This thesis gives a comprehensive study of the origins, creation, organisational structure of the Ivan Bogun Detachment of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army’s (UPA) Group “Turiv”, its warfare against Nazi invaders, Soviet and Polish partisans in Volhynia and Chełm Land (Kholmshchyna) during the Nazi occupation based on a wide range of sources.
The paper provides a general overview of the UPA military developments in the OUN’s Volodymyr-Gorokhiv Underground District, Volyn Oblast, under the guidance of the District Military Executive Officer Mykola Gorobets “Slavko”. The first insurgent band of Oleksiy Brys “Arkas” was set up during February — March, 1943, and by August that year there were: Sich Detachment in Svynaryn Forests, “Slavko’s” Battalion in Zavydiv Forest, and other independent companies (bands) — 14 units in total. The I. Bogun Detachment was created through merging these units under M. Gorobets’ single leadership, following the UPA HQ’s directives for creating a unified chain of command.
Primarily, three infantry battalions, a mounted company, three small foreign national units, various support services (medical, provost corps, workshops, and enterprises) were subjected to the detachment staff. By late autumn 1943, there were two battalions left, and the Symon Petliura Non-Commissioned Officer School (“Svitlana”) became an independent unit. Fundamental reorganisation took place in January 1944, when preparing for penetration of the front line. Bigger battalions were disbanded and their soldiers demobilised, the rest of infantry were re-formed into three companies, with only about 500–600 out of 1200 fighters left (cavalry and national units included). In spring and summer 1944, the detachment consisted of six infantry companies (600–750 men).
The units preceding the I. Bogun Detachment started their warfare against German occupiers as early as with the outbreak of the Ukrainian national insurgency in Volhynia. These were: assaults on the occupiers’ garrisons in rayon centres and the gebiet centre; ambushing motor convoys; protecting countryside from punitive expeditions; releasing prisoners; destroying railways and enemy’s economic infrastructure, especially preventing him from gathering harvest. The most persistent battles were fought at the turn of August and September, 1943 in the course of Nazi counter-insurgency, when units included into the I. Bogun Detachment suffered serious losses, with the first detachment commander M. Gorobets being killed in action. In autumn and winter 1943, the intensity of the fighting weakened to some extent and was limited to clashes with police troops.
Struggle with Soviet partisans in the I. Bogun Detachment’s operational area did not become of the scale that in northern and eastern parts of the Volyn or Rivne oblasts. Local partisan bands were defeated by UPA units during 1943, and the 5th battalion of the Chernigiv-Volhynia Partisan Formation was prevented from entering their territory. But the attack of the Sumy Partisan Formation in late January 1944 brought defeat to the I. Bogun Detachment and made it retreat from its base.
The I. Bogun Detachment elements had not taken part in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict until the middle of summer 1943, sustaining a neutral relationship with the Home Army (AK) HQ in the village of Dominopol, Verba Rayon. But as far as local Poles participated en masse in Nazi police punitive operations against Ukrainian villages and AK men switched to hostile actions towards the UPA, insurgents and the OUN underground of the Volodymyr-Gorokhiv District conducted anti-Polish operations in July, August, and November, 1943, striking not only at Polish underground cells, but also civilians.
The third detachment commander Porfyriy Antoniuk “Sosenko” (“Klishch”) had to enter the negotiations with the Nazi officials of the Gebiet Wladimir-Wolynsk in December 1943, in order to get his POWs released from German captivity. He interrupted the talks without coming to any agreement as soon as he received the restriction order from the higher HQ. But Soviet propaganda learned about these contacts and gave them the wide publicity as the “Ukrainian nationalists collaborating with German invaders” across the Ukrainian SSR. An attempt to deny such allegations was the most plausible reason of the capital punishment, which “Sosenko” was condemned to by the UPA court-martial on March 7, 1944.
In the last months of the German occupation of Volhynia the I. Bogun Detachment would recover from the rout by Soviet guerillas and continue fighting the AK and Soviets and German troops in the front zone. In May — July 1944, it raided through Kholm Land, joining the UPA Military District “Bug’s” battles with Polish guerillas of the “Zamość” Inspectorate, as well as engaging German units until crossing the German-Soviet front line and coming back to Volhynia.
