Ivan Litvinchuk

Ivan Litvinchuk (pseudonym: Dubovyi; Іва́н Самі́йлович Литвинчу́к [Ivan Samiilovych Lytvynchuk], Iwan Łytwynczuk; 21 August 1920 - 19 January 1951) was a commander of the military district of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), a war criminal, and a Major. He is believed to have been one of the organizers and initiators of the Volhynian massacre, recognized as a genocide. His units were among the first in Volhynia to begin the extermination of Poles.

Ivan Lytvynchuk
Native name	Іван Литвинчук
Nickname(s)	Dubovyi
Born	21 August 1920 Wołyń Voivodeship Second Polish Republic
Died	19 January 1951 (aged 30) Horokhiv Raion, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Allegiance	Ukrainian Insurgent Army
Branch	Paramilitary
Rank	Colonel
Battles / wars	Eastern Front (World War II) Polish–Ukrainian conflict Volhynian massacre Janowa Dolina massacre Defense of Huta Stepańska and Wyrka Battle of Moczulanka Anti-Soviet Resistance by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army †
Awards	Cross of Combat Merit

Biography

He was born in 1920 in Derman Druha, Volhynia,^[1] into a family of an Orthodox priest (according to other researchers, he was born in Biskupice Ruskie).

He studied at the Volhynian Orthodox Theological Academy in Kremenets. Between 1937 and 1939, he was imprisoned by Polish authorities for underground activities in the OUN.^[2]

In 1943, he organized UPA units in northeastern Volhynia and became the commander of the Military District (WO) UPA "Zahrawa".^[3]

Prosecutor Piotr Zając^[4] and historian Grzegorz Motyka^[5] suggest his possible involvement (together with Dmytro Klyachkivsky and Vasyl Ivakhiv) in the decision to carry out the Volhynian massacre.^{[note 1]} Units under Lytvynchuk's command were among the first in Volhynia to begin the extermination of Poles.^[6] Lytvynchuk directly participated in the destruction of the Janowa Dolina settlement, where his units murdered approximately 600 Poles,^[7] Lytvynchuk was particularly zealous in carrying out the murders of Poles, which he often boasted about.^[8]

He died in 1952 by blowing himself up in a bunker attacked by the NKVD in Horokhiv Raion^[9] in Volyn Oblast.

Commemoration

A Memorial Cross was erected at the site of Ivan Lytvynchuk's death, and a school in the village of Zolochiv, Lviv Oblast was named after him.^[10]

Notes

1. According to Ukrainian historians, there is no confirmation of this fact in OUN-UPA documents, to which Grzegorz Motyka responds by citing the analogous example of the lack of a written order from Stalin regarding the initiation of the Holodomor. See: Причини in Волинська трагедія: що сталося 70 років тому, і чого хоче польська сторона