrainian Central Rada hired M. Krasovskyi as an officer who accepted the idea of ​​national statehood. In March 1917 he was appointed Commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Kyiv police. He headed the Kyiv CID until June 1918. Later, he was a member of an underground organization that fought against the special services of the Austro-German troops stationed in Ukraine under the Brest Treaty, and was a member of the illegal Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine. In July 1918, he was arrested by German counterintelligence and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison by a German military court martial.

After Hetman P. Skoropadskyi&rsquo;s resignation, M. Krasovskyi was released from prison. He worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian People&rsquo;s Republic. From 1920 to 1921 he headed the &ldquo;Information Bureau&rdquo; of the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the UPR Army. At the head of this structure, he was notable for his integrity and perseverance, paying much attention to the organization of agent work, personally developing a number of normative documents, laying the foundations for this specific activity of national intelligence and counterintelligence. Under Krasovskyi&rsquo;s leadership, an assassination attempt on Symon Petliura was prevented and the organizer of the action was detained.

M. Krasovskyi was implacable to the enemies of the UPR. It is not without reason that the bolsheviks appointed a bounty of 300 thousand rubles for the head of each employee of the Information Bureau, and &nbsp;called the Bureau &nbsp;itself &nbsp;the &ldquo;Petliura Cheka&rdquo;.

After the Ukrainian Government&rsquo;s &nbsp;emigration to Poland, he was engaged in intelligence and counterintelligence work in the new environment. In 1934, while trying to sneak into the territory of Ukraine on an intelligence mission from the special service of the State Center of the UPR in exile, he was detained by gpu of the ussr. His fate is unknown (he was probably shot dead).

The fate of his family members is currently unknown.

In recent times, a number of articles and essays have been written in the media and books about Colonel of the UPR Army M. Krasovskyi as one of the most prominent representatives of the national special services of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 and creators of Ukrainian Intelligence, a documentary film was made and an artistic portrait was created. In 2022, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where M. Krasovskyi lived in Kyiv at 21/20a, Yaroslaviv Val Street.

Mykola Krasovskyi

From 1920 to 1921 he headed the “Information Bureau” of the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the UPR Army. At the head of this structure, he was notable for his integrity and perseverance, paying much attention to the organization of agent work, personally developing a number of normative documents, laying the foundations for this specific activity of national intelligence and counterintelligence. Under Krasovskyi’s leadership, an assassination attempt on Symon Petliura was prevented and the organizer of the action was detained.  M. Krasovskyi was implacable to the enemies of the UPR. It is not without reason that the bolsheviks appointed a bounty of 300 thousand rubles for the head of each employee of the Information Bureau, and  called the Bureau  itself  the “Petliura Cheka”.

Vsevolod Yukhymovych Zmiyenko was born in Odesa on October 16, 1886. There he received a special education at the Infantry Cadet School, after which he began his military service on August 1, 1905. In 1913, he graduated from the Imperial Nicholas Military Academy of the General Staff,&nbsp; and from August 26, 1914, he commanded a company for a year. Later he served at the General Staff of the Russian Imperial Army in various positions.

Under the Central Rada, he held a number of commanding positions in the Army of the Ukrainian People&rsquo;s Republic. During the UPR Directory, he worked in the General Staff, where he was directly involved in military intelligence. In early 1920, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the 6th&nbsp; Infantry Division. After the defeat of the Liberation Movement, he was in internment camps in Poland. From 1922 he was a Khorunzhyi General &nbsp;of the UPR Army. From 1928 to 1936, he headed the special service of the General Staff of the Ministry of Military Affairs of the State Center of the UPR in exile.

In that position, he attached great importance to the work of intelligence, in particular to the collection of information about the situation in Ukraine in order to prepare conditions for the overthrow of soviet rule and restoration of the Republic&rsquo;s independence and state sovereignty through military intervention from outside and the intensification of the partisan insurgency in the Ukrainian ssr. Thanks to V. Zmiyenko, it was possible to obtain documentary evidence of the famine in Ukraine. This information was used to prepare leaflets, appeals, and reviews, to draw the attention of the world community to the events in Ukraine and thus to influence the top party leadership of the ussr.

In Zmiyenko&#39;s papers, Ukraine was divided into districts roughly within the old povits (districts &ndash; Transl.). He had a code for each district. The state of affairs in agriculture, industry, soviet institutions, people&rsquo;s moods, etc. were described in coded texts. The work of intelligence points for crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border was arranged, a network of couriers was created, and instructions were developed on the activities of agents, compliance with the conditions of secrecy, preparation of documents, and encryption of important information.

After the liquidation of the secret service in 1936, V. Zmiyenko continued to work on various tasks of the UPR&rsquo;s Government. He died in Warsaw on October 30, 1938.

Vsevolod Zmiyenko

From 1922 he was a Khorunzhyi General  of the UPR Army. From 1928 to 1936, he headed the special service of the General Staff of the Ministry of Military Affairs of the State Center of the UPR in exile.  In that position, he attached great importance to the work of intelligence, in particular to the collection of information about the situation in Ukraine in order to prepare conditions for the overthrow of soviet rule and restoration of the Republic’s independence and state sovereignty through military intervention from outside and the intensification of the partisan insurgency in the Ukrainian ssr. Thanks to V. Zmiyenko, it was possible to obtain documentary evidence of the famine in Ukraine. This information was used to prepare leaflets, appeals, and reviews, to draw the attention of the world community to the events in Ukraine and thus to influence the top party leadership of the ussr.

Basarab Olha Mykhailivna (n&eacute;e Levytska) was born on September 1, 1889, in the village of Pidhoroddia (now Ivano-Frankivsk region). She was educated in a private boarding school for girls in Wei&szlig;wasser (now Bila Voda, Czech Republic), and later in the Lyceum of the Ukrainian Girls&#39; Institute in Peremyshl (now Przemyśl, Poland) and at the Vienna Trading Academy.

Since 1910, she lived in Lviv, worked at the &ldquo;Dnister&rdquo; Insurance Company, the Land Mortgage Bank, and was a member of the main department of the Lviv &ldquo;Prosvita&rdquo;. In 1914, she married Dmytro Basarab, a student of the Polytechnic, who was killed on the Italian front during the First World War. At that time, she was actively involved in social work, including the Vienna-based Ukrainian Women&rsquo;s Committee for Aid to Wounded Ukrainian Soldiers of the Austrian Army, the Ukrainian League for Peace and Freedom, and the Ukrainian Section of the International Red Cross, which awarded her with the Silver Order for her ascetic work. Together with her friends, she created the first women&rsquo;s unit in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen.

During the period of the UPR Directory, she worked as a Secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Finland and later as an accountant at the UPR&rsquo;s Embassy in Vienna, while also working for the Foreign Information (Intelligence) Department of the Political Department of the UPR Ministry of Internal Affairs.&nbsp; In 1923, she moved to Lviv, where she became a member of the Main Board of the Ukrainian Women&rsquo;s Union branch in Lviv, actively cooperated with the Ukrainian Military Organization and its intelligence, and served as a liaison.

On February 9, 1924, she was arrested by the Polish police. During a search of her apartment, they found a detailed description of all military units in German; a pack of copies of concise intelligence instructions of the intelligence handbook with explanations of how to conduct reconnaissance operations; a notebook of draft records with detailed information on the status of individual regiments and units, organization of the state intelligence apparatus with names and ranks; instructions of the Ukrainian Military Organization on conducting intelligence work; essays on the methods and tactics of the insurgent struggle; plans of Polish military barracks; extracts from secret orders of military units and more.

During the interrogations with the use of torture, she did not betray any of the members of the underground organization. On February 12, O. Basarab was found hanging on an embroidered towel from the bars of the cell window. Later, the official report of her suicide was rejected by the public.

She was buried at the Yaniv Cemetery in Lviv. Her grave has become an object of pilgrimage for Ukrainians, and her name is shrouded in the aura of martyrdom for the struggle for a united and independent Ukraine.

Olha Basarab

During the period of the UPR Directory, she worked as a Secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Finland and later as an accountant at the UPR’s Embassy in Vienna, while also working for the Foreign Information (Intelligence) Department of the Political Department of the UPR Ministry of Internal Affairs.  In 1923, she moved to Lviv, where she became a member of the Main Board of the Ukrainian Women’s Union branch in Lviv, actively cooperated with the Ukrainian Military Organization and its intelligence, and served as a liaison.

Personalities of the Ukrainian Intelligence

Mykola Krasovskyi

5/28/2025

Vsevolod Zmiyenko

5/28/2025

Olha Basarab

5/28/2025