BETWEEN HITLER AND STALIN

TARAS BOROVETS

b. 9 March, 1908, Volyn, d. 15 May 1981, New York

Borovets was a political and military leader in the Ukrainian struggle for independence. He was imprisoned for nationalist activity by the Polish regime, and freed with the fall of Poland in 1939. From 1939-1941 Borovets organized and led a Ukrainian underground in the region of Polisia, occupied by the Soviet regime after the fall of Poland.

After the outbreak of war between Germany and the USSR, the Borovets’ underground organization, now named Polisian Sich, fought Soviet units. Polisian Sich was allied with OUN-Melnyk and the UNR government-in-exile. After the arrest of Bandera and Melnyk by the Germans, Borovets’ organization fought the Germans as well. Polisian Sich was absorbed into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in summer 1943. The Germans arrested Borovets in late 1943 and imprisoned him in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

After the war, Borovets organized the Ukrainian National Guard in West Germany and was editor of its organ Mech i volia, from 1951 to 1953. He immigrated to the United States, where he lived as a private citizen.