OUN Women’s Network in Urych

Фото учасниці жіночої стіки ОУН в Уричі - Дарії Миколаївни Лобик з її архівно-кримінальної справи.

Since the beginning of its existence, the OUN attracted girls and women to its ranks. But in 1944, the participation of women in the activities of this organization reached its apogee. It was then that the OUN leadership made a number of decisions to expand the women’s network. Since then, a mass call of women to the underground began. For this purpose, village, subdistrict, district, county and regional women's leaderships of the OUN were created. Such mass involvement of women was due to the fact that men were no longer able to safely stay in a legal position and fully perform the tasks assigned to them. Women’s networks united women and girls and had clearly defined functions of information and intelligence, educational and advocacy, health and supply and household character.

“The OUN Women’s Network in Urych was established in December 1944. The initiator of the creation was Stepan Pekhiv (pseudonym "Chornyi", "Chernenko"), who served as the OUN station man in Urych. He also appointed Anna Petrivna Synyshyn as the head of the women’s network, who was subordinate to him and performed his tasks”.

About 20 women belonged to the women's network in the OUN. All of them “came from peasant families, were unmarried and had only primary education or were illiterate. Most of them belonged to the women’s network for only a few months, from the establishment in December 1944 to the arrests in March 1945. The member women of the organization performed auxiliary functions of supply and information and intelligence character”.