Ukrainian People's Militia () or the Ukrainian National Militia, was a paramilitary formation created by the Banderite faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in the General Government territory of occupied Poland and later in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine during World War II. It was set up in the course of Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.
Formation The creation of the Ukrainian People's Militsiya in June 1941 preceded the official founding of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in mid-August 1941 by Heinrich Himmler. There is conclusive historical evidence indicating that members of the Ukrainian Militsiya took a leading role in the 1941 Lviv pogroms, after the German army reached Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg) at the end of June in Soviet-occupied eastern Poland. Initially the Ukrainian Militsiya acted independently, with the blessings of the SS, but later were limited to joint operations (Aktionen) with German units or otherwise functioned directly under the Nazi command.Jakob Weiss, The Lemberg Mosaic, New York: Alderbrook Press, 2011; pp. 165–174 (chpt. Prison Massacre), 206–210 (chpt. Petlura Days).
The Ukrainian People's Militsiya was active in occupied territories behind the Wehrmacht lines, assisting the German Security Police and the Einsatzgruppen while the army kept advancing in the direction of Zhytomyr, Rivne and Kiev.
Heinrich Himmler was appointed Chief of SS and Police for the Eastern Territories on 17 July 1941 and decreed the formation of the Schutzmannschaften from among the non-German auxiliaries. In mid-August he regrouped the indigenous Militsiya which had sprung up under military rule to form the core of the official Ukrainische Hilfspolizei. Before that, members of the Ukrainian Militsiya in formerly Polish cities with sizeable Polish-Jewish presence compiled lists of targets for the branch offices of the KdS and assisted with the roundups (as in Stanisławów, Włodzimierz Wołyński, Lutsk). In Korosten, the Militsiya rounded up 238 Jews described as "a source of continuous unrest" and carried out the killings by themselves.Ronald Headland (1992), Messages of Murder: A Study of the Reports of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the Security Service, 1941–1943. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, pp. 125–126. . In Sokal, on 30 June 1941 they arrested and executed 183 Jews dubbed "the commissars". Other locations followed.
By 7 August 1941 stations of Ukrainian People's Militsiya were established in most areas conquered by the Wehrmacht including Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg), Tarnopol, Stanislavov (Stanisławów) (now Ivano-Frankivsk), Lutsk (Łuck), Rovno, Yavoriv, Kamenetz-Podolsk, Drohobych (Drohobycz), Dubno, Sambir, Kostopol, Sarny, Zolochiv, Berezhany, Pidhaytsi, Kolomyya, Rava-Ruska, Radekhiv, Terebovlia, Zbarazh, Zhytomyr, Fastov and others.Р. П. Шляхтич, ОУН в 1941 році: документи: В 2-х частинах Ін-т історії України НАН України (OUN in 1941: Documents in 2 volumes). Institute of History of Ukraine. Kiev: Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2006, pp. 426–427. . Abstract, with links to PDF files.
Ukrainian People's Militsiya instructions The stated duty of the Ukrainian People's Militsiya was to maintain order in the newly occupied territories by defending the Ukrainian population from attacks by scattered remnants of the Red Army, killing resistance members or Soviet parachutists caught behind the German lines, confiscating weapons, registering former communist officials or specialists brought into western Ukraine from eastern regions, and shooting looters or those caught hiding firearms as well as collaborators with the Soviet state and the Soviet diversionaries. The regulations of the Ukrainian People's Militsiya allowed Jews to join in but only under strict rules requiring them to wear yellow stars on their clothing. Poles and Russians were expressly prohibited from joining the force.Patrylyak 2004, pp. 527 (9 in PDF), and 563 (45 in PDF).Dzyobak, Ilyushyn I.I. and I.K. Patrylyak et al. та інші Організація українських націоналістів і Українська повстанська армія (The Organization of the Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army). Institute of History of Ukraine. Kiev: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2004, p. 63.
The OUN controlling the Ukrainian People' Militsiya was strongly opposed to the Soviet power structure that had been established in Galicia after the Soviet annexations, particularly the NKVD. The command sought to neutralize those particular elements that the OUN felt were critical to projecting Soviet power over Ukraine. Instructions issued in May 1941 by OUN in Distrikt Galizien were very specific about who the enemy was.Patrylyak 2004, p. 524 (6 in PDF).
The objectives of the People's Militsiya were to facilitate the eradication of the suspected members of the NKVD and the Communist Party including Soviet prosecutors or citizens who during the Soviet rule collaborated with them. All prominent non-Ukrainians were to be interred. The People's Militsiya – according to instructions – were advised to act in such way that "the army and the authorities of the ally" (i.e. the German Security Police and the Gestapo) would draw obvious benefits from the existence of the People's Militsiya."Patrylyak 2004, p. 550.
State security department of the Militsiya On 25 June 1941 Yaroslav Stetsko wrote to Stepan Bandera that the OUN-B was "forming a militia to help eliminate the Jews". On 2 July 1941 the Ukrainian People's Militsiya was established by Stetsko and his group of OUN supporters in Lviv, and was placed under the command of the German Security police and the Gestapo.Patrylyak 2004, p. 231.
The Ukrainian People's Militsiya structure also included a "political department" similar to the Gestapo (familiar to the OUN-R organization) named the "Secret State Police ".Lysenko, A.E. and I.K. Patrylyak. Матеріали та документи Служби безпеки ОУН (б) у 1940–х (Materials and Documents of the Security Service of the OUN (b) in the 1940s). Kiev: Institute of History of Ukraine, 2003, p. 7. .
If available, personnel of Bandera's OUN People's Militsiya were to use captured Soviet Army uniforms with a yellow-blue armband worn on the left sleeve. If such military clothing was not on hand, members were to wear a white armband stamped with the name People's Militsiya (Народна Міліція).OUN in 1941, p. 130. Stepan Bandera faction.
See also OUN Ukrainian Insurgent Army Banderites Cases of controversial relations with the Axis of World War II Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II Holocaust in Poland Holocaust in Ukraine Responsibility for the Holocaust Schutzmannschaft Ukrainian-German collaboration during World War II
Footnotes
a. The KdS stands for the Kommandateur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, or the Regional Command of the Sipo (Sicherheitspolizei) and SD (Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence branch of the SS).
Citations
References ОУН в 1941 році: документи: В 2-х частинах Ін-т історії України НАН України – OUN in 1941: Documents: in 2 volumes Institute of History of Ukraine Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine K. 2006 I.K. Patrylyak (2004), Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках (The Military Activities of the OUN (B), 1940–1942). Університет імені Шевченко, Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ (Institute of History of Ukraine). Pohl D. Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941–1944: Organisation und Durchfuhrung eines staatlichen Massen-verbrechens. – Munich, 1997