Mykola Lebed
Encyclopedia
Mykola Lebed also known as Maksym Ruban, Marko or Yevhen Skyrba, was a Ukrainian
political activist, Ukrainian nationalist
and guerrilla fighter. He was among those tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the murder, in 1936, of Polish
Interior Minister Bronislaw Pieracki
. The court sentenced him to death, but the state commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. He escaped when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. As leader of OUN-B
he is responsible for the ethnic cleansing
of Poles in Volhynia
and Eastern Galicia.
In 1949 he emigrated to the United States and lived in New York
. Through Prolog Research Corporation, his Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) funded organization, he gathered intelligence on the Soviet Union
as late as into the late 1960s. In 1991, the CIA still considered him a valuable asset. Federal investigators would consider Lebed a possible war criminal but did not pursue prosecution. He died in 1998.
, a small town in Galicia, nowadays western part of Ukraine
(at the time, Austria–Hungary), Lebed completed his studies in Lviv
which during the Interbellum was part of the Second Polish Republic
. In 1930-32 he took an active part in setting up youth groups of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
(OUN) in the area around Lviv. From 1932-34 he directed communications between the Ukrainian Executive and the Foreign Command of the OUN.
In 1934, he participated in the preparation of the assassination of the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Bronisław Pieracki. After the assassination he attempted to flee through Gdansk
-Szczecin
to Germany
, but by order of Himmler
was arrested by the Gestapo
and handed over to the Polish authorities. During the Warsaw Process
(1934–36) he was given the death penalty which was later commuted to life imprisonment. He escaped from prison in August 1939.
(OUN) he supported Stepan Bandera
, and, in 1941, became his assistant. In June 1941, he was one of the functionaries in the short-lived Ukrainian government of Yaroslav Stetsko
. The groups briefly collaborated with the anti-Soviet Nazi Germans
. He was once again arrested by the Germans. In 1941-43 he organized three conferences for the OUN.
Lebed assumed control of Bandera's faction of the OUN in western Ukraine, which would come to dominate the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) until 1943. In 1941-44, he negotiated with the Armja Krajowa on a joint fight against the Nazi.
In 1942, he was a participant in the 3rd Special Conference of the OUN, and headed the head council and the delegate for external contacts of the Direction of the OUN. In 1944 he became one of the founders of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council
(UHVR) and the general Secretary of International Policies of the UHVR. At the recommendation of the UHVR he traveled to the West where he contacted various Western governments. In 1948, he became a member of the OUN (Diaspora).
On the one hand about Mykola Lebed it was written that he was also a "Ukrainian fascist leader and suspected Nazi collaborator", and Lebed was later labeled a "well-known sadist and collaborator of the Germans" by United States Army
counterintelligence.
On another hand Lebed it was written, that Lebed persecuted by the Gestapo: "it (OUN/B) fought German rule, and the Gestapo put a price on Lebed’s head."
. In 1952-1974 he headed the research center "Prologue" in New York where from in 1982-85 he was Deputy Chairman and since 1974 he was a Member of the Board of Directors. In 1956-91 he was a member of the board of the Ukrainian Society of Foreign Studies in Munich and Toronto publishing committee "Chronicle of the UPA (1975). Author memories "UPA" (1946, 1987).
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
political activist, Ukrainian nationalist
Ukrainian nationalism
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the Ukrainian version of nationalism.Although the current Ukrainian state emerged fairly recently, some historians, such as Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Orest Subtelny and Paul Magosci have cited the medieval state of Kievan Rus' as an early precedents of specifically...
and guerrilla fighter. He was among those tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the murder, in 1936, of Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Interior Minister Bronislaw Pieracki
Bronislaw Pieracki
Bronisław Wilhelm Pieracki was a Polish military officer and politician. As member of Polish Legions in World War I, Pieracki took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War and he later supported the 1926 May Coup of Józef Piłsudski...
. The court sentenced him to death, but the state commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. He escaped when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. As leader of OUN-B
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
he is responsible for the ethnic cleansing
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia
The Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were part of an ethnic cleansing operation carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army West in the Nazi occupied regions of the Eastern Galicia , and UPA North in Volhynia , beginning in March 1943 and lasting until the end of...
of Poles in Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
and Eastern Galicia.
In 1949 he emigrated to the United States and lived in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Through Prolog Research Corporation, his Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) funded organization, he gathered intelligence on the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as late as into the late 1960s. In 1991, the CIA still considered him a valuable asset. Federal investigators would consider Lebed a possible war criminal but did not pursue prosecution. He died in 1998.
Early life
Born in Novi StrilyschaNovi Strilyscha
Novi Strilyscha is small town in Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine.The first written mention of which dates from the year 1375, still just Strilyscha who were on the verge of a border settlement between Galician and Zvenyhorod principalities.In 1513, new settlement was separated from Strilyscha and...
, a small town in Galicia, nowadays western part of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(at the time, Austria–Hungary), Lebed completed his studies in Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
which during the Interbellum was part of the Second Polish Republic
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
. In 1930-32 he took an active part in setting up youth groups of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
(OUN) in the area around Lviv. From 1932-34 he directed communications between the Ukrainian Executive and the Foreign Command of the OUN.
In 1934, he participated in the preparation of the assassination of the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Bronisław Pieracki. After the assassination he attempted to flee through Gdansk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
-Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, but by order of Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
was arrested by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
and handed over to the Polish authorities. During the Warsaw Process
Warsaw Process
Warsaw Process – one of the biggest trials against the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in Second Polish Republic. Took place 18 November 1935 – 13 January 1936....
(1934–36) he was given the death penalty which was later commuted to life imprisonment. He escaped from prison in August 1939.
World War II
In 1940, during the internal conflict that erupted within the Organization of Ukrainian NationalistsOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
(OUN) he supported Stepan Bandera
Stepan Bandera
Stepan Andriyovych Bandera was a Ukrainian politician and one of the leaders of Ukrainian national movement in Western Ukraine , who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists...
, and, in 1941, became his assistant. In June 1941, he was one of the functionaries in the short-lived Ukrainian government of Yaroslav Stetsko
Yaroslav Stetsko
Yaroslav Stetsko was the leader of the Bandera's Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists , from 1968 until death. In 1941, during Nazi Germany invasion into the Soviet Union he was self-proclaimed temporary head of the self-proclaimed Ukrainian statehood...
. The groups briefly collaborated with the anti-Soviet Nazi Germans
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. He was once again arrested by the Germans. In 1941-43 he organized three conferences for the OUN.
Lebed assumed control of Bandera's faction of the OUN in western Ukraine, which would come to dominate the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) until 1943. In 1941-44, he negotiated with the Armja Krajowa on a joint fight against the Nazi.
In 1942, he was a participant in the 3rd Special Conference of the OUN, and headed the head council and the delegate for external contacts of the Direction of the OUN. In 1944 he became one of the founders of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council
Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council
Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council was a Ukrainian political organisation formed in July 1944.UHVR united Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army . After the end of the Second World War, the council co-ordinated resistance efforts in Soviet-occupied Ukraine...
(UHVR) and the general Secretary of International Policies of the UHVR. At the recommendation of the UHVR he traveled to the West where he contacted various Western governments. In 1948, he became a member of the OUN (Diaspora).
Alleged Collaboration with Nazi Germany
In the publication of government report published by the National Archives he suspected in collaboration with Nazi Germany.On the one hand about Mykola Lebed it was written that he was also a "Ukrainian fascist leader and suspected Nazi collaborator", and Lebed was later labeled a "well-known sadist and collaborator of the Germans" by United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
counterintelligence.
On another hand Lebed it was written, that Lebed persecuted by the Gestapo: "it (OUN/B) fought German rule, and the Gestapo put a price on Lebed’s head."
Post-war activities
From 1949, Lebed lived in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1952-1974 he headed the research center "Prologue" in New York where from in 1982-85 he was Deputy Chairman and since 1974 he was a Member of the Board of Directors. In 1956-91 he was a member of the board of the Ukrainian Society of Foreign Studies in Munich and Toronto publishing committee "Chronicle of the UPA (1975). Author memories "UPA" (1946, 1987).
Further reading
- (In Russian) Chuyev, Sergei - Ukrainskyj Legion - Moscow, 2006
- Ihor yeremeyev: The organizer of Ukrainian Special services