Taras Bulba-Borovets
Encyclopedia
Taras Dmytrovych Borovets’ , pseudonym Taras Bulba (March 9, 1908, northern Volhynia
, Russian Empire
– May 15, 1981, Toronto
, Canada
) was a Ukrainian nationalist political activist.
, and in 1930 the Ukrainian National Renaissance for which he was interned in 1934–35 in the Polish Bereza Kartuska Detention Camp. He was an active member of pro-Simon Petlyura movement, which was resentful of Poland for signing the Treaty of Riga. After Polish September Campaign, he managed to get to the General Government
and in Warsaw
got in touch with members of the Ukrainian People's Republic
, who told him to return to the area of Sarny
, which he did in August of 1940.
Therefore, after Soviet annexation of Western Ukrainian lands to the Ukrainian SSR
Borovets organized the underground anti-Soviet resistance in Volhynia (called Polis'ska Sich
) and after the German attack on the USSR
he organized the first Ukrainian Insurgent Army(UPA) also known as the Polissian Sich
. It effectively fought against the Soviets and during the German occupation went into underground, after Borovets refused German demands that his troops participate in the massacres of Jews in the area of Olevsk. Borovets himself hid several Jewish families. From 1943 the Polisska Sich became known as the Ukrainian National Revolutionary Army
and the insurgency was directed according to the plan of the General Command of the UNR
. Borovets refused to join the forces of Stepan Bandera
faction, and his wife was killed by OUN (B) assasins.
In 1943 Borovets organized the Ukrainian National-democratic Party. In November 1943 was arrested by the Gestapo in Warsaw and incarcerated in Sachsenhausen concentration camp
. In Autumn 1944 the Nazis, looking for Ukrainian support in the war they were losing against the Soviets, freed Borovets since he never ceased attempts to come to understanding with Nazi against the common enemy, the Soviets. He was put in charge of a formation of a paratrooper brigade to be dropped in the rear of the Red Army
and engage in guerrilla warfare. Those plans never came to fruition and in the end of war Ukrainian nationalist allies of Hitler demanded being transferred away from the Eastern Front to be able to surrender to allies. Borovets' detachment surrendered to the allies on May 10, 1945, and were interned in Rimini
(Italy
).
Some sources blame Bulba for starting Massacres of Poles in Volhynia
. However, there is evidence that he wrote to Stepan Bandera
in August 1943, that Ukraine had more important enemies than the Poles, and the Polish nation will exist as such, and that the future will determine whether the Poles will be enemies or friends. Bulba criticized the massacres of Poles, calling them shameful (Derz. Archiw Riwnenskoji Oblasti (DARO), f. R-30, op. 2, spr. 113, kk. 103–105).
In 1948 he emigrated to Canada. While in emigration he organized the Ukrainian National Guard and published a newspaper "Mech i Volia" (Sword and Freedom), along with a book of memoirs "Armiya bez Derzhavy" (Army without a country). He died in Toronto, Canada and is buried in Bound Brook, New Jersey.
His pseudonym is taken from the eponymous novel
by Russian-Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol
.
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...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
– May 15, 1981, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) was a Ukrainian nationalist political activist.
Biography
During the Interbellum, he led educational programs in VolhyniaVolhynia
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 in 1930 the Ukrainian National Renaissance for which he was interned in 1934–35 in the Polish Bereza Kartuska Detention Camp. He was an active member of pro-Simon Petlyura movement, which was resentful of Poland for signing the Treaty of Riga. After Polish September Campaign, he managed to get to the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
and in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
got in touch with members of the Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
, who told him to return to the area of Sarny
Sarny
Sarny translated as Deer, is a small city in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Sarny Raion , and is a major railway node on the Sluch River.The current estimated population is 27,700....
, which he did in August of 1940.
Therefore, after Soviet annexation of Western Ukrainian lands to the Ukrainian SSR
Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
Immediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...
Borovets organized the underground anti-Soviet resistance in Volhynia (called Polis'ska Sich
Sich
A sich is the administrative and military centre for Cossacks and especially the Zaporizhian Cossacks. It is derived from the Ukrainian word siktý, "to chop", meaning to clear a forest for an encampment, or to build a fortification with the trees that have been chopped down.The Zaporizhian Sich...
) and after the German attack on the USSR
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
he organized the first Ukrainian Insurgent Army(UPA) also known as the Polissian Sich
Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army
Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army was a paramilitary formation of Ukrainian nationalists, nominally proclaimed in Olevsk region in December 1941 by Taras Bulba-Borovets by renaming an existing military unit known from July 1941 as the UPA-Polissian Sich...
. It effectively fought against the Soviets and during the German occupation went into underground, after Borovets refused German demands that his troops participate in the massacres of Jews in the area of Olevsk. Borovets himself hid several Jewish families. From 1943 the Polisska Sich became known as the Ukrainian National Revolutionary Army
Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army
Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army was a paramilitary formation of Ukrainian nationalists, nominally proclaimed in Olevsk region in December 1941 by Taras Bulba-Borovets by renaming an existing military unit known from July 1941 as the UPA-Polissian Sich...
and the insurgency was directed according to the plan of the General Command of the UNR
UNR
UNR can mean:* National University of Rwanda * University of Nevada, Reno* Universidad Nacional de Rosario, National University of Rosario, Argentina...
. Borovets refused to join the forces of 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...
faction, and his wife was killed by OUN (B) assasins.
In 1943 Borovets organized the Ukrainian National-democratic Party. In November 1943 was arrested by the Gestapo in Warsaw and incarcerated in Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
. In Autumn 1944 the Nazis, looking for Ukrainian support in the war they were losing against the Soviets, freed Borovets since he never ceased attempts to come to understanding with Nazi against the common enemy, the Soviets. He was put in charge of a formation of a paratrooper brigade to be dropped in the rear of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
and engage in guerrilla warfare. Those plans never came to fruition and in the end of war Ukrainian nationalist allies of Hitler demanded being transferred away from the Eastern Front to be able to surrender to allies. Borovets' detachment surrendered to the allies on May 10, 1945, and were interned in Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
(Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
).
Some sources blame Bulba for starting Massacres of Poles in Volhynia
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...
. However, there is evidence that he wrote to 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...
in August 1943, that Ukraine had more important enemies than the Poles, and the Polish nation will exist as such, and that the future will determine whether the Poles will be enemies or friends. Bulba criticized the massacres of Poles, calling them shameful (Derz. Archiw Riwnenskoji Oblasti (DARO), f. R-30, op. 2, spr. 113, kk. 103–105).
In 1948 he emigrated to Canada. While in emigration he organized the Ukrainian National Guard and published a newspaper "Mech i Volia" (Sword and Freedom), along with a book of memoirs "Armiya bez Derzhavy" (Army without a country). He died in Toronto, Canada and is buried in Bound Brook, New Jersey.
His pseudonym is taken from the eponymous novel
Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is a romanticized historical novel by Nikolai Gogol. It tells the story of an old Zaporozhian Cossack, Taras Bulba, and his two sons, Andriy and Ostap. Taras’ sons studied at the Kiev Academy and return home...
by Russian-Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
.
Sources
- Son of Polissia
- Army without country
- Taras Borovetz History of the UIA
- Taras Borovetz - Our opinion of Russia and General Vlasov
- Володимир Дзьобак. Тарас Боровець і “Поліська Січ”, "З архівів ВУЧК-ГПУ-НКВД-КГБ", №1/2(2/3), 1995.