The star of the OUN and the UPA

Tamara Khitko (nee Bodasiuk) was born in the urban-type settlement of Vyshnevets in Volyn oblast on Nov. 6, 1930. Codenamed Zirka (Star), she devoted almost her entire life to the struggle for Ukraine’s freedom and independence. When she was just a little girl, she became a courier for the Organization of Ukrainian Natio­nalists (OUN) and later the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), helping its members acquire weapons and delivering important information.

Today Khitko lives in Kyiv and often remembers those difficult times. In order to honor the memory of Stepan Bandera and Roman Shuk­hevych, she set up her own mini-museum featuring photo­graphs, cards, commemorative coins, books, and flags. Below, this former member of the Ukrainian underground shares her memories with The Day.

Mrs. Khitko, what prompted you to help the OUN at such an early age, when you were only nine years old?

“My childhood coincided with the difficult period after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, when Western Ukrai­ne became part of Poland. Despite my young age, I felt humiliated by Poland. We were deprived of the right to speak our mother tongue. However, my family had Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar (the Dresden edition) and all three volumes of Bohdan Lepky’s works-Motria, Ne vbyi (Do Not Kill), and Mazepa. Like most of our female neighbors, my mother couldn’t read fluently, so I read to them. I read from the Kobzar and Lesia Ukrainka’s works. That is why I know many poems by heart. We often celebrated Shevchenko Day. In this we were helped a lot by Vira Volynska, the head of the local Prosvita Society. Thanks to her efforts, we staged sketches based on Ivan Franko’s “Oi, ne khody Hrytsiu...(Oh, Hryts, Don’t Go...) and Ukradene shchastia (Stolen Happiness). Apart from the Prosvita Society, we were under the control of several OUN members, unbeknownst to the authorities. These were Anatolii Bodasiuk, a captain in the UPA, Yevhen Pozikhovsky, and the Chorny brothers.

“In 1939 the Poles left our area, after seizing 55-70 acres of our best lands. But we did not feel any hostility to them. We, children, simply did not realize what was going on. In September 1939 the Soviet Army arrived. Our mothers made aprons for us, and we gathered petals of wild roses, asters, mallows, and chrysanthemums and sprinkled the Red Army soldiers with them. A new life began. We went to school. Teachers had been brought from the eastern oblasts to teach us, even though we had enough of our own. They taught us well and, most importantly, in Ukrainian.

“But in January 1940, when the temperature was 20-25oC below zero, they loaded 150,000 members of the intelligentsia into open freight trains and took them to Siberia. The word ‘Siberia’ was on everyone’s lips and scared everyone to death. The deportation of the intelligentsia sparked great resentment among the local population. I remember that Black Marias would pull up at 3 a.m. People were given three hours to pack and were then taken away. That’s how my cousin Arsentii Hryvas, who had a 12-year-old daughter and a little son, was exiled.

“From that time on the adults and young people started leaving for the forests. We, little children, were puzzled. Sometimes we would encounter the men who later took our parents away. In our house there was always a suitcase packed and ready; when I wanted to take something to play with, my mother would say: “Don’t because if they come, where will I look for you?” That was scary. Later, in Ternopil, I saw open freight trains carrying old men and women and little children wrapped up in fur coats. We threw apples, bread, and candies to them. They cried and waved at us. All this caused such bewilderment that we started asking the adults: “What do we do?” They did not tell us much and just said that we needed to make gloves and socks for OUN members. This is how I began working with the underground. We would take food to the forests for people whom we knew, as well as total strangers.”

What happened when the Nazis invaded Western Ukraine?

“When the Nazi troops came, schools were shut down. But, my friend and I continued our studies. Our teachers were Leonid and Kostiantyn Stefansky, who taught us the kind of history that we had never studied in school. At the time you could face a 15-year prison sentence for the mere slogan “Stick to your own!” or for wearing an embroidered shirt with the Ukrainian flag.”

What day do you remember most vividly from that time?

“I remember one day particularly well. Our parents told us to get dressed because the word was that the Poles were going to leave Volyn and slaughter us all. This was in 1944. We got dressed and loaded everything we could on our horse. The only thing we couldn’t do was to persuade my grandmother to leave. I cried and prayed, but she said: “No, my dears, I will never leave my house. May God bless you! Go and save yourselves, but I will stay in my house.” Today I understand her perfectly. We left, and OUN members protected us inside a church.”

I know that your uncle Fedir Bodasiuk was an UPA captain, who died in a hideout near the village of Lozy. Singing Ukraine’s national hymn, he and his comrades in arms blew themselves up with hand grenades. Did you see action too?

“Not quite. I wouldn’t call it military actions. In 1944, when I was 14, I started helping the OUN and the UPA acquire firearms. Together with Commander Nazar Holovatiuk (codenamed Bohun), I would steal weapons and bring them to the UPA insurgents. Later on, when the Romanians were fleeing our area, we gave them food in exchange for weapons, which we also took to the forests and gave to the UPA. One day Holovatiuk and I stole a Belgian gun from an officer who was billeted at my aunt’s house. According to our plan, I had to enter the house and switch off the light if the officer was not there, at which time Holovatiuk would steal the gun. After this incident my aunt Natalia was summoned to the KGB. She knew that I was the organizer, but she did not inform on me and saved my life.”

You mentioned that besides copies of Shevchenko’s Kobzar OUN members always had Bibles that protected them on their difficult raids. Did the Bible save you?

“People often said in those days that we were protected by the Blessed Virgin of Pochaiv. Perhaps this is why I remained safe and sound. At the same time, we were teenagers, and our commanders protected us by not letting us go on difficult missions often.”

Did you maintain contact with the OUN after the war?

“In 1944, when the Germans left, our school was reopened and we continued our studies. One of the students in our class was Yurii Ageev, the son of the local party secretary, so we could never freely celebrate Easter or Christmas. However, UPA members continued to lead us. All of my classmates, except the children of party officials, produced and distributed anti-Soviet leaflets that contained appeals to stay away from collective farms and the Komsomol. One very cold day I wasn’t able to put up all of my leaflets in public places, so I sneaked into our house, climbed into the attic, and hid them among the onions near the chimney. A few days later my mother found them and got very scared. She knew that if these leaflets had been found, we would have been exiled to Siberia.

“In 1949 I finished school and enrolled at the Lviv Institute of Commerce and Economics. I already had links to OUN circles. At this time Commander Holovatiuk was arrested, and I brought him parcels to the prison. This was very dangerous because we were constantly checked and questioned. I have always been grateful to him because, despite the fact that he was tortured, he did not betray me.”

Today veterans of the Soviet army and OUN/UPA fighters cannot shake hands with one another. Do you seek equal status with former Soviet soldiers?

“We don’t formulate this question that way. We would like to be recognized as one of the combatants in the fight for Ukraine’s independence, but we will not agree to equal status. Yes, this idea has been circulated, but it is very hard to put it into practice now.”

You set up your own museum in honor of Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. Did you ever meet them?

“No, I didn’t associate with such high-level leaders. I only knew Dmytro Kliachkivsky, who was killed in Transcarpathia. A monument to him has been erected in Zbarazh, and I know that funds are being raised to erect another one in Transcarpathia, where he died. I also met Ihor Kokurik, who commanded the battle in the village of Antonivtsi, which neither the Germans nor the Soviets were able to capture and where the so-called Antonivska Republic was formed. Now there is a museum in this glorious village.”

Do you keep in touch with your former comrades?

“I keep in touch with Kateryna and Halyna Kachan, who are members of the OUN-UPA Brotherhood, like me, and with Nazar Holovatiuk.”

You were born in Volyn. How did you end up in Kyiv?

“I graduated from the Lviv Institute of Commerce and Economics and was about to be dispatched to work as a merchandise specialist in Boryslav. But I really wanted to be a teacher. A representative from the Ministry of Trade advised me to go to Kyiv and have my job assignment changed. I went to the capital, found the Ministry of Trade, and saw Burlakov, the deputy trade minister. We talked and then he left his office. When he returned, he said: ‘Come with me to the minister.’ The minister was Vasyl Porfyrovych from Zaporizhia. He talked with me for a while and then said: ‘What if we offered you a job in the ministry?’

“I couldn’t make up my mind by myself, so I went home to my village of Vyshnevets to get my parents’ advice. One of my acquaintances said: ‘Look, everyone is dying to get a place in Kyiv, and you can’t make up your mind? Accept the offer immediately.’ So I agreed and began working in the ministry as an inspector in a department that oversaw educational institutions. After a while I was sent to work as a deputy head of a trade college. At one point I received an invitation to join the Central Committee, but I couldn’t work there because I had links with the OUN underground in Kyiv.”

Did your husband know that you had helped OUN members?

“For about 20 years he did not know that I was a member of an underground organization. At the same time I was not aware that his father had been repressed. These kinds of things were very sensitive issues at the time. It was only after Ukraine regained its independence that I told my husband that I was a Banderite, and he told me that he was the son of a repressed man. Before independence this topic was taboo.”

How do you celebrate Oct. 14, the date of the founding of the UPA?

“Our Brotherhood celebrates this holiday in a very solemn way. We sing Banderite songs, such as “Lenta za lentoiu naboi podavai, ukrainskyi pov­stanche, v boiu ne vidstupai!” (Pass the cartridge belts!). We remember all of our comrades in arms. Many of them are no longer alive, but we pay tribute to them.”