Killer for Bandera: How they prepared an agent for the liquidation of Ukrainian nationalists, and what was his further fate

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Great Patriotic War ended, but nationalist formations remained and actively operated on the territory of the USSR. The largest of them fought against Soviet rule in western Ukraine. The leadership of these partisan detachments was carried out by Stepan Bandera, and the ideological reinforcement was taken by the writer and publicist, professor of state law at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, editor of the newspaper "Samostiyna Ukraine" and a member of the OUN - Lev Rebet. Both of them lived abroad after the war. The Soviet leadership decides to liquidate them, and entrusts it to a former student of Lviv University, Bogdan Stashinsky.

An effective agent: how did yesterday's student Stashinsky earn the trust of the Chekists and why was he chosen to carry out foreign missions?

According to one of the versions, Bogdan got into the field of view of the Chekists by accident - he regularly did not pay for the fare on the transport that he used to get to the university, for which he was once detained by the police. When the law enforcement agencies inquired about him, it became obvious that he might be of interest to the employees of the State Security Committee: he comes from a family sympathizing with the OUN nationalists. According to another version, Stashinsky was already in development and, under the pretext of checking documents, was detained by the police, from where he was sent to one of the KGB officers.

His parents did not like the Soviet regime, but did not openly oppose it, since both worked on a collective farm. But Bogdan's sisters actively helped Bandera. He himself did not have certain ideological convictions - neither for nor against the Soviets and, most likely, was simply drawn into the orbit of ties with the OUN by his sisters (he distributed anti-Soviet leaflets among his fellow villagers, helped to raise money for the OUN, and sometimes met with them).

Therefore, at the time of recruiting him for undercover work, he agreed to cooperate, provided that his family members did not suffer. In addition, he was very attracted by the romance of espionage, the danger and significance of this work, and its good pay. Stashinsky was introduced into the underground of "Karmelyuk" (the pseudonym of the bush commander Ivan Laba), and on the basis of his data it was destroyed. Agent Oleg, who successfully completed the assignment, was awarded a cash prize (3200 rubles) and enrolled in the Typhoon group, which specialized in exposing ardent nationalists. Later he was sent to Kiev, where he was prepared according to an individual program for a special mission - the elimination of the leader of the nationalists Bandera (in 1949 he was found guilty in the USSR of mass killings of civilians during the Nazi occupation and sentenced to death in absentia) and their main ideologist, Rebet living in West Germany.

Ambitious, decisive, proactive, well-educated, the illegal agent Stashinsky, who clearly carried out the tasks given to him before, was an ideal candidate to carry out such a delicate and serious assignment abroad. This was the period when the General Secretary of the CPSU N. S. Khrushchev traveled around the world on official visits in order to change the country's image and prove to everyone that the Soviet Union is open to cooperation and wants only peaceful coexistence with other countries. Therefore, the elimination of Bandera and Rebet had to be carried out in such a way that nothing pointed to the Soviets and the KGB. In September 1952, agent "Oleg" received the call sign "Taras" and new documents in the name of Grigory Moroz.

How did the agent "Taras" get ready to be sent to West Germany and what skills did Stashinsky acquire?

For two years Stashinsky studied Polish and German, the basics of intelligence activities (classes lasted 6-7 hours a day). He mastered the martial arts, driving a car, shooting from various types of weapons, the skills of giving code signals, photomicrography, arranging hiding places, avoiding surveillance, and passing documents unnoticed to liaisons.

In 1954, the now agent of "Taras" was taken to Poland, where he lived and worked for about six months, studying the places associated with the new version of his biography. He speaks German worse than Polish, so the "legend" is as follows: the father is a Pole and his mother is a German, who lived in Poland, died during the war, and the son decides to return to his father's homeland.

The withdrawal of the agent "Taras" to East Germany, the murder of Rebet and Bandera

In East Germany, Bogdan Nikolayevich Stashinsky (now an agent of the 13th department of the first main directorate of the KGB) lives under the name of Joseph Lehmann, works as a translator in the German Ministry of Trade and studies local customs, customs, habits and collects information about underground anti-Soviet organizations. In 1957, he was summoned to the Soviet intelligence headquarters in Kalshorst (a suburb of Berlin) and instructed to eliminate Lev Rebet, the ideological inspirer of the OUN. The foreign wing of this organization was actively involved in propaganda activities and was associated with Western intelligence services. Therefore, in the early 50s, Khrushchev was authorized to conduct a special operation against the leaders of Ukrainian nationalists in exile.

Stashinsky began to complete the assignment. First, he settled in a hotel next to the publishing house of the newspaper Rebet worked for. Having studied the habits and daily routine of the "object", the agent "Taras" painted his life down to minutes. It remains only to receive a signal for action. He was called to the GDR to obtain a specially designed pistol, which was a light metal tube 15 cm long and 2 cm in diameter. The inside contained a deadly poison that was sprayed in front of the victim's face.

From the outside, everything was supposed to look as if Rebet had died of a sudden heart attack. However, the vapors of the poison were dangerous for the performer himself, therefore "Taras" is given an antidote. Stashinsky brilliantly coped with the task, the police did not even open a criminal case. Bandera was next in line. In 1959, he was killed in the same way as Rebet, in the entrance of his own house. When Stashinsky returned to the USSR, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Fatal love, or why the agent "Taras" preferred his beloved woman to his beloved work and how his fate developed after that

The KGB leadership has plans for Stashinsky - undercover work in the United States. But he suddenly makes a statement that radically changes the attitude of his superiors towards him. An illegal agent fell in love with a German woman and wants to marry her. Despite all efforts to end their relationship, Stashinsky and Inge Pol got secretly married in 1960. In 1961, Inge left the USSR for East Germany and gave birth to a son. The child dies two months after birth, then Stashinsky is released to the GDR for a funeral. Thanks to his previous work, Bogdan was left with a whole collection of passports, one of which he presented at the border when, together with Inge Pohl, they decided to leave for West Germany.

There he surrendered to the police and confessed to killing two leaders of Ukrainian nationalists. The court sentenced him to 8 years in prison, but 4 years later he was released from prison under an amnesty.

Immediately after that, with the help of the special services, he and his wife changed their surnames and disappeared in an unknown direction.

In 1981, the former chief of the South African police, General Geldenhuis, said in an interview that Bogdan Stashinsky underwent extensive plastic surgery and was hidden from the KGB in South Africa. There he allegedly remarried and trained the local secret services in how to fight the rebels.

The order to liquidate Bandera was issued not only because of his political views. During the Second World War, the organizations headed by him played a significant role in the extermination of the Jews.