The Hrubieszów Revolution (Polish: Rewolucja hrubieszowska, Ukrainian: Грубешівська революція, romanized: Hrubeshivska revoliutsiia; March — April, 1944) was a series of armed clashes in Hrubieszów and Tomaszów Counties between the Home Army and Peasant Battalions, on one side, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Ukrainian Self-defense Kushch Units, Ukrainian Legion of Self-Defense, and the 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen–SS “Galicia”
In January and February 1944, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carried out anti–Polish attacks in Lublin Voivodeship, as it had, in 1943, in Volhynia and eastern Galicia. In response, in March and April 1944 the Home Army and Peasant Battalions carried out retaliatory actions against the Ukrainian armed units.
This in turn led to entry, into the area, of the Ukrainian Self-defense Kushch Units, Ukrainian Legion of Self-Defense, and 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen–SS “Galicia”, resulting in intensification of anti–Polish actions and of the Polish–Ukrainian ethnic conflict.
Background
In 1943, Polish partisans fearing that the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's terror would spread into the Lublin Voivodeship started attacking local Ukrainian activists, however these were not mass crimes, but executions carried out on designated individuals. In response Ukrainian police units started pacification of Polish villages and Polish partisans started pacification of Ukrainian villages turning into a vicious circle. The conflict in 1943 in the region lead to the execution of 456 Ukrainians, 286 of whom were, in Bozyk's words, 'nationally aware peasants'. The remaining group included Orthodox priests, Ukrainian national activists and officers of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police.
At the beginning of 1944, fears began to grow on the Polish side that the events of Volhynia would be repeated in the Lublin region. The Ukrainians, on the other hand, intensified the creation of village self-defences in villages located between the Bug River and the strip of villages: Uchanie, Bereść, Hostynne, Werbkowice, Wronowice, Miętkie, Telatyn, Chodywańce. In these villages, in order to increase the effectiveness of the UNS units, bunkers were built and trenches dug However, in January there were only isolated mutual assaults, with several casualties on both sides.
The conflict escalated again the following month. Throughout the month, Ukrainian partisan units and police officers carried out attacks on Poles, with several people falling victim to each (villages of Medycze, Terebiniec, Pielaki, Turka). On 22 February, a group of Poles, whom Grzegorz Motyka considers criminals, killed six Ukrainians in Cichobórz and robbed two more. In response, the Ukrainians killed eight Poles two days later whom they suspected of having committed this crime. The course of events in Małków on 3, 8 or 13 February was unclear. According to Polish studies, the "Rysia" unit prevented a unit of the 14th SS Grenadier Division from pacifying this village; according to Ukrainian studies, it committed a crime against 14 civilian Ukrainians. Grzegorz Motyka claims that both theses may be true. However Polish attacks on detachments of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police continued. On 28 February, AK units, after a fierce battle with Ukrainian self-defence, burnt down the villages of Liski and Kościaszyn. The losses of both sides are unknown.
In view of the development of the situation, the Zamość Inspectorate of the Home Army decided to evacuate the Polish civilian population to the districts of Bilgoraj, Zamojski, Chelm, Krasnostawski and the western part of Tomaszowski, to strengthen Polish self-defence in the remaining area and to launch a coordinated attack on the area occupied by the Ukrainians. At the beginning of March, the evacuation plan was launched, but was only partially carried out due to the reluctant attitude of the Polish population. The decision to carry out a mass action against Ukrainian villages in the Hrubieszów district was not unanimous. Opponents of the action feared its political consequences and a further aggravation of Polish-Ukrainian relations in the area. As the forces in the Hrubieszów district were too weak to carry out the operation, the commanders of the Tomaszów and Zamość districts were obliged to provide assistance to the Hrubieszów district troops. In the first days of March, a detailed plan of action was discussed in Steniatin. In the first place the Polish units were to attack Mieniany, Kryłów, Mircze, Dołhobyczów, Chorobrów, Krystynopol, Sahryń, Waręż, Bełz.
Conflict
The 10th of March offensive
Polish preparation
In the evening of 7 March 1944, in the forest Lipowiec near Tyszowce, a concentration of the Tomaszów AK troops took place, in the strength of about 1200 soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Zenon Jachymek "Wiktor". A second grouping of about 800 soldiers was commanded by Lieutenant Eugeniusz Sioma "Lech". The next day there was an attack by the 5th SS Police Regiment, supported by local Ukrainian self-defence members, on the village of Prehoryłe. The attackers were repulsed by the 1st BCh Battalion, which then set fire to the farms of Ukrainians living in the village. The number of victims is not established, but most likely more were killed on the Polish side. The local AK, based on the obtained intelligence, anticipated another Ukrainian attack on 16 March. A pre-emptive attack on 9–10 March was planned by Hrubieszów District commander Marian Gołębiewski, despite the opposition of the Peasant Battalions. The Home Army planned to capture Sahryń, Uhrynow, Szychowice and Łaskow on the aforementioned days.
The attack on Sahryń
Prior to the attack on Sahryń, Polish troops surrounded the village and isolated it from the neighbouring villages, which were dominated by Ukrainians, making it impossible for them to warn Sahryń's inhabitants. Polish soldiers shelled the village with tracer rounds, setting buildings on fire.
The attackers were resisted only by the station's staff, and there were exchanges of fire near the church, in the cemetery and by the station building itself. The resistance of the policemen was broken quite quickly. Whereas Ukrainian self-defence quickly fled the battlefield. According to some Ukrainian accounts, the police officers were outside the police station at the time of the attack. They may have been the ones who defended themselves in the church and cemetery. Afterwards, several of them retreated in the direction of Werbkowice. Armed Ukrainians, if not killed in combat, were shot on the spot.
After entering the village, the Poles also killed civilian Ukrainian residents. The Ukrainians they encountered were killed with gunshots, and grenades were also thrown into hiding places on farms. Usually the identity of the civilians was checked to avoid killing Poles, but there were also cases of residents being shot at without warning. The entire attack ended at around 2 p.m. According to data written down by a local priest, the attackers destroyed the Orthodox church, parish buildings and 280 houses. Zajączkowski writes that the village burned almost to the ground.
The attack on Łasków and Szychowice
After capturing Sahryń Stanisław Basaj's unit attacked Szychowice which was defended by a 200 man unit. as a result of the attack on Szychowice the village was captured, and the local Ukrainian population was killed.
Stefan Kwaśniewski says this about the attack on Szychowice:
Our attack so vigorously overran the village area that it was simply impossible to organise a practically effective defence.
After capturing Szychowice the Poles attacked Łasków. The attack resulted in the dispersal of the Ukrainian unit defending it and the killing of the local Ukrainian population. However, the Ukrainians from the 5th SS Police Regiment launched a counterattack which was repulsed by Polish forces.
Outcome of the offensive
The offensive was a massive success for Polish forces who captured the Ukrainian nationalist bases. The number of Ukrainians killed that day ranges from 700 to even 1,969 killed. Polish loses were only 2 killed and 3 wounded. In Łasków and Szychowice the Ukrainians and Germans lost a total of 120 SS-men, 20 German gendarmes, 50 Ukrainian policemen and many UPA and USN nationalists were wounded. Zajączkowki writes that in Łasków, both military and civilian casualties totaled to 300 killed.
Conflict at March
However, this was not the end of the Polish-Ukrainian fighting. On 16 March, the "Ciąga" unit, with the support of several squads from Uchanie and Trzeszczany, captured Bereść by deception, pretending to be Germans and thus taking over the Ukrainian guardhouse. Another 200-300 Ukrainians were killed in Bereść members of the self-defence and civilians.The AK and BCH units continued their offensive operations, albeit on a smaller scale, and so on 19 March the villages of Modryń, Modryniec, Masłomęcz, Mieniany, Cichobórz and Kosmów were attacked, destroying Ukrainian defences. According to Polish accounts, civilian Ukrainians had already fled the villages mentioned at the time of the attacks, but Grzegorz Motyka is of the opinion that at least a few victims fell. The same author claims that one and a half thousand Ukrainians were killed during the entire AK operation, although such high losses among the civilian population were not the intention of the command of the attacking units.
A series of reprisal attacks immediately followed. On 9 March, unknown perpetrators (possibly Ukrainian policemen) shot three Poles in Grabowiec. Over the next three days, there were killings of Poles in the colonies of Kosmów and Romanów and in the villages of Masłomęcz, Rzeplin, Zaborce and Korczów, as well as on the road from Hrubieszów to Grabowiec. On 15 March, a UNS unit murdered 33 people at the narrow-gauge railway station in Gozdów. On 17 March, in Oszczów, as a result of Polish-Ukrainian fighting, 23 Polish villagers and a whole group of Ukrainians living there were killed. The village buildings were completely destroyed.
Ukrainian response
A major counter-offensive by the UPA army began on 16 March, when the "Halajda" regiment entered the Zamojszczyzna region from the south. It was located in the then communes of Tarnoszyn, Telatyn and Poturzyn. Kureń broke the resistance of the AK units (especially in Tarnoszyn), capturing Tarnoszyn, Dyniska, Ulhówek and Żabcze. In all localities there were crimes against Polish civilians. The UPA soldiers killed 84, 17, 14 and 30 people. On the 20 March a UNS unit attacked Poturzyn, killing 72 Poles and fending off a defending Hrubieszów company of the Home Army. Lieutenant Zenon Jachymek's unit arrived with relief too late and only managed to shoot those Ukrainians it found in the ruins of the village, engaged in looting. Wiktor's unit split into two groups of 150 men, which set off to Wasylów Mały and Radostów. The first village, where there was no self-defence, was taken by the Home Army without any fight. An unspecified number of Ukrainians with whom weapons were found were shot. However, as in Sahryń, "Wiktor" ordered that civilians be spared. The second group of the AK encountered resistance from Ukrainian self-defence in Kościaszyn, Suszów and Liski. According to some accounts, the capture of these villages was combined with the murder of 130 civilian Ukrainians. In addition, the Poles found 18 Polish families who had been hiding in shelters for a long time. On the other hand, atrocities against the Polish population took place in Frankamionka, which was attacked by a unit coming from Volhynia. Several dozen victims were killed; the remaining inhabitants of the village were saved by the arrival of the Home Army "Wiklina" company. On 25–27 March, UNS units destroyed Wasylów, Szczepiatyn and Hubinek, killing 102, 16 and 6 Poles. In response, the 8th company of the Telatyn AK under the command of "Szarfa" attacked Rzeplin, combining the elimination of Ukrainians considered particularly dangerous with the evacuation of Polish villagers. However, the surprise attack failed and a clash between the AK unit and the UNS took place on the spot.