The activities of the military tribunal of the mia troops of Drohobych region (1947): documentary evidence

Abstract

The aim of the study is to publish and analyze the document on the activities of the Military Tribunal of the MIA troops of Drohobych region in 1947, to show the importance of its scientific use. Methodology is based on the principles of historic, systemic and scientific character, verification, author's objectivity, moderate narrative constructivism, use of general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and specially-historical (historical-genetic, historical and typological, historical and systematic) methods. Scientific novelty lies in the fact that the document on the activities of the Military Tribunal of the MIA troops of Drohobych region in 1947 is published for the first time. In modern historiography this issue is still studied too little. It is shown that the document provides information about the nature of charges, system and terms of punishment, regulatory field, which is extremely important for the objective coverage of the repressive policy of the Stalinist totalitarian regime in Drohobych region in early post-war years. Summary. The document is an important source that helps to recreate the methods of imposing the totalitarian regime in Drohobych region in the early post-war years. It shows that the restoring Soviet authorities relied on the system of punitive-repressive bodies, whose main task was to fight the Ukrainian liberation movement and local population, which supported it. Participation, assistance, support of the OUN and UPA, and just unwillingness to be a snitch, was punished very strictly, for at least 10 years of imprisonment and more, persons who have escaped a forced labour mobilization were subjected to harassment. To a separate category of those who were brought to criminal responsibility belonged employees the military officers of the Soviet punitive-repressive bodies. The number of convicts and the length of sentences indicate the scale of violations among law enforcement officers.