Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army - The Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army

The Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army

To separate his own military formations from such actions on the 20th (or 27th) of July 1943 Bulba issued an order renaming his own UPA into the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army (the name which OUN-B hadadopted in 1941 for future Ukrainian army in Bandera’s Ukraine).

At the end of June 1943 the OUN-B issued an order according to which all Ukrainian nationalistic formation must follow the command of the OUN-B. That order lead to military actions of UPA/OUN-B against UPRA. In August, many of Bulba’s units were absorbed, disarmed or disbanded, and many commanders were killed by UPA Security Service – SB.

On 18 August 1943 Borovets and the UPRA headquarters was surrounded and ambushed by several UPA battalions. Some of UPRA command were captured, some killed – including Borovet’s wife. Borovets and a few of his staff escaped.

On October 5, 1943 Borovets issued an order which claimed “new tactics of UPRA warfare” – move deep underground. In reality, this was the actual disbandment of Borovets' peasants army. The steady loss of men to the rival UPA and the decline in peasant support prompted Borovets to rename his force the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army. However some of UPRA detachments were active even later. In December 1943 they captured and released a senior OUN-B officer. Later, some Soviet sources reported about clashes with UPRA units. In autumn 1944 Soviet authorities reported that an UPRA unit prevented wood-cutting activities in one Polissya county.>