Styrian Stepan.In the fight against Moscow agents.Munich, 1980

“The enemy for us is an enemy against whom we must all fight.”

S. Mechnyk [Stepan Mudryk-Mechnyk]. In the fight against Moscow agents.

Munich: Ukrainian Publishing House, 1980. — 176 pp. Print run not stated.

In a paper-covered publisher’s binding: on the front cover, within a thin black frame, is a black-and-grey caricature showing a fist with the OUN emblem throwing aside figures in caps labeled “KGB” and “CPSU,” chained to a sack labeled “murders,” “provocations,” “espionage,” “sabotage”; the author’s surname and the first word of the title are in black, “Moscow agents” in red. The back cover is plain. There are creases in the paper in the upper left corner of the front cover and in the corners of the back cover, as well as minor soiling and light scratches on the back cover. The text block is firm and sewn; the paper is white, without yellowing, and there is no loss. There are no inscriptions, stamps, or marginalia. Condition: very good.

Published during the author’s lifetime. The book has historical and cultural value and is of collector’s interest.

INFORMATION

The book was written by a man who himself headed the OUN’s counterintelligence—and it is divided in two. The first part, “Notes from the Underground Struggle,” is presented as a fictionalized account of young people who came to the Security Service in 1940–1941: it features Mykola Arsenych, Tsurkovsky, Ivan Mitrin, and Yulka Kotyk, the regional leader of the Zubazh-Sokal region, with each name accompanied by a footnote stating the year and position. The second part, “Emigration,” collects facts about the work of Soviet special services against the organized Ukrainian community in the West. In the preface, the author lists the names of the agencies that the same apparatus successively changed: VChK, OGPU, NKVD-NKGB, MGB, KGB.

Stepan Mudryk (1919–2004), who signed his books with the pseudonym Mechnyk, was born in the village of Kryve in the Radkivshchyna region. A member of the OUN from 1937, he joined the Security Service of the OUN(b) in 1940 and served as a secret courier between Galicia and the Kraków center; in 1941, as part of mobile groups, he served in Zhytomyr and Kyiv, and in 1942 joined the Kyiv Regional Command, becoming deputy commander of the UPA “Buh-2” military district. In November 1943, he was arrested by the Nazis and imprisoned in a concentration camp. From 1945, he lived in West Germany, and from 1951, he served in the leadership of the Security Service of the OUN’s Foreign Parts; from 1965 to 1991, he headed the OUN(b) regional command in West Germany. He died in Neu-Ulm.

This is the first of his books to establish the historiography of the special services of the OUN and UPA; it was followed by “From the Oprichnina to the KGB,” “In the Prolonged Struggle,” “Studying the Enemy,” and “For Our Independence”—all published by the Munich-based “Ukrainian Publishing House,” the official publishing center of the Bandera movement in emigration. At the end of the preface, it is noted that the publication was funded by donations from two individuals—V. Roman from Germany, a long-time member of the OUNr, and Hryhorii Kuts from Sweden; no print run is stated, which is customary for publications funded in this way. The publication year is given differently in various sources: the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Ukraine and most citations state 1980, while the Ukrainian Wikipedia states 1981; this copy’s title page bears the year 1980.