Museum of UPA Commander-in-Chief Opens Near Lviv

On October 28, a museum of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) Commander-in-Chief General Roman Shukhevych opened in the village of Bilohorshcha near Lviv. The museum opened in the building which in 1948- 1950 housed the UPA headquarters. Roman Shukhevych was slain here on March 5, 1950 during an operation by a special KGB squad under the command of Pavel Sudoplatov. The place of General Shukhevych’s burial has not been found to date. The museum has partly recreated the atmosphere of the times when Roman Shukhevych lived there. Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the Shukhevych family, among others to renowned ethnographer Volodymyr Shukhevych and Hetman of the Ukrainian Galicia Army Stepan Shukhevych, who in the 1930s was a lawyer defending underground OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) combatants on trial in Poland. The meeting that followed once more addressed the issue of recognition of UPA activities on the state level. Roman Pankevych, a veteran of the national liberation movement, stated, “The UPA did nothing wrong to the Ukrainian people; thus, we do not seek rehabilitation, we want the state to recognize us as a belligerent in World War II.” The museum to Roman Shukhevych will become a division of Lviv’s historical museum, The Day’s Serhiy MAKHUN reports.