Lyudmila Lytvynenko-Anpilova
postgraduate student, Ivan Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies
Lviv, Ukraine
E-mail: kotariyka@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5522-1491
DOI: 10.17721/2522-4611.2025.52.5
SCALE OF REPRESSIONS AGAINST MEMBERS OF THE OUN IN THE DONETSK REGION IN 1943 – 1951
The article is devoted to the repressive activities of the Soviet state security organs against the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in the Donetsk region during the second period of the Soviet-German war and in the post-war period. The purpose of the article is to characterize the repressive activities of the Soviet authorities in relation to the OUN in the Staline (Donetsk) region during 1943 – 1951. The research was conducted using methodological techniques, the list of which includes: analysis, deduction, induction, synthesis, analogy, generalization, as well as comparative-historical, statistical, chronological and periodization methods, which allowed us to process the available source base and historiography and based on the data obtained, to describe in detail the stages and content of the Soviet repressions against the OUN in the Donetsk region, to examine the course of events in chronological order, to identify a list of names of repressed underground members, and to conduct final statistical calculations. The scientific novelty lies in the careful analysis and systematization of these archival documents and a critical assessment of previous scientific research. The results obtained allow us to distinguish three stages of the repressive activity of the state security agencies, characterized by the corresponding indicators of the number of arrested members of the nationalist underground in the Staline region. The NKVS archival criminal cases available today allow us to assess not only the consequences of these events, but also to retrospectively recreate certain elements of the organizational structure of the OUN in the Staline region, in particular its city and district branches. The updated statistical information on the number of arrested underground members is provided, which not only corrects the previously published figures, but also refutes the assessments expressed in the literature regarding the representation of the OUN in Donbas region mostly by "lone wolves", rather than organized groups. The consequences of repressive measures against Ukrainian nationalists in the Donetsk region are analyzed through the prism of all-Ukrainian data. The prospect of further research on this issue is rather doubtful, given the physical inaccessibility of archival sources in the occupied territories, which confirms the importance of this study and its practical significance in supplementing the all-Ukrainian picture of the activities of the OUN and the reactionary actions of the Soviet authorities towards it.
Key words: Eastern Ukraine, Donbas region, Staline (Donetsk) region, World War II, OUN, Soviet repressions, NKVS.
Received 14.07.2025.
Revised 11.08.2025.
Accepted 15.09.2025.
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