“IT IS BETTER TO DIE STANDING THAN TO LIVE ON YOUR KNEES”

On March 5, 1950, the UPA Commander-in-Chief Roman Shukhevych (Taras Chuprynka) died.

“To gain the Ukrainian state or to die fighting for it” was the OUN slogan and the life principle of Roman Shukhevych. He led the liberation struggle of Ukrainians in a difficult time, when they had to confront two totalitarian regimes that were not much different from each other – the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

The NKVD-MGB hunted Shukhevych for a record time – over seven years. The UPA Commander-in-Chief repeatedly escaped the hands of the Chekists: in 1944, 1946, 1947, 1948. Rumors of his death were spread several times. But the work of the OUN Security Service was carried out as well as possible.

The tragic outcome was brought about by the arrest of Shukhevych’s liaison officer, Daria Husyak, on March 2, 1950. Suspecting danger, Shukhevych was preparing to move from the house in Bilahorscha, where he had been hiding since the end of 1949, to Lviv, where there were two secret apartments. The move was scheduled for March 5.

But on the morning of March 5, 1950, the MGB members tightly surrounded this and several neighboring houses in Bilahorscha. The operation to capture the commander-in-chief of the UPA was led by General Pavlo Sudoplatov of the Ministry of State Security. More than 700 internal troops were involved in the operation. Trying to break through the encirclement, Shukhevych killed Major Revenko, but was himself wounded. In order not to appear alive in the hands of the enemy, Shukhevych shot himself in the temple.

The official report stated that the commander was killed by one of the sergeants who surrounded the house. He was paid a reward of 1,000 Soviet rubles.

The commander’s body was put up for identification by his relatives, but his fate remains unknown.

After Shukhevych’s death, the UPA’s struggle was led by Vasyl Kuk. The struggle itself lasted for more than 10 years – the last open battle of the OUN armed underground against the Ternopil UKGB operational group was recorded on April 14, 1960, and the last insurgent fought the KGB in 1967.

Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance

“We fight not because we hate those who are in front of us, but because we love those who are behind us!”

“The wise cannot be fooled, the honest cannot be bought, the courageous cannot be broken.”

“It is better to die standing than to live on your knees.”

“We all — UPA soldiers and all underground fighters in particular, and I — are aware that sooner or later we will have to die in the fight against brute force. But, I assure you, we will not be afraid to die, because, dying, we will be aware that we will become fertilizer for the Ukrainian land. This is our native land that still needs a lot of fertilizer so that in the future a new Ukrainian generation can grow on it, which will complete what we were not destined to complete.”

“Independence will not be achieved by one party or union, or individual people, only the whole of Ukraine will achieve it.”

Roman Shukhevych