Another day of our journey through Ukraine – filming in the Basovsky Forest, capturing the “kryivkas” (hideouts) of the Ukrainian underground movement.
Kryivkas began to appear in the 1930s when the lands were part of Poland and continued to be used until the late 1950s. The location for a bunker was chosen based on three criteria: concealment, inaccessibility to the enemy, and the possibility of retreat. Sometimes hideouts were found in church domes or in unexpected places like a well’s side hole. Members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) would descend two meters by chain, open a door, and crawl through a tunnel. The household provided food: the housewife would place prepared meals in a bucket, go to the well under the pretense of fetching water, and lower the meal to the door. The network of kryivkas was so dense that in the village of Topilsk in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, they were found in 44 out of 105 houses.
In the spring of 1944 alone, 530 hideouts were discovered in Volhynia. These storage places contained about 170 tons of grain, 29 tons of other products, nearly a thousand firearms, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition. The hardest part was hiding the excavated soil, which was either dumped into a nearby river or spread on freshly plowed fields. Some hideouts accommodated several people who wouldn’t leave for months, especially in winter, to avoid leaving traces in the snow. They had multiple exits, beds, toilet rooms, storage for provisions, medicines, and weapons, ventilation systems, a supply of firewood, oil, and even autonomous wells. To maintain morale, a strict daily schedule was followed, with time dedicated to intense military and covert operations training. Entering such a hideout, everyone understood it could become their grave at any moment.
When the NKVD discovered a hideout, they would surround it and offer the underground fighters a chance to surrender. Upon refusal, they would begin shooting and throwing grenades. Sometimes, to capture the insurgents alive, paralyzing gas was used. For the worst-case scenario, the insurgents always had one last bullet saved for themselves.
