- Mykola Lebed
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Mykola Lebed Born 1909
Galicia, Austro-Hungarian EmpireDied July 18, 1998
Pittsburgh, PA, United StatesNationality Ukrainian Other names Maksym Ruban, Marko or Yevhen Skyrba Occupation Politician Mykola Lebed (Ukrainian: Микола Лебідь; 1909 - July 18, 1998), also known as Maksym Ruban, Marko or Yevhen Skyrba, was a Ukrainian political activist, Ukrainian nationalist and guerrilla fighter.[1] He was among those tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the murder, in 1936, of Polish Interior Minister Bronislaw Pieracki. The court sentenced him to death, but the state commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. He escaped when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939.[2] As leader of OUN-B he is responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.[3] [4]
In 1949 he emigrated to the United States and lived in New York. Through Prolog Research Corporation, his Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funded organization, he gathered intelligence on the Soviet Union as late as into the late 1960s. In 1991, the CIA still considered him a valuable asset. Federal investigators would consider Lebed a possible war criminal but did not pursue prosecution. He died in 1998.[5]
Contents
Early life
Born in Novi Strilyscha, a small town in Galicia, nowadays western part of Ukraine (at the time, Austria–Hungary), Lebed completed his studies in Lviv which during the Interbellum was part of the Second Polish Republic. In 1930-32 he took an active part in setting up youth groups of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in the area around Lviv. From 1932-34 he directed communications between the Ukrainian Executive and the Foreign Command of the OUN.
In 1934, he participated in the preparation of the assassination of the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Bronisław Pieracki. After the assassination he attempted to flee through Gdansk-Szczecin to Germany, but by order of Himmler was arrested by the Gestapo and handed over to the Polish authorities[6]. During the Warsaw Process (1934–36) he was given the death penalty which was later commuted to life imprisonment. He escaped from prison in August 1939.
World War II
In 1940, during the internal conflict that erupted within the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) he supported Stepan Bandera, and, in 1941, became his assistant. In June 1941, he was one of the functionaries in the short-lived Ukrainian government of Yaroslav Stetsko. The groups briefly collaborated with the anti-Soviet Nazi Germans. He was once again arrested by the Germans.[citation needed] In 1941-43 he organized three conferences for the OUN.
Lebed assumed control of Bandera's faction of the OUN in western Ukraine, which would come to dominate the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) until 1943.[7] In 1941-44, he negotiated with the Armja Krajowa on a joint fight against the Nazi.[citation needed]
In 1942, he was a participant in the 3rd Special Conference of the OUN, and headed the head council and the delegate for external contacts of the Direction of the OUN. In 1944 he became one of the founders of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (UHVR) and the general Secretary of International Policies of the UHVR. At the recommendation of the UHVR he traveled to the West where he contacted various Western governments. In 1948, he became a member of the OUN (Diaspora).
Alleged Collaboration with Nazi Germany
In the publication of government report published by the National Archives[2] he suspected in collaboration with Nazi Germany.
On the one hand about Mykola Lebed it was written that he was also a "Ukrainian fascist leader and suspected Nazi collaborator",[8] and Lebed was later labeled a "well-known sadist and collaborator of the Germans" by United States Army counterintelligence.[1]
On another hand Lebed it was written, that Lebed persecuted by the Gestapo: "it (OUN/B) fought German rule, and the Gestapo put a price on Lebed’s head."[7]
Post-war activities
From 1949, Lebed lived in the United States. In 1952-1974 he headed the research center "Prologue" in New York where from in 1982-85 he was Deputy Chairman and since 1974 he was a Member of the Board of Directors. In 1956-91 he was a member of the board of the Ukrainian Society of Foreign Studies in Munich and Toronto publishing committee "Chronicle of the UPA (1975). Author memories "UPA" (1946, 1987).
References
- ^ a b Roberts, Sam (11 December 2010). "Declassified Papers Show U.S. Recruited Ex-Nazis". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- ^ a b Breitman, Richard; Norman J.W. Goda (2010). Hitler's Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, US Intelligence, and the Cold War. National Archives. p. 73. http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/hitlers-shadow.pdf. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
- ^ Lebed proposed in April to “cleanse the entire revolutionary territory of the Polish population,” so that a resurgent Polish state would not claim the region as in 1918. Richard Breitman, Norman J.W. Goda, Hitler's Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, U.S. Intelligence, and the Cold War page 75.
- ^ Timothy Snyder. (2004) The reconstruction of nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 . New Haven: Yale University Press pp. 164-165
- ^ Cristian Salazar and Randy Herschaft (12 December 2010). "Revealed: How the CIA protected Nazi murderers". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/revealed-how-the-cia-protected-nazi-murderers-2158071.html. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
- ^ Żeleński W. (1973). Zabójstwo ministra Pierackiego.. http://books.google.com/books?id=07EbAAAAMAAJ&dq.
- ^ a b Breitman, Richard; Norman J.W. Goda (2010). Hitler's Shadow: Nazi War Criminals, US Intelligence, and the Cold War. National Archives. p. 74. http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/hitlers-shadow.pdf. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
- ^ Salazar, Christian and Herschaft, Randy (2010-12-11) Declassified CIA Files Detail Ties Between U.S. And Ex-Nazis, Associated Press
Further reading
- (In Russian) Chuyev, Sergei - Ukrainskyj Legion - Moscow, 2006
- Ihor yeremeyev: The organizer of Ukrainian Special services
Categories:- 1909 births
- 1998 deaths
- Contractees of the Central Intelligence Agency
- Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
- People from Zhydachiv Raion
- Ukrainian Nazi collaborators
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