On January 4, 1944, the occupation authorities of the Third Reich executed underground fighters by hanging on the city's Theater Square. Exactly one year later, on the same day, on the same square, using the same method, the crime against Ukrainians was repeated. Only this time the executioners were other occupiers — from Moscow.
Eight members of the OUN-UPA were convicted under the infamous Article 54-1a (treason). These people had the strength to speak out for an independent Ukraine and against the occupation regime of the USSR, and they were branded as bandits.
The death sentence against eight people was announced at a visiting session of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on December 31, 1944. The execution date was set for January 4 for a reason, because three days later the Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas. And therefore, the churches will be filled and people will pass on the terrible news.
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The exemplary execution was then a warning to all fighters for an independent Ukraine — that such an end awaits all who dare to speak out. In civilized countries there is a right to pardon, but the Moscow occupiers did not grant it to them.
ICTV Facts studied the declassified SBU documents of this criminal case #243 in three volumes and talked to the candidate of historical sciences Andrey Zhyvyuk, who researched this topic.
There were ten defendants in the case, whom the NKVD agencies nicknamed the “Vereshchaki group”: Stepan Trokhimchuk, Anatoly Zaychikov, Vladimir Logvinovich, Alexey Kirilyuk, Alexander Gritsyuk, Nikolay Slobodyuk, Vasily Slobodyuk, Vasily Podolets, Yakov Slobodyuk, Lavrenty Katerynchuk.
– It’s a complete hodgepodge. That is, of the eight people who were hanged and two who were sent to hard labor, they were different people who were combined into one case and tried. In pursuance of this decree, visiting sessions of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR were created at the end of 1944, — Andrey Zhyvyuk, a candidate of historical sciences, told ICTV Fakty.
The first eight people were sentenced to death, the last two — to exile to hard labor for 20 years with confiscation of property. Not all of the convicts were Ukrainians by nationality. One of the executed UPA members, Zaychikov, is a Russian, originally from the Rostov region.
They were arrested in March-April and May-June 1944. Four were detained during the “operation” in the village of Dyadkovichi in the Rivne region by the head of the criminal department of the region, Zinchenko. The arrest was formalized later, on April 14, because the NKVD officers themselves noted in the documents that the warrant was not issued due to the lack of forms.
Dzherelo: Documents reference No. 243, issued by the State Security Service of Ukraine
Dzherelo: Documents reference No. 243, issued by the State Security Service of Ukraine
It is known from the documents that Zinchenko was liquidated by UPA fighters shortly after the arrest of the partisans, namely on April 17, in the area of the same village where he had detained the UPA members. The arrest reports of the UPA members were allegedly lost. The certificate states that they were confiscated from the NKVD officer by UPA fighters after his liquidation.
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Source: Documents of case No. 243, provided by the State Security Service of Ukraine
The Soviet investigation, in order to accuse the UPA members of “crimes”, attributed to them a large number of allegedly executed civilians in such villages as Peresopnitsa, Dyadkovichi, Verkhovsk, Yasenynichi and other settlements of the Rivne region.
Thus, the case contains a report drawn up in the village of Dyadkovichi on June 17, 1944, on the removal of the bodies of five people from a well on the abandoned estate of the Pole Kurovsky. The NKVD organs concluded that these were the corpses of Soviet people tortured by OUN bandits. On the other hand, Soviet partisans and pseudo-UPA units, which consisted of NKVD agents in disguise, were operating in the same area.
— As for Dyadkovichi —, this has absolutely nothing to do with them. It's just far-fetched. It's impossible to say 100% who exactly was involved in those murders, most likely the Soviet side was behind them. They knew the circumstances very well. To find out all the details, a lot of time is needed, sometimes years: so that there was no martial law, so that the circumstances were subject to a full investigation. It's impossible to establish all this so quickly, but they immediately determined everything and knew. This makes you think. But these guys executed in Rivne had nothing to do with it at all, — Zhyvyuk said.
He also said that Trokhimchuk was a deeply religious man who belonged to the Ukrainian Evangelical Reformed Church. And even in the interwar period he was its zealous parishioner.
— He went with arms in hand to fight for Ukraine, despite the fact that for a believer the commandment thou shalt not kill comes first. But Trokhimchuk believed that this was a different situation, because one had to defend oneself, one's home, one's family. Destroying an enemy with arms is one thing, but killing innocent people — is quite another. These are their methods (Moscow's, — Ed.), they used them, and then attributed them to others. They do it now and they did it then, — notes the historian.
Moreover, the indictment does not contain even one name of the person who, according to the NKVD, was allegedly killed by one of the eight executed. There are many inconsistencies in the case, in particular, the figures on the alleged number of local residents killed by UPA members differ.
Thus, in a letter to dictator Stalin dated May 15, 1944 with a request to organize show trials in Rivne, Nikita Khrushchev mentioned three convicted persons. In it, he writes that Gritsyuk allegedly killed 26 people, Slobodyuk N. – 13, and Slobodyuk V. – 15. Later, at the trial, Gritsyuk will say the number 28, and Slobodyuk N. – 15. 17. The court's verdict also gives different numbers – Slobodyuk N. allegedly killed 18, and Slobodyuk V. – 7 people.
The infamous prison where political prisoners were held
NKVD Prison No. 1 in Rivne was considered one of the harshest in Volyn and Rivne regions, where political prisoners were mainly held. They were tortured, tortured and shot.
Later, a sewing factory was organized in the prison building, and now it has been completely given over to entertainment establishments, in particular, karaoke and shops. The only memory of the terrible crimes of the occupiers in the building is a memorial plaque.
Photo: Facts ICTV
It was used for its intended purpose by the Polish, Hitlerite and Soviet regimes. But, unlike the two previous ones, the communists were especially cruel. They held not 50 or 100 prisoners, but more than 1,000 “enemies of the people”.
With the new invasion of the Moscow regime in 1944, the prison became an internal prison of the MGB. According to official data from the archives of the Rivne Ministry of Internal Affairs, almost 1,500 people were sentenced to death by the military tribunal and the NKVD tribunal in this prison from September to December 1944 alone.
On the Internet, you can find the memoirs of one of the MGB employees, who describes how the cells resembled a crowded train station, and “people stood tightly and pressed against each other, as if waiting for a train to arrive”. When he asked the shift supervisor how they would sleep, he answered:
— Don't worry, by morning not even half of them will be alive.
Among the prisoners of this prison under various regimes were: the founder of the UPA Polieska Sich and the Ukrainian National Guard Taras Borovets, the regional leader of the OUN Mykola Mostovich, a member of the UPA Yaroslav Starukh, the deputy chief commander of the UPA Rostislav Voloshin, the writer Ulas Samchuk, and the public figure Kharytya Kononenko. The defendants of the Vereshchaki group were also held there.
Hyperbolic interrogations with Kremlin narratives
The materials of criminal case No. 243 include, in particular, interrogations of arrested UPA members. Their questionnaires, among general questions such as place of birth, education, occupation, family members, service in the ranks of the Whites or Reds, also have a point Participation in gangs, counter-revolutionary organizations and uprisings, next to which is written in pen: UPA.
Their answers, recorded by the NKVD during interrogations, can be called strange on the one hand. In some moments they resemble odes to the Soviet regime. It can be assumed that some of them were trying to save their lives in this way, but it is more obvious that the necessary words were simply fantasized by the occupiers themselves.
In the interrogation protocol of Stepan Trokhimchuk, the NKVD organs wrote down, when asked how his nationalist views arose and about joining the OUN, that he allegedly said the following: “groups of Ukrainian nationalists, followers of Petliura and Konovalets”, “the eyes of the population of Western Ukraine are turned to the Soviet Union and its heroic Red Army”, “representatives of the UNO began to incite hatred of the Soviet Union among us with malicious anti-Soviet propaganda authorities”.
This is reminiscent of the Kremlin propaganda narratives that are being promoted there even now. The apogee of this is the part where Trokhimchuk allegedly said that UNO representatives, when campaigning for people to join their ranks, allegedly “praised the German chief”. About the Act of Restoration of Independence, proclaimed by the OUN under the leadership of Stepan Bandera, it is written in the protocol that he allegedly said “Bandera's hopes burst like a soap bubble”.
During interrogation, they reduced the Russian Zaychikov to the question that he was “an agent of German intelligence”, Logvinovich was interrogated about the connection of the UPA with the Germans, adding “banditry” before the word UPA in each question. Among other things, the NKVD agents also dragged in contacts with Hungarian units. Thus, Logvinovich allegedly quoted from memory all the notes on this issue, including the dates when they were sent.
— The UPA was looking for allies it considered necessary. At the end of 1944, an agreement was concluded with the Hungarians at the military level that they would cooperate as follows: the UPA would not touch Hungarian units, would not attack them, would not commit any actions against them, and they would provide the UPA with military equipment, ammunition, weapons, and other things. There was such an agreement. It could easily be turned around and shown: You see, they helped the allies of the Nazis, which means they are collaborating with the Nazis. That in this case, the investigation, so to speak, tried to pull it by the ears, — said Andrey Zhyvyuk.
As for Nikolai Slobodyuk, the NKVD organs insisted during interrogation that he was a member of the UPA Security Service. He was asked about the number of corpses thrown into the well of the Kurovsky estate. To which he allegedly said: It is difficult to say, but in any case, the number of corpses there is not in the tens, but in the hundreds.At the same time, the NKVD organs themselves pointed to only five confiscated bodies.
Mykola Slobodyuk was born into a large family and was a native of the village of Dyadkovichi. He confessed to the NKVD organs that he had only one brother, Ivan, and one sister, Nadezhda. Later, his sister was raped and killed. He hid the information that he had three more sisters. This is probably what saved their lives.
Another of the executed Kirilyuk, among other things, was interrogated about the battles of the UPA kurens against the Soviet troops. His answer, recorded by the NKVD organs, speaks of a battle between the Gonta kuren, consisting of 350 people, against a “small unit” of the Red Army in the village of Zaritsk, Rivne district. It is recorded that the kuren, having lost several dozen people, retreated deep into the forest.
Khrushchev personally lobbied for public executions
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine Nikita Khrushchev constantly made working visits to the western part of Ukraine and regularly informed Stalin about the need to intensify repressions against participants in the Ukrainian national liberation movement.
In one of these documents, he noted that from October 28 to November 5, 1944, he was in Lvov, the Lvov region and Rivne, “where he became acquainted with the state of the struggle of Ukrainian-German nationalists”. He wrote that he considered it necessary to introduce military field courts under the NKVD troops.
— To intimidate “bandits” those sentenced to death by these military courts should not be shot, but hanged. The trials should be held openly, with the participation of the local population. The results of the trials should not be reported in the press. The execution of the sentences of military courts should be carried out publicly in the villages, if possible, where the convicted person committed the crimes.…
Khrushchev supported the idea of introducing extra-judicial bodies on the ground with the right to apply the death penalty to the accused with immediate execution of the sentence.
There were only two visiting sessions of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. They went to the western regions of Ukraine to make these decisions locally and publicly ensure the execution of sentences by hanging. Andriy Zhyvyuk noted that one went to Galicia (Lviv, Ternopil, Drohobych, and then also Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) regions), and the other went to Volyn (Rivne and Volyn regions).
— They rubber-stamped these sentences on the spot and carried them out immediately. Local KGB agents slipped them cases that fit this definition. The wording could have been adjusted, — the historian said.
In the Rivne region, this visiting session then sentenced 30 people to death by hanging, and these sentences were carried out accordingly.
— This execution in Rivne on January 4, 1945 was one of them. There were significantly more of these executions. The first execution was in Korets on December 25, and the last in line was on January 29, 1945 in Klevan. This was also done in other regions of western Ukraine. A total of 128 people were executed, but the largest number of people were executed in the Rivne region of all the regions of western Ukraine, he noted.
Trial and execution of the Vereshchaki group”
The indictment for December 6, 1944 states that the Vereshchaki group was created by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists from allegedly former active collaborators of the Germans, police officers, robbers and murderers. At the same time, not one of the ten defendants, as the NKVD organs indicated after their arrest, had been convicted.
— The investigation established that this gang, which acted under the slogan of the struggle for the creation of an independent (in the act it is taken in quotation marks) Ukraine, was in fact one of the sabotage and rebel groups.… to fight Soviet partisans.
The following is a list of murders in numbers from May 1943 to January 1944 during the German occupation of the region. At the same time, some of the accused joined the OUN-UPA, as they testified during interrogations, only in the fall of 1943.
The act states that during the liberation of the western regions of Ukraine by the Red Army, the Vereshchaki group continued its treacherous activities and openly opposed the restoration of Soviet power. In prison, all ten were called members of the Ukrainian nationalist gang and so-called traitors to the homeland. The indictment was drawn up and signed in Kyiv.
On December 22, 1944, the accused were transferred from the prison in Kyiv to the prison in Rivne. The court hearing took place on December 31; the charges were the same as in the indictment.
Dzherelo: Documents reference No. 243, issued by the State Security Service of Ukraine
Dzherelo: Documents reference No. 243, issued by the State Security Service of Ukraine
Dzherelo: Documents reference No. 243, issued by the State Security Service of Ukraine
The sentence was death for eight with confiscation of property. Katerynchuk and Yakov Slobodyuk were sent to hard labor for 20 years and their property was confiscated. In the end it was as follows: The sentence is final, not subject to appeal and will be carried out immediately.
The purpose of the show executions was to intimidate those who resisted and spoke out against the Soviet regime. Andriy Zhyvyuk noted that the Soviet government recorded all the UPA soldiers as collaborators, that is, servants of the Nazis. With these executions they pursued another goal: they wanted to show that the UPA was not an enemy of the Nazis, but an ally.
Source: Documents of case No. 243, provided by the State Security Service of Ukraine
Therefore, they were hanged according to the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1943, which was called On measures of punishment for German fascist villains guilty of murder and torture of the Soviet civilian population and captured Red Army soldiers, for spies, traitors to the homeland from among Soviet citizens and their accomplices
— Such a long name, but it gave a message about who this punishment was aimed at. Thus, in the eyes of the community, they were portrayed as Nazi collaborators. Intimidate once, compromise twice, portray as collaborators of the Nazis, and thus achieve a double effect, — the historian added.
He also said that the decree of April 19, 1943, provided for two episodes that were not in Soviet legislation either before or after. These were execution by hanging and the introduction of hard labor for a term of 15 to 20 years. These two types of punishment were unique to the Soviet legal system, which had not been established or carried out before or after.
Would a bandit really have shouted such sacred words?
Before lunch on January 4, the Soviet occupiers ordered the population to come to Theater Square, where a public execution took place. In Rivne Martyrology of '44. Documents and Memories There is a recollection of this day by an eyewitness Anastasia Denishchuk (Pavelko).
She was 18 years old then and was a student at a cooperative technical school. They were instructed to line up in fours and head to the city center. There they saw a crowd of people: high school students, students, workers, peasants, and Red Army soldiers. In the center of the square there were eight wooden structures resembling the letter P, and from each hung a thick cord that ended in a loop.
Photo: Facts ICTV
From the woman's recollections, before 2:00 pm, two black passenger cars drove up from the barracks. Soldiers got out of them. One of them read a document in which eight people were accused of “treason”, mass murder, connections with the Hungarians, and the like. In the end, he said that it had been decided to hang them.
— And then a truck with a stretched awning appeared on the central street. It drove up to one of the gallows and stopped. A hand stuck out from under the awning and grabbed the noose. A few seconds later, the truck jerked forward, and a man fell out from under the awning and began to swing on the gallows.… This was repeated seven times. But when the car drove up for the eighth time and when the hand pulled the noose, a loud cry was heard from behind the awning: Glory to Ukraine!, and the eighth man hung on the gallows.
According to Denishchuk, she then wondered: Are these really bandits? Would a bandit really shout such sacred words? Something is wrong here… She said that the Soviet occupiers did not allow the bodies to be removed from the gallows for two weeks. They hung with their hands and feet tied in order to intimidate the patriots who fought for an independent Ukraine and its release from the prison of nations — USSR.
The sister of one of the executed Mykola Slobodyuk, Oleksandra, was also among the eyewitnesses to the murder of the UPA members by the communists. In her memoirs, she said that it was forbidden to cry or scream — only to watch. In the voice that exclaimed Glory to Ukraine!, she recognized her own brother.
The Ukrainian patriots executed on Teatralnaya Square in Rivne have still not been rehabilitated. After the restoration of Ukrainian independence in the early 1990s, at the request of the daughter of one of the executed, the case was reviewed, but rehabilitation was denied. But it's no secret that the decision was made by people who had been in the Soviet system for a long time.
Perhaps the time has come to implement this now? And thus honor their memory, because where they are buried, and whether they were — is unknown. It's like the lines from the song: There are no crosses over their bones, and nowhere for us to bring flowers. And at least this way their names will be freed from the stamps of Russian occupiers.
