Lviv region marks the 70th anniversary of UPA

The Day has already reported that Lviv Oblast Council has announced year 2012 the Year of UPA, to mark the 70th anniversary of Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The events dedicated to the anniversary include the International Research Conference “Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the context of the national liberation struggle of peoples of Central-Eastern Europe,” which starts today.

The conference, attended by scholars from Ukraine, France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Lithuania, will discuss the actual problems of the history of Ukrainian national-liberation movement of the mid-1900s and its effect on forming the current sociopolitical situation in Ukraine. Within the framework of the conference on September 28, at 4:30 p.m. the Museum-Memorial to the Victims of Occupation Regimes “Prison on Lontskoho Street” will screen the movie Father Kadylo, a documentary about Greek-Catholic priest Vasyl Shevchuk, who in 1945-48 was the chaplain of UPA Przemysl kurin in Zakerzonnia and while staying with Hromenka, Burlaky, Krylacha, and Lastivka sotnias, chanted field liturgies, administered confessions of the warriors, buried those who were killed during the battles, and took care of believers who were left without pastors due to war circumstances.

The admission to the film is free. As the museum’s press service told The Day, the shooting took place in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, and Canada, and owing to the assistance of the National Memory Institute (Poland) the shooting crew has processed the materials of Rev. Vasyl Shevchuk’s criminal case, which were unavailable for a long while. The movie presents these materials for the first time, shedding light on the priest’s last year of life in Rzeszow Prison. The movie Father Kadylo is a joint production of Ukrainska kinoinitsiatyva and ad and production center Star TV.