Mariia Kushnirchuk

Mariia Mykolaivna Kushnirchuk (Ukrainian: Марія Миколаївна Кушнірчук; 27 June 1926 – 14 June 2005) was a volunteer and liaison officer of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and a victim of Soviet (1947–1954) camps. She was a wife of the public nationalist figure and OUN veteran Ivan Proshak.

Biography Mariia Kushnirchuk was born on 27 June 1926 in the village of Molodiatyn to mixed Polish-Ukrainian family. Her mother, Wanda Rybczyk, was a Polish origin and born in the village of Sloboda-Rungurska (1909–1992). Her father, Mykola Kushnirchuk (1903–1945), was a member of the Soviet Army during the Second World War, held the rank of soldier, and died on 27 April 1945, during the Battle of Berlin.

From 1934 to 1941, she studied at a rural school, where the class teacher was Justyna Shukhevych, a representative of the Shukhevych family.

In autumn 1944, she joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Then she was appointed a food collector for the OUN branch of Molodyatyn, without giving any pseudonym – in fact, she became a volunteer. During 1944–1945, Mariia was able to collect 15 kg of bread and 10 liters of milk – the collection was held twice at that time. Also, in her house, UPA soldiers hid from the NKVD invasion in groups of 4–5 people. During the winter, as the NKVD investigation established, she twice participated in the meeting, ruled by, "Skala", where the fighting against the Soviet occupiers was discussed.

On 5 September 1947, the head of the NKVD of the Stanislav region, Krutov, proposed sending the case to a Special Meeting of the USSR MGB and sentencing her to 10 years in labor camps and 5 years of deprivation of rights with confiscation of property. On 29 October, it decided to sentence Mariia Kushnirchuk to 8 years in labor camps, starting from 1 July 1947. Then she was to be sent to the Ust-Vymsk labor camp for logging.

During the Khrushchev thaw, she made attempts to rehabilitate herself by writing a petition to the Prosecutor General of the USSR on 24 December 1955. After that, all former participants in the underground struggle, fellow villagers, and her mother Wanda Kushnirchuk were interrogated. However, some fellow villagers confirmed Ms. Maria's participation in the UPA during interrogations, so the KGB Department of the Stanislav Region refused rehabilitation on 14 October 1957.

After the decisive refusal, Maria Kushnirchuk could no longer pursue higher education, as she remained an "enemy of the people", so she was forced to work as a kitchen assistant and a kindergarten janitor in Vorkuta. On 4 June, this book was represented by local historian Illya Kryvoruchko.