The OUN intended to take advantage of the retreat of Soviet forces from Ukraine during the German invasion of the Soviet Union that began on 22 June. Their leaders thought that their movement had found a new powerful ally in Nazi Germany to aid them in their struggle against the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian nationalists began a series of pogroms against Jews, with many murdered and assaulted. Days after the German invasion and occupation of Lviv, however, the leadership of the newly formed government was arrested and sent to concentration camps in Germany.
Late July 1941. Celebration of the Bandera's OUN Ukrainian statehood proclamation. Nazi and OUN-B officials at the stand with Nazi and OUN-B flags. OUN activists greeted them with a Nazi/OUN-B salute.Plaque in the Market Square in Lviv commemorating the announcement of the Act of Rebirth of the Ukrainian State in 1941.
The majority of current Western Ukraine became part of the Second Polish Republic. This included the city of Lviv, which at the time was the center of Ukrainian nationalist activity.
The Ukrainian nationalist movement in western Ukraine
For various reasons,[which?] the Ukrainian nationalist movement was more active in Western Ukraine than in Central Ukraine in the inter-war period.
At the end of World War I, veterans of the Sich Riflemen created the Ukrainian Military Organization in 1920 to promote the creation of an independent Ukrainian state. The leader was Yevhen Konovalets.
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
In 1929, the Ukrainian Military Organization became the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The first leader was Bohdan Kravciv. The stated goal of the OUN was the creation of an independent Ukrainian State.
In 1940, the OUN suffered a split into two groups - one group supported Andriy Melnyk (this group became known as the OUN-M, or "Melnykivtsi"), while the other group supported Stepan Bandera (this group became known as the OUN-B, or Banderivtsi). The OUN-B was considered the more radical of the two.[by whom?]
The OUN realized that an opportunity was available to fulfill their mandated plan: the creation of a new independent Ukraine.
On June 22, 1941, the Ukrainian National Committee (Ukrayinsky Natsionalny' Komitet; UNK) was created in Kraków, with Volodymyr Horbovy as a president. The UNK published an essay, "Memorial", which outlined the plans of the OUN to declare independence. This essay was met with severe disapproval of the Nazi authorities, and the leaders of the UNK, Horbovy and Bandera, were told to rescind the document. They refused, and made their way to Lviv.
On June 26, 1941, Soviet forces fled from Lviv, and the Ukrainian Nachtigall Battalion, led by its commander Roman Shukhevych, entered the city in triumph to cheering crowds of joyful Ukrainians. With the departure of the Soviet Red Army, the OUN set up its headquarters in Lviv, and began to prepare for the big day.
On Monday June 30, at 6 p.m. on the second floor of the Prosvita building in Lviv (Rynok square 10) there was a community meeting. Community members living in Lviv and its environs, clergy, leading members of OUN, and members of the Ukrainian underground were gathered. The hall was overflowing with delegates. The meeting was called by the first assistant to the leader of the OUN Yaroslav Stetsko to honour the Ukrainian fighters who had laid down their lives fighting for Ukraine. In an intensive speech, he spoke about the political situation which Ukraine was in with the declaration of war, stating that once again this war will take place in Ukraine over these rich lands and that the Ukrainian people cannot stand idly by but must be active and participate. Regarding Germany, he stated that a Union with Germany was only possible if Germany recognized Ukrainian independence and its government. Stetsko read out the Proclamation of Ukrainian independence. Those present listened to the proclamation standing, unanimously endorsed it and sang the Ukrainian national anthem Shche ne vmerla Ukraina.[1]
Text
Act to restoration of Ukrainian State (autographed Yaroslav Stetsko)Andrey Sheptytsky Pastoral letter from July 1, 1941, with recognition of the Ukrainian Statehood at Western Ukraine
The Act of Proclamation of Ukrainian Statehood
1. By the will of the Ukrainian people, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists under the direction of Stepan Bandera proclaims the formation of the Ukrainian State for which have laid down their heads whole generations of the finest sons of Ukraine.
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which under the direction and founder and leader Yevhen Konovalets has undertaken in the past ten years a bloody battle with the Moscovite-Bolshevik enslavers in an energetic battle for freedom, calls all the Ukrainian people not to place down its weapons until all Ukrainian lands are united to form a Sovereign Ukrainian Government.
The Sovereign Ukrainian Government will guarantee Ukrainian people order, unilateral development of all its energies and all its needs.
2. In the western lands of Ukraine a Ukrainian Government is formed, which is subordinate to the Ukrainian National Government that will be formed in the capital of Ukraine – Kyiv.
3. The newly formed Ukrainian state will work closely with the National-Socialist Greater Germany, under the leadership of its leader Adolf Hitler which is forming a new order in Europe and the world and is helping the Ukrainian People to free itself from Moscovite occupation.[note 1]
The Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army which has been formed on the Ukrainian lands, will continue to fight with the Allied German Army against Moscovite occupation for a sovereign and united State and a new order in the whole world.
Long live a Sovereign and United Ukraine! Long live the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists! Long live the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian people, STEPAN BANDERA![2]
After the proclamation of the Ukrainian state, a government was announced. This government included politicians from various parties, as well as political ideologies. They were:
Apparently convinced that the group of Stetsko had the backing of the Germans, Metropolitan[who?] wrote a pastoral letter in which he exhorted the people to support the newly proclaimed government "the scarifies which the final attainment of our goals require demand above all dutiful obedience to the just orders of the government which do not conflict with God’s law."
Moreover, he declared:
We greet the victorious German Army as deliver from enemy. We render our obedient homage to the government which has been erected. We recognize Mr.Yaroslav Stetsko as Head of State Administration of Ukraine.
The pastoral letter was read over the radio by chaplain of Nachtigall Battalion Father Hryn’okh the same morning. It appeared to have removed any doubts which may have been lingering in the mind of most prominent Ukrainians in Lviv concerning the origin of the Stets’ko government.[4]
Supporters of Ukrainian independence have been divided in their assessment of the proclamation. Some considered it brilliant, others considered it reckless or even foolish.[5]
Reaction by the German government
The Declaration of Independence took the German authorities completely by surprise, and they saw it as an attempted coup.[6] When Nazi troops entered Lviv, the German authorities told the leadership of the Ukrainian government to disband. However, it did not, and in reprisal the leaders of the government were arrested and interned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. These included President Yaroslav Stetsko, and Stepan Bandera.
Within two years of the declaration, the Nazis had imprisoned or killed 80% of OUN-B leadership.[7]
By an act of June 30, 1941, the Ukrainian people demonstrated to the whole world and to history that they wished to govern their own lives and that they were ready to defend their right to live freely in their own independent state against the imperialist encroachments of every enemy and under all conditions.
Some Ukrainian groups downplayed the early cooperation between the Ukrainian nationalist parties and the Nazis. They emphasized how Ukrainian nationalists fought both the Germans and the Soviets, and how the Ukrainian nation suffered enormously at the hands of both.
Notes
^Section 3 of the Stanislaviv version is often omitted in Ukrainian Diaspora publications dealing with this subject.
^OUN-German Relations 1941-1945, Taras Hunczak. (1994). From German-Ukrainian relations in historical perspective. Hans-Joachim Torke, John-Paul Himka, eds. Edmonton, Alberta: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, University of Alberta. pg. 178
^Timothy Snyder. The Causes of Ukrainian-Polish Ethnic Cleansing 1943. Past & Present, No. 179 (May, 2003), pp. 207
^Act of Restoration of Ukrainian Statehood on June 30, 1941 (its genesis and political and historical significance). Second edition. - Munich, 1953. - P. 52.
Sources
Hai-Nyzhnyk P. P. The attitude of senior management of the German Reich to the Act of the Ukrainian state in 1941 and the military-political tactics of the OUN(r) in 1941–1943.– Collection of scientific works "Gileya: scientific bulletin" , Kyiv: National Pedagogical University named after MP Drahomanov; VGO Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, 2015.— Issue.98 (No. 7) .— P. 49–65.
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