Andriy Melnyk

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Andriy Atanasovych Melnyk (Ukrainian: Андрій Атанасович Мельник; 12 December 1890 – 1 November 1964) was a Ukrainian military and political leader best known for leading the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists from 1938 onwards and later the Melnykites (OUN-M) following a split with the more radical Banderite faction (OUN-B) in 1940. Born in Austrian Galicia, Melnyk volunteered in the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen at the outbreak of the First World War and was later captured by the Russians in 1916. He escaped captivity in late 1917 and served as a senior officer in the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic during the Ukrainian War of Independence, rising to the rank of colonel. Melnyk went on to cofound the Ukrainian Military Organisation (UVO) in 1920 that continued the armed struggle against Poland in Western Ukraine and which later formed the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929. Following his time in prison between 1924 and 1928 in connection with the Olha Basarab case, he largely stepped back from active engagement in the UVO–OUN underground. After the assassination of Yevhen Konovalets by the NKVD, Melnyk was selected to lead the OUN and collaborated with Nazi intelligence to plan the largely aborted OUN Uprising of 1939 during the German invasion of Poland. Following the factional split, he continued to direct the OUN-M to collaborate with Nazi Germany during the German invasion of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. However, Melnyk had his movements confined to Berlin from mid-1941, though he would continue to advocate collaboration, and was arrested by the Gestapo in January 1944. He was initially held as a Sonderhaftling in Hirschegg from March, before being moved to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in July. Melnyk was released in October and taken to Berlin in order to negotiate support for the retreating German...