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Ukrainian People's Militia (Template:Lang-uk), was a military formation created by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists faction led by Stepan Bandera in the General Government of German-occupied Ukraine and later in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, set up after Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

The principle duty of the Ukrainian People's Milita was to maintain order in the newly occupied territories by defending the local population from attacks by scattered remnants of the Red Army, killing organizers of Communist uprisings or Soviet parachutists caught behind the German lines, confiscating weapons, registering former Communist officials or specialists brought into western Ukraine from eastern regions, and shooting looters or those caught hiding unregistered firearms, serv ants of the Soviet state or Soviet diversionaries. The Ukrainian People's militia also typically registered all Jews and enforced rules requiring them to wear yellow stars on their clothing and to engage in forced labor. It was also involved in a wave of pogroms claiming several thousand Jewish lives in the early days of German occupation of western Ukraine.

Ukrainian People's Militia Instructions

The OUN controlling the Ukrainian People' Militia were very concerned by the Soviet power structure that had been established in Ukraine, particularly the NKVD, and sought to nuetralize those particular elements that the OUN felt were critical to projecting Soviet power over Ukraine. According to instructions issued in May 1941 to OUN organizers in Ukraine:

... ... There are elements (“supporters of the regime and NKVD”) which at the time of the creation of the new revolutionary regime in Ukraine must be neutralized. These elements are:

• The Muscovites (Russians) sent to Ukrainian lands in order to strengthen Moscow’s power in Ukraine
• The Jews, individually and as a national group
• The foreigners, mostly Asians, which Moscow uses to colonize Ukraine in order to turn the country into an ethnic chessboard
• Those Poles on the West Ukrainian lands who have not given up the dream to build a Greater Poland at the expense of the Ukrainian lands, even if Greater Poland will became Red. "

The objectives of the "People's Militia" was to stage an initial cleaning out of members of the NKVD and of the Communist Party, Soviet prosecutors, and similar people. Those citizens who during Soviet rule stood out for their persecution of Ukrainians - in particular Poles, Jews and Russians - were also singled out. Non-Ukrainians, specifically those belonging to the first two goups (either members of Soviet security structures or those citizens who had persecuted Ukrainians under Soviet rule), were to be interred. People's Courts were to be created in order to mete out justice.

Also, "The People's Militia" had to act in such way that «the army and the authorities of the ally will see the benefit for their own from the existence of the People's Militia".

State security department of the Militia

The Ukrainian People's Militia structure also included a "political department” - which is similar to the Gestapo (familiar to the OUN-R organization) - named as a "Secret State Police ".

Formation

On June 25, Yaroslav Stetsko wrote to Stepan Bandera that OUN had “formed a militia to remove the Jews”. After the proclamation of the “Ukrainian Statehood with the leader of Stepan Bandera” in its government was created UDB (Department of the State Security). The July 2, 1941 Bandera’s OUN People's militia - established by Yaroslav Stetsko group at Lemberg - was placed under the command of the Security police and Secret police

By August 7, 1941 Ukrainian People's Militia stations were established at most areas conquered by Wehrmacht including Lviv, Ternopil, Stanislavov, Lutsk, Rivne, Yavoriv, Kamenetz-Podolsk, Drogobych, Borislav, Dubno, Sambor, Kostopol, Sarny, Kozovyi, Zolochiv, Berezhany, Pidhaytsi, Kolomyya, Rava-Ruska, Gorodok, Obroshyno, Radekhiv, Gorodok, Kosovo, Terebovlia, Vyshnivtsi, Zbarazh, Zhytomyr and Fastov

Uniform and Equipment

If available, personnel of the Bandera’s OUN People's militia should use captured Soviet Army uniform with yellow-blue armband at the left sleeve. If unavailable, it should be a white armband with text in Ukrainian “People's Militia”(Template:Lang-uk).

The militia was armed with antiquated rifles and pistols, and its members received only 10 rounds of ammunition each. It was seen by Germans as unreliable, and was gradually disbanded. It was replaced with Ukrainian Auxiliary Police by the end of summer of 1941.

Transformation into the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police

In major cities it was almost immediately incorporated into Nazi Germany Sicherheitspolizei/Gestapo. In other places transformation into Ukrainian Auxiliary Police continued until end of September –October 1941. In rural areas it was disbanded or transformed into the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police by November 1941.

Ukrainian People's Militia and anti-Jewish Pogroms

The OUN sought German recognition for an independant Ukrainian state. Despite its declared condemnation of pogroms in April 1941, when German official Reinhard Heydrich requested "self-cleansing actions" in June of that year the OUN organized militias killed several thousand Jews in western Ukraine soon afterward that year. The total number of Jewish victims whom the militias killed and instigated others to kill have been estimated at 19,655.

Sources

• ОУН в 1941 році: документи: В 2-х частинах Ін-т історії України НАН України - OUN in 1941: Documents: in 2 volumes Institute of History of Ukraine Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine K. 2006 ISBN 966-02-2535-0
• І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004
• Pohl D. Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944: Organisation und Durchfuhrung eines staatlichen Massen-verbrechens. - Munich, 1997

See also

• OUN
• Ukrainian Insurgent Army
• Cases of controversial relations with the Axis of World War II
• Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II
• Holocaust in Poland
• Holocaust in Ukraine
• Responsibility for the Holocaust
• Schutzmannschaft
• Ukrainian-German collaboration during World War II

References

1. p.232 І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004- I.K Patrylyak. Military activities of the OUN (B) in the years 1940-1942. - Shevchenko University \ Institute of History of Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine . Kyiv, 2004
2. p.63 ДЗЬОБАК В.В. ІЛЬЮШИН І І.К. Патриляк. та інші Організація українських націоналістів і Українська повстанська армія \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004- V.V.Dzyobak I.I. Ilyushyn I.K Patrylyak. and others Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army. - Institute of History of Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine . Kyiv, 2004
3. p.348-349 Browning, Christopher. The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. ISBN 0803213271
4. The Lviv pogrom of 1941 By John Paul Himka. Kyiv Post September 23, 2010.
5. І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004 - i pp. 522-524
6. p.550 І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004- I.K Patrylyak. Military activities of theOUN (B) in the years 1940-1942. - Shevchenko University \ Institute of History of Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine . Kyiv, 2004
7. page. 7 Матеріали та документи Служби безпеки ОУН (б) у 1940-х рр. / Упоряд.: О. Є. Лисенко, І. К. Патриляк. – К.: Ін-т історії України НАН України, 2003. - Materials and documents of the Security Service of the OUN (b) in the 1940's. / Compiled by: A.E. Lysenko, I.K. Patrylyak. - K.: Institute of History of Ukraine, 2003 ISBN 966-02-2729-9
8. page 63 Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army Institute of History of Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine . Kyiv, 2004
9. p.231 І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004- I.K Patrylyak. Military activities of theOUN (B) in the years 1940-1942. - Shevchenko University \ Institute of History of Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine . Kyiv, 2004
10. pp 426-427 ОУН в 1941 році: документи: В 2-х частинах Ін-т історії України НАН України - OUN in 1941: Documents: in 2 volumes Institute of History of Ukraine Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine K. 2006 ISBN 966-02-2535-0
11. p.230 І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004- I.K Patrylyak. Military activities of theOUN (B) in the years 1940-1942. - Shevchenko University \ Institute of History of Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine . Kyiv, 2004
12. p. 130 ОУН в 1941 році: документи: В 2-х частинах Ін-т історії України НАН України - OUN in 1941: Documents: in 2 volumes Institute of History of Ukraine Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine K. 2006 ISBN 966-02-2535-0
13. The Lviv pogrom of 1941 By John Paul Himka. Kyiv Post September 23, 2010.
14. Timothy Snyder. (2010). Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books. pg. 196

• Collaboration during World War II
• Collaborators during World War II occupations
• Collaborators with Nazi Germany
• Defunct law enforcement agencies of Germany
• History of Ukraine
• The Holocaust in Poland
• Military history of Germany during World War II
• Military history of Ukraine during World War II
• The Holocaust in Ukraine
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• Local participation in the Holocaust
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