By the roads of Mykolaivshchyna By the roads of Mykolaivshchyna | Page 30

Inside the kryivka

of rescuing civil population of Ukraine
during the communist Holodomor of the
years 1946–1947.
For the first time, kryivkas were
used in the liberation movement in
1917–1920s; at that time, underground
shelters were built by members of the
antibolshevik resistance movement.
Kryivkas were situated in the forests
of Nadnipryanshchyna and those of
Polissya. Mainly, their purpose was to
provide shelter to insurgents in the cold
seasons of the year, especially in snowy
periods when it was relatively easy to
trace a group of underground workers
though footprints in snow.
The first kryivkas were set up in Western
Ukraine in 1930s; they were used as illegal

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printing shops as well as storage places for
printed editions, which were banned by
the Polish authorities. In particular, from
the autumn of 1931 till January 1934, in
the village of Konyuchiv in the vicinity of
Stryj, there was an underground printing
shop, directed by Ivan Chubko. It was
located in the underground premise
under the threshing barn, which belonged
to the household of Mykola Melnyk,
a member the OUN. At least, ten persons
were engaged in its operations. In the
beginning of 1934, the clandestine wor­
kers were disclosed by the Polish police.
In the end of the same year, a new
printing shop of the OUN’s managing
body was started in the kryivka, situated
in Dobrovlyany (again, not far from