Kozak, Nikolai Vasilievich

Pre-war years

Born in the family of a Greek Catholic priest. He graduated from high school in 1933, studied at the Lviv Polytechnic Institute . He graduated from the courses of the Revision Union of Ukrainian Cooperatives, since 1934 - the seller in the cooperative "Strength" (the city of Valley ) ^[4] . Member of the OUN since 1934. In 1937, he committed an attempt on a professor at the Lviv Institute, who allegedly collaborated with the Polish authorities. On March 3, 1937, he was arrested by the Polish police; on March 1, 1938, he was sentenced by a court of the city of Stry to 10 years in prison (later the term was reduced to 3 years). On September 9, 1939, he escaped from prison, got a job in the Krakow Ukrainian Auxiliary Committee ^[1] .

In World War II

In 1940-1941 he was a district conductor of the OUN in the Lemkovschina. In the summer of 1941, he joined the pro-German marching groups of the OUN (b) , in 1941-1942 he was the regional conductor of the OUN in the Kamenetz-Podolsk (Khmelnytsky) region, in 1942-1943 he was the organizational assistant and conductor of the OUN in the Vinnitsa region, the head of the underground printing house of the OUN ^[1] .

In March 1943, Kozak was appointed referent of the Security Council of the UPA-South group. On September 10, 1943, being a referent for the Security Council “Zagrava”, he signed an order on the exclusive prerogative of the Security Council of the OUN to impose death sentences without coordination with the command staff ^[1] . In August 1944, at a meeting of the leadership of the OUN in the Derazhnyansky district of the Rivne region, he was appointed deputy (or head) of the referent of the Security Council of the regional wire in the South-West Ukraine (South-Western Ukrainian Lands), after which he proceeded to numerous purges in the ranks of the OUN-UPA: according to the NKVD, the Service OUN security in Volyn eliminated more than 1000 participants in the movement who were disloyal to the rebel movement or even collaborated with the Soviet government ^[1] . Many leaders of the UPA “Smok” was considered one of the most cruel and uncompromising figures of the OUN (b), prone to sadism and torture: the last UPA commander Vasily Kuk did not hide his fear of “Smok” ^[3] . Kozak is also credited with the invention of the torture tool “machine tool” ^[1] .

In February 1945, Kozak was appointed the regional referent of the Security Council at the SPZUZ and became editor of the journal For Freedom of the Nation. In 1946-1948 he was a conductor of the OUN SZUZ ^[5] . From March to December 1945 he led the UPA-South group.

After the war

In the post-war years, Smok was engaged in the development of underground tactics in the new post-war conditions. He rose to the rank of Major of the Security Council of the OUN (b) ^[1] . One of the most famous achievements of Smok is considered to be an operational game with the authorities of the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR, during which there was a serious failure of Soviet intelligence ^[1] .

The underground activist Lyudmila "Aprelskaya" Foya , recruited by the NKVD in 1944, played a double game and gave the Security Council of the OUN (b) immediately three NKVD agents - Mikhail "Taran" Zakharzhevsky , Nina "Irina" Kaluzhenko and Ekaterina "Evgenia" Minkovskaya. In August 1945, all three, unaware of the double game of April, went to Volyn to recruit new agents, were kidnapped by order of Kozak and executed after torture ^{[1] [3]} . For this operational game, on October 8, 1945, Smok was awarded the UPA Golden Merit of Merit ^{[6] [7]} .

On May 10, 1946, in an abandoned bunker near the village of Voloshchina, Podgaetsky District (now Berezhansky District ) of the Ternopil Region , the MGB Ukrainian SSR task force found part of the Smoka archive, among the papers there was also a letter on behalf of Maxim OUN Wire in Eastern Ukrainian Lands to Maxim Rylsky ^[3] . Kozak was put on the wanted list and was soon shot dead by fighters of the MGB special group on February 8, 1949 in the village of Petushkov, Mlinovsky District, Rivne Region (according to other sources, he shot himself while trying to detain him) ^{[8] [1] [3]} .

Kozak’s poems written under the pseudonym Stepan Orach ^[1] are preserved.

In Russian

• Ignatov V.D. The activities of the Security Council of the OUN in the documents of the NKVD of the USSR // NKVD-MGB agents against the OUN-UPA . - Veche, 2015 .-- 488 p. - (Military secrets of the XX century). - 2500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-4444-3605-9 .
• Kolpakidi A.I. , Vedeneev D.V. , Chertoprud S.V. Chapter 7. “Special task”. The confrontation with the rebel-underground formations of the Ukrainian nationalist movement // Intelligence Sudoplatova. Front-line sabotage work of the NKVD-NKGB in 1941-1945 . - Algorithm, 2015 .-- 576 p. - (Polite people). - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-906798-15-2 .

In Ukrainian

• Vovk O. A short sketch of the UPA and запї zapyllya on ROM and in adjacent regions from 1943-1946 pp. // Ukrainian arbitrary rukh / Center for the voluntary rukh, Institute of Ukrainian Studies im. І. Krip'yakevich National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. - Lviv, 2006. - Zbirnik 8. - S. 164-224.
• Marchuk I. The formative structure of the UPA-Pivnich // Ukrainian Insurrection Army against all total regimes / Head of editorial board Yaroslav Isaevich, order manager and editor-in-chief Yuriy Slivka (Ukraine: cultural sector, 11, Ukraine) Yakevich National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). - Lviv, 2004 .-- S. 111-120.
• Mirchuk P. Naris Istorii OUN 1920-1939 rock. - K: Ukrainian Vidavnicha Spіlka, 2007 .-- 1008 p. - ISBN 966-410-001-3 .
• Sergiychuk V. І. . Ukrainian Health: Podіllya. 1939-1955. - K.: Ukrainian Vidavnicha Spіlka, 2007 .-- S. 52-56.