Il m'est arrivé d'entendre parler d'une "Armée de Libération d'Ukraine" qui aurait lutté à la fois contre Hitler et contre Staline, c'est du moins la version des nationalistes ukrainiens. Or, la seule armée ukrainienne que je connaisse, entre 1941 et 1952, c'est l"UKRAINSKA POVSTANSKA ARMYIA (UPA), ou Armée Insurectionnelle d'Ukraine.
Selon des extraits de l'"Encyclopedia of the Holocaust", l'UPA a été fondée en 1942 par les nationalistes de l'ONU (Organisation des Nationalistes Ukrainiens de Stefan Bandera et d'Andreï Melnyk). Cette armée est surtout connue pour avoir combattu contre les partisans soviétiques et aussi pour ses exactions à l'encontre des juifs cachés dans les forêts d'Ukraine. Si elle a quelques fois affronté l'armée allemande en 1944, l'UPA a ensuite signé un accord avec les nazis contre l'URSS.
Pour ceux et celles que ça intéresse, voilà l'article (en anglais, désolé je n'ai pas le temps de traduire) sur les nationalistes de l'ONU pendant l'occupation de l'Ukraine :
a écrit :ORHANIZATSYIA UKRAINSKYKH NATSIONALISTIV
Creation of the OUN.
(Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists; OUN), a nationalist Ukrainian organization with an antisemitic ideology. When the Civil War in Russia came to an end and the 1920 peace treaty with Poland was signed, the Ukrainians had to give up their hopes for independence. The greater part of the Ukraine became a Soviet socialist republic, and its western part was incorporated into the Polish republic. On August 30, 1920, a group of Ukrainian exiles, former officers and men of the defeated Ukrainian National Army, met in Prague and established a new organization, under the leadership of Col. Yevheni Konovalets, which they named the Ukrainska Viiskova Orhanizatsyia (Ukrainian Military Organization; UVO).
The UVO, with the help of German intelligence, founded its own underground cells in Poland, and tried to form similar cells in the Soviet Union. In February 1929 representatives of the UVO and of other Ukrainian nationalist groups formed a new body, which they called the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. This movement, one of whose leading ideologists was Dmitri Dontsov, sought to follow in the footsteps of Italian Fascism and German National Socialism. It expressed support for the application of totalitarian principles in public life and government and adopted the fuhrerprinzip (leadership principle), which obligated every member of the movement to obey its leader unconditionally. The OUN saw in communism and the Soviet Union the principal enemies of the Ukrainian people; as time went on, the organization, under the influence of Nazi ideology and traditional Ukrainian hatred of Jews, also adopted antisemitism in its Hitlerite version. This identity of ideologyand political aims between the OUN and Nazi Germany led to close contacts. The OUN moved its headquarters to Berlin, where it was given financial and other kinds of support. At the same time, in the Soviet Ukraine, millions of people died as a result of the collectivization drive. In Poland, the Ukrainian people were discriminated against in national and economic terms under the policy of the Polish government, with the legal Ukrainian political parties unable to make any headway in their efforts to advance the lot of their people. Under the impact of these developments, the younger generation of Ukrainians adopted extremist political views, and many of them joined the OUN underground cells. On May 23, 1938, the head of the movement, Konovalets, was assassinated; another colonel, Andrei Melnyk, took his place as providnik (leader).
Collaboration with the Nazis.
After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the OUN made a successful bid for the creation of a Ukrainian military unit. A 600 - man unit was formed, with Roman Sushko as its commander, and it was given the task of assisting the Germans in their contacts with the Ukrainian population. As it turned out, the German army did not enter the western Ukraine at this time, and the unit was disbanded; its personnel joined the police in the generalgouvernement.
Following the division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union prior to the German invasion (see nazi - soviet pact), Ukrainian political parties in both areas of occupation were outlawed. The OUN kept up its underground activities in the Soviet - occupied western Ukraine, while in German - occupied Poland the organization was permitted to operate in the open, as a trusted ally of Nazi Germany. At a 1940 congress of the movement in Krakow, the OUN split into two. The activist majority, headed by Stefan Bandera, called for the expansion of underground operations and for preparatory steps to be taken for an uprising in the Soviet - occupied area; this faction was called OUN "B" (Bandera). The other faction, headed by Melnyk and accordingly called OUN "M, " felt that it was preferable to preserve whatever strength the movement had for the moment, and in the meantime to cooperate unconditionally with the Germans.
The Roland and Nachtigall Battalions.
During the preparations for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the OUN took part in the formation of two Ukrainian battalions within the German army, the nachtigall battalion and the Roland Battalion. The battalions' commissioned and noncommissioned officers were chosen from among OUN members. Another group of Ukrainian units was the Pokhidni Grupy (Mobile Units), which were attached to the combat units of the Wehrmacht and provided them with interpreters. The mobile units were also given the task of setting up the Ukrainian administration and police in all the towns and villages, to be made up of loyal members of the movement.
Rearguard Actions.
In the initial stage of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, at the end of June 1941, the armed underground cells of the OUN were activated and attacked the retreating Sovietforces from the rear. Once the Soviet local government had withdrawn, OUN activists and teams from the mobile units established the Ukrainian civil administration and police force in the German - occupied territories.
The Ukrainian National Government.
On June 30, after the conquest of lvov, the Bandera faction of the movement announcedthe establishment of a national Ukrainian government, headed by Yaroslav Stetsko, with the blessing of the head of the Greek Catholic (Uniate) church, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky. This step, however, conflicted with the Germans' plans for the Ukraine; the SD (Sicherheitsdienst; Security Service) promptly arrested the members of the "government, " as well as Stefan Bandera, and sent them to Germany, where they were kept under house arrest. The OUN leadership had to go underground, but its members continued to cooperate with the Germans in the administration and the police.
The Split in the OUN.
The split between the two factions of the OUN became increasingly pronounced; from time to time there were armed clashes and mutual assassinations. When the SS - Schutzendivision Galizien (SS Rifle Division Galicia) was formed in the spring of 1943, it had the support of the Melnyk faction of the OUN and of other Ukrainian groups, while the Bandera faction did not want Ukrainians to join the division.
Strategy for the Postwar Period.
The Third Congress of the OUN underground movement, held on February 21, 1943, came up with the following political and military analysis of the situation at the time: both sides would be greatly exhausted by the war, at which point a new war would break out between the Western powers and the Soviet Union. That would be the moment for the rise of an independent Ukrainian state. In order to achieve this goal, the congress resolved to establish a Ukrainian Liberation Army (Ukrainska Vyzvolna Armyia). Beforelong its name changed to ukrainska pov - stanska armyia (Ukrainian Insurgent Army; UPA), although its popular name was Banderovtsi. As this new force gained in strength, the OUN became its political arm. At a meeting held from July 11 to 15, 1944, it was decided to broaden the scope of the OUN's national base by establishing a Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (Ukrainska Holovna Vyzvolna Rada).
After the UPA was liquidated by Soviet security forces in the 1950s, the OUN suffered a similar fate. Those of its leaders who were not killed escaped to the West.
Courtesy of:
"Encyclopedia of the Holocaust"
STEFAN BANDERA : Ukrainian leader who led the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, (OUN). When he announced an independent Ukrainian government, he was arrested by the Germans and sent to Sachsenhausen camp. Bandera was shot and killed in 1959 by a Soviet agent.
ANDREI MELNYK : one of the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement after WWI. In 1940, he called on the Ukrainians to support Germany's war against the Soviet Union. In spite of this, the Germans jailed him for a year in 1943. After the war, he lived in Europe and Canada
Bref, si la collaboration entre l'ONU-UPA et les nazis n'a pas été une lune de miel, il n'empêche que ces nationalistes, non seulement étaient clairement réactionnaires, pro-fascistes et antisémites, mais leur "combat contre Hitler et Staline", apparaît surtout comme un combat aux côtés des hitlériens.
Si le camarade Satorra a connaissance d'une autre armée en Ukraine pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale, je serais intéressé d'avoir plus d'information à ce sujet.
