Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

Fate of the Memberrs of the Ukrainian Insurget Army and Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists interned in Czechoslovakia during the action B/The Great Raid to the West

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2022

Abstract

The article provides information on the topic of prisoners of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army imprisoned in Czechoslovakia during the so called "Action B" or "The Great Raid to the West" which occured in 1947. The first part describes the problematic of occurence of the UPA raiding units in Czechoslovakia after the Second World War, the problematic of caught courriers of OUN and terms and conditions in and under which the prisoners were kept in as well as agreements between Poland and Czechoslovakia regarding these people, legally Polish citizens in most cases, and obligation of Czechoslovakia to both these people and Poland.

In second part, the article presents intentions of the Czechoslovaka side regarding the future of these captured people and the processes that lead to their extradition to Poland as well as the extradition plans and their evolution. The last part consists of fates of these people after having been extradited to Poland and Czechoslovaka-Polish actions in later extraditions and searchings for those who managed to evade capture.

The author also analyses why the original intentions of the Czechoslovak side were not realized. The annexes present lists of captured Ukrainians and their fate in form of tables.