OUN AND UIA DOCUMENTS ON THE CIVILIAN POPULATION RESISTANCE FORMS AND METHODS DURING THE ELECTIONS TO THE SUPREME COUNCILS OF THE USSR, AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD USSR

Abstract

Based on the analysis of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) documents, the scale, forms, and methods of the civilian population resistance of the western Ukrainian regions to the Soviet election campaigns in the postwar period are shown. It is noted that most of the OUN and UIA documents, which systematically cover the elections to the UkrianeSSR, USSR Supreme Soviets, and local authorities in western Ukraine, are stored in the Sectoral State Archives of the Security Service of Ukraine. It is investigated that the most informative of them are the reports of OUN leaders at various levels, which carefully record each preparation stage and elections conduction under the government supervision actions and reactions, which allows the author to recreate a holistic government picture, efficiency, and emotional assessments. It is emphasized that the insurgent reports testify to the mass and general regional protests dimension and outline the reasons that forced Western Ukrainians to protest. As researched, the Western Ukrainian protest position was motivated by political, economic, socio-domestic, as well as moral, and psychological reasons, but political ones remained a priority. It was found that the protests were socially differentiated: the peasantry protested most actively, the workers and intellectuals joined the situation, and women's anti-government protests (both individual and mass), outnumbered men's in number and emotional tension. The civilian population in opposition to the authorities used mainly non-violent forms and resistance methods, which were divided into the mass, group, and individual, overt and covert, aggressive and demonstrative, etc.; widely used and non-traditional. Statistical data from the reports of OUN leaders at various levels concerning the voting results in the elections to the Ukraine SSR and the USSR Supreme Soviets in 1946-1947 and the election falsification facts results by government officials were analyzed. It is emphasized that these figures confirm the mass western Ukrainian region's population resistance to the planting of Soviet-style democracy in the region and contrast with the official reporting. It is noted that the insurgent reporting, although not devoid of political connotations, covers the processes much more objectively than the Soviet party documents.