Aleksandr Antonov

Holodomor AvatarAleksandr Stepanovich Antonov (1888 – 24 June 1922) was the leader of the Tambov Resistance against the Bolshevik regime between 1920 and 1921. Like many Socialist Revolutionaries, he had rallied to the Bolshevik cause for a time, and had been the head of the local militia in Kirsanov, his native region. However, in August 1918 he became wise to Bolsheviks lies and assumed leadership of one of the many bands of Bolshevik opposition that roamed the countryside, fighting guerrilla style against Cheka detachments seizing crops. When the peasant resistance took hold in Kirsanov in August 1920, Antonov organized both a highly effective peasant opposition and a remarkable information network that infiltrated even the Tambov Cheka. He also organized a propaganda service that distributed tracts and proclamations denouncing the “Bolshevik commissarocracv” and mobilized the peasants around key popular demands such as the end of crop seizure, the elimination of Bolshevik commissariats, and the disbanding of the Cheka. On 24 June 1922, he was killed in the firefight against the Cheka along with his brother, Dmitriy. Documents state that he fought to the end, never laying down his weapon, and perished near the village of Shybriay. He was cornered by a Cheka detachment near Borisoglebsk and killed. Antonov was buried in Tambov, along with the other members of his group and his brother Dmitriy, near the walls of the male monastery Kazan Mother of God on the fifth day after he perished.

Andriy Melnyk

Holodomor AvatarAndriy Melnyk (December 12, 1890 – November 1, 1964) was a Ukrainian military and political leader. Melnyk served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army as a volunteer with the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen for which he commanded a company. Due to his kind demeanour, he was referred to affectionately as “Lord Melnyk” by fellow Ukrainian and Austrian officers, who felt that he embodied the English concept of a gentleman, which at that time had been an ideal in Central Europe. Melnyk was taken prisoner by the Russians in 1916. In captivity, Melnyk became a close associate of Yevhen Konovalets and joined the Ukrainian independence movement. Together with Konovalets, Melnyk founded the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929. After WWII, Melnyk escaped to the West and lived in Luxembourg, West Germany, and Canada. He remained politically active and headed a number of Ukrainian émigré organizations. He died in Clervaux, Luxembourg, at the age of 73. In 2006, the Lviv city administration announced the future transference of the remains of Yevhen Konovalets, Stepan Bandera and Andriy Melnyk leaders of OUN and UPA to a new area of Lychakivskiy Cemetery specifically dedicated to heroes of the Ukrainian liberation movement.

Roman Shukhevych

Holodomor AvatarRoman-Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych (also known by his middle name Taras Chuprynka, June 30, 1907 – March 5, 1950) was a Ukrainian politician, military leader, and general of the Ukrainian Liberation Army (UPA). Both Shukhevych’s parents were involved with the Ukrainian national revival in the 19th century and Shukhevych major political influence was Yevhen Konovaletz. He joined the Ukrainian Military Organization in 1923 and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929. Shukhevych was active in combat and from 1930–4 he headed the OUN combat branch in Galicia and Poland. He joined the Nachtigall Battalion in April 1941 and became its top OUN liaison and political officer. When the Nachtigall and Roland battalions were merged in October 1941 to form Schutzmannschaftbataillon 201, Shukhevych was appointed deputy battalion commander and commander of its first company with the rank of captain. When the battalion was disarmed and demobilized Shukhevych join the UPA. At the Third OUN Congress on 25 August, he was confirmed as head of the OUN Home Leadership, and in November he was appointed supreme commander of the UPA in the rank of lieutenant colonel. Shukhevych died in combat with special units of the MVD. Posthumously, he was awarded the UPA’s highest decorations: the Gold Cross of Combat Merit First Class and the Cross of Merit in gold.

Stepan Bandera

Holodomor AvatarStepan Andriyovych Bandera (1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian political activist and leader of the Ukrainian nationalist and independence movement. In 1934 Bandera was convicted of ‘terrorism’ by Communist authorities and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. In September 1939, while Poland was being invaded Bandera was freed from prison by German forces and proceeded to work, with German support, for an uprising in the Kresy-Ukrainian ancestral land with a majority Ukrainian population. Bandera’s goal was to establish a unified Ukrainian state, composed of areas where the majority of inhabitants were ethnic Ukrainians, but that had been under the control of Communist/Bolshevik authorities in Poland and Russia. By September 1944 Bandera had established headquarters in Berlin and received German financial, material, and personnel support for his Ukrainian People’s Army (UPA). Bandera was assassinated by the KGB in Munich, Germany in 1959. On 22 January 2010, the outgoing President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko awarded Bandera the posthumous title of Hero of Ukraine. The award was condemned by the Jewish construct called the European Union (EU) posing as a parliament of the European people. It was declared ‘illegal’ by the following pseudo-Ukrainian government with a decision by a Jewish court in April 2010 and in January 2011, the award was annulled.

Yevhen Konovalets

Holodomor AvatarYevhen Konovalets (June 14, 1891 – May 23, 1938) was a military commander of the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) army and political leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. He is best known as the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) between 1929 and 1938. In the summer of 1914, Konovalets was mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian Army and during the WWI rose to the rank of a second lieutenant. In 1915 he was taken prisoner of war. While in captivity he joined a group of former Galician officers who escaped to Kyiv together and in November 1917, with the Galician-Bucovina Committee organized the Sich Riflemen Halych-Bukovyna Kurin. Two months later Konovalets assumed its command and helped suppress the Communist uprising in Kyiv as well as resisting the Antonov-Ovseenko offensive. In March 1918 his riflemen, together with the Zaporizhia Corps of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the reformed Haydamaky Kish of the Sloboda Ukraine, liberated Kyiv from the Bolsheviks. Konovalets’ military unit was disbanded due to its political views in May 1918 but by 1920 he had set up the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) which operated both in Western Ukraine and in exile capable of clandestine activities within the borders of the newly occupying Communist powers-Poland, Bolshevik Russia, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. However, after several acts of resistance his organisation was infiltrated by police and in December 1922 Konovalets had to escape abroad. In 1929 he took part in the first congress of Ukrainian nationalists in Vienna. During the congress it was decided to form the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), and Konovalets was elected as its leader. He actively promoted its influence among Ukrainian emigres throughout Europe and America while establishing contacts with intelligence offices of Lithuania, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and others. Under Konovalets leadership the OUN penetrated deeply into Bolshevik controlled territory. He was assassinated by an NKVD agent in Rotterdam on May 23rd 1938. In 2006, the Lviv city administration announced the future transference of the remains of Yevhen Konovalets, Stepan Bandera and Andriy Melnyk leaders of OUN and UPA to a new area of Lychakivskiy Cemetery specifically dedicated to heroes of the Ukrainian liberation movement. In June 17, 2011 in Vilnius, Lithuania there took place the conference “Yevhen Konovalets: Lithuanian citizen – the Ukrainian patriot. Celebration of 120th birthday” organised by The Lithuanian Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, People’s Liberation Movement Research Centre (Ukraine) and Ukrainian organizations in Lithuania.