Vsevolod Zmiyenko

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,  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’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  Infantry Division. After the defeat of the Liberation Movement, he was in internment camps in Poland. 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.

In Zmiyenko's papers, Ukraine was divided into districts roughly within the old povits (districts – Transl.). He had a code for each district. The state of affairs in agriculture, industry, soviet institutions, people’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’s Government. He died in Warsaw on October 30, 1938.