The underground organization “Obiednannia” (The Union) emerged in 1956 outside of Ukraine—in the Komi ASSR, in the city of Inta. Its members were young men who had just been released from the camps. After serving various terms of 3 to 6 years for connections with the OUN underground, they decided to create a new underground organization based on the principles of the OUN-UPA. The idea for its creation belonged to Yaroslav Hasiuk. The members of “Obiednannia” included Yaroslav Hasiuk, Volodymyr Leoniuk, Volodymyr Zatvarsky, Bohdan Khrystynych, Yaroslav Kobyletsky, Vasyl Buchkovsky, Anton Bulavsky, Mykhailo Hul, and others. Another name for the organization that the reader may encounter is OUN-Pivnich (OUN-North).
The city of Inta remained the organization’s center, but it extended its activities primarily to Ukraine. Members of “Obiednannia” traveled to Ukrainian regions and established cells and a correspondence network for distributing leaflets and other materials. The organization operated in the Lviv, Rivne, Kirovohrad, and Poltava regions. “Obiednannia” had a charter and other program documents. The organization’s goal was to facilitate the overthrow of the Bolshevik occupational authorities and the creation of a Ukrainian independent and unified state. Thus, its goal did not differ from that of the former OUN, but the methods of struggle of “Obiednannia” were educational work, underground seminars, distribution of leaflets, informational collections, pamphlets, and so on. “Obiednannia” had its own homemade portable printing press, made by Vasyl Buchkovsky.
The scope of the organization’s activities was quite significant for that time, and the organization and dedication of its members allowed them to operate for three full years, from 1956 to 1959. In the summer of 1959, arrests of “Obiednannia” members took place. In October 1959, the Supreme Court of the UkrSSR handed down sentences. Y. Hasiuk and V. Leoniuk were sentenced to 12 years in a corrective labor colony (ITK), B. Khrystynych received 10 years of ITK, and V. Zatvarsky and Y. Kobyletsky received 8 and 5 years, respectively. Members of the Kirovohrad cell of “Obiednannia” received the following sentences: A. Bulavsky, 10 years of ITK; Y. Slabyna, 7 years; K. Banatsky, 7 years plus the unserved 8 years of a previous sentence—15 years in total; H. Riabchuk and S. Olenych received up to 3 years.