STORMY TIME GIVES RISE TO HEROES, IN MEMORY OF GENERAL SHUKHEVYCH


Beginning of the XIX century. Fracture of eras. At that time Ukraine gave birth to personalities, who had marked the becoming of the "Era of Heroes." Undoubtedly, that was a generation of new Ukrainian elite, a generation of knights by spirit, who had considered life as a path of struggle for higher ideals, and death - as a lady, whose heart they had to conquer. Idea was not just a symbol, but a higher purpose, the meaning of their existence. Their great names and deeds have become a legend, a part of the national epos.

Definitely, Roman Shukhevych was one of them. It seem he had realized his true destiny since childhood. While studying in the academic school young he joined the "Plast" - a Ukrainian scouting organization, which had been a real school of life for passionate young men as he was. In the age of 16 Shukhevych and his best friend Bogdan Pidhayny entered the UVO Ukraine's nationalist organisation. He jumped right into the malesorm of nationalist struggle; since then danger and romantism had become his faithful companions. Having considerable credibility in the Plast as one of its most active members "Shuch" (his nikname) had been campaigning young scouts to join the nation-liberation struggle.

In his youth Roman Shukhevych distinguished himself as an athlete, setting records in swimming and running over obstacles. From an early age he prepare himself for future struggle physically, morally and intellectually. 

On 19 October 1926, 19-year-old Roman Shukhevych and his friend Bogdan Pidhayny made their first combat deed - an elimination of Stanisław Sobinski, a chauvinist who had advocated anti-Ukrainian policy in the field of education. Being one of the most prominent activists of the nationalist movement,  Shukhevych had become a chief of the Combat Referenty of the OUN Executive Board. In the organisation he was known under a callsign "Dzvin."

Roman Shukhevych is one of the founders of the idea of "permanent revolution," which provides that only full-scale national uprising combined with radical actions can liberate a nation from an occupier's yoke. A talented strategist, a born leader and a master of sabotage. There were lots of brilliantly planned and performed radical actions against the occupier's authorities under Shukhevych guidance. Later "Dzvin" arranged a series of successful attempts against a number of anti-Ukrainian officials in the Lviv region, amongst them the elimination of  the ambassador to the Sejm Tadeusz Holowko, police commissioner Chekhovsky, the NKVD agent Alexey Mikhailow, the Polish Interior Minister Bronislaw Pyeratsky. The last one's murder had caused a wave of arrests of OUN members, including our "master of shadows."

Having stayed six months in a concentration camp and two years in prison, in 1937 Shukhevych returned to the Galicia to continue his struggle. Under his guidance were formed Ukrainian self-defence units to counter Polish military groups, who had terrorized Ukrainians and conducted ethnic cleanings in the region. In December 1938, shortly after the resurrection of Ukrainian statehood in the Zakarpattia, Shukhevych and a group of his combat comrades crossed the border and got to the city of Khust, a capital of the Carpatho Ukraine. There they help local nationalists to develop the General Staff of National Defense of Carpathian Ukraine. Under the pseudonym of "Boris Pike" Shukhevych took part in the defense of the city.

After the defeat of the Carpatho Ukraine in March 1939, his return to the Galicia became impossible, so the OUN leadership had ordered "Dzvin" to depart to Gdansk as a secret messenger. 

Meanwhileб European sky had been gradually covering with thunderstorm clouds ...


Heroes are born in a storm. This is their element. ...

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