"IT'S BETTER TO DIE STANDING STRAIGHT,THAN LIVE ON KNEES" - REMEMBERING GLORIOUS GENERAL SHUKHEVYCH

“I don’t care what awaits me after death - a crown of thorns or a laurel wreath. I have fully shared one fate with my soldiers, my comrades. Although the death of the younger generation in the war is the same as if nature would suddenly lose spring, our sacrifice will not be wasted. In order to sprout, a grain must first fall into the ground. God, save our souls...”

Roman Shukhevych

On this day, March 5, 1950, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the UPA) chief commander Roman Shukhevych took on his final fight in the war for freedom of Ukraine.

By refusing to leave the territory occupied by Moscow in order to continue the uncompromising struggle for national liberty along with his soldiers, General Shukhevich perfectly understood what sort of finall was awaityng for him.

But the Nation, the Motherland and own honor were incomparably higher for him than a matter of own life. 

After years of unsuccessful hunting, the occupyers had managed to catch the trail of the commander of Ukrainian guerillas. In the cold spring morning of 1950, nearly a thousand NKVD fighters surrounded a house in Bilogorsha village, where Shukhevich was located. He was offered to give up. Roman Shukhevych had flatly refused. "It is better to die standing straight, than to live on knees" - this was exactly the choice the UPA commander made exactly 68 years ago.

During an unequal battle against the invaders, Roman Shukhevych managed to liquidate an NKVD officer Rovenko. After that, unwilling to be taken alive, he put a bullet in own temple. The general sied unconquered, as befits to a noble knight.

By own remarkable deeds for the Motherland, General Shukhevich has forever wrote his name with golden letters in our history. Roman Shukhevych's courage and devotion to the nation-liberation struggle today are inspired the new generations of Ukrainians. The struggle continues. Eternal memory and eternal glory of the Hero of Ukraine!