EXCESSES DURING THE ARRESTS AND INTERROGATIONS OF OUN MEMBERS BY THE NKVD-NKGD CO-WORKERS IN THE RIVNE REGION (1940–1941)

Abstract

It is indicated that to solve the task in the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR, methods and personnel tested during the «great terror» of the 1930s in the USSR were used. The management and operational staff of the NKVD-NKGB involved in the «clearing» operation, their professional training, and work methods were considered. Emphasis is placed on the use during the Sovietization of Western Ukraine of a significant number of new appointees in the NKVD–NKGB system, graduates of departmental schools who trained personnel for state security agencies. The origin, education, origins of national consciousness, motivation for the actions of individual members of the OUN underground are clarified, and their sacrifice is characterized. Dramatic clashes between members of the OUN and NKVD–NKGB employees during border crossings, arrests, staging, and imprisonment are highlighted. It is noted that in the confrontation between the Soviet repressive bodies and the participants of the Ukrainian national liberation movement, the former had state, military, economic, political institutions and tools at their disposal, while the opposing side could count on the solidarity of the members of their organization, their own knowledge and experience, and moral stability. Keywords Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, People’s Commissariat of Internal Aff airs, People’s Commissariat of State Security, Rivne region, Sovietization, repression, arrests, interrogations, resistance, armed clashes, escapes, Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine.