The dissertation provides the results of the complex research of the intelligence, counterintelligence, operational-accounting, judicial-disciplinary, sabotage-terrorist, operational-combat, educational activities, personnel and development of the structure of special units of Ukrainian nationalist organizations during 1921–1991. The historiography of this problem was further developed. A number of new documentary sources have been introduced into scientific circulation and classified. For the first time: the study was conducted, which unites the seventy-year period of development of the special units of Ukrainian nationalist organizations, the main stages of development of their structure and activity were highlighted; the material and audiovisual sources on the research topic were analyzed; the structure of the intelligence unit of the Ukrainian military organization in the Second Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as in Central and Western Europe was presented; the criminal cases against the management of the special units of Ukrainian nationalist organizations were fully investigated, sources of the specified subject from funds of private archives and local history museums were updated; the structure and activity of the security bodies of the «Melnykivtsi» Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) during 1940 – 1970 were studied, and it was proved that they were considerably inferior to those of «Banderivtsi» in their development; the mechanism of collection and analysis by special subdivisions of Ukrainian Nationalist Organizations of intelligence information on the basis of open sources was revealed, and also the peculiarities of agency work among social and political organizations were reproduced; was proven that one of the activities of special units of Ukrainian nationalist organizations during 1921–1991 was to ensure the functioning of communication lines; it was discovered that an important component of the latter’s counterintelligence activities were agitation and psychological-terrorist measures aimed at demoralizing the enemy’s agency; the practice of application of the internal checks and control over compliance with the conspiracy were analyzed; the opposition of the OUN Security Service to the theft of organizational property by individual OUN members and the fight against criminals who discredited the OUN members’ struggle were investigated; the key directions of subversive-terrorist activity of special subdivisions of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organizations were singled out and structured, the peculiarities of security practice were revealed; it had been argued that the OUN Security Service continued to operate as an integral structure of the OUN emigration network until 1991 inclusive.
Improved and supplemented: theoretical and methodological principles of the subject of research, clarified the current state of scientific development of the topic; gaps in the structure of the special subunits of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organizations; research of a number of directions of intelligence, counterintelligence and subversive-terrorist activity of special subdivisions of Ukrainian Nationalist Organizations, peculiarities of service paperwork, assignment of secrets and implementation of operative-accounting case.
The following topics were further developed: comparative achievements of the previous research on analogies with underground guerrilla structures of other enslaved nations, especially the European experience; reflection on the causes, peculiarities of the conduct, as well as the consequences of internal terror among the Organization of the Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the 1940s.; study of training of the staff of the special units of Ukrainian Nationalist Organizations on their territories and abroad; detecting of the psychological features and prosopographic portrait of esbists; analysis of the implementation of special units of Ukrainian Nationalist Organizations of investigative and judicial-disciplinary practice; disclosing the peculiarities of the intelligence work of the OUN Security Service in the German occupation administration, Soviet guerrilla units, as well as Polish underground organizations; coverage of the structure and functional tasks of special units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army; study of the participation of esbists in counteracting the Sovietization of the western regions of Ukraine, especially measures to disrupt elections and continuous collectivization; clarification of the structure and functional tasks of special units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army; study of the participation of esbists in counteracting the Sovietization of the western regions of Ukraine, especially measures to disrupt elections and continuous collectivization.
