By the roads of Mykolaivshchyna By the roads of Mykolaivshchyna | Page 32

structure by members of supporters of
the OUN.
In the beginning of the German
occupation, underground ammunition
depots were equipped in the same way. In
1943, when a number of rebellion units
went up, kryivkas, used for storing foods,
clothes, shoes, personal care items etc.,
were put into operation.
After the restoration of the Soviet
power, especially in the end of the
1940s, a number of kryivkas increased
again. Those dugouts became highly
instrumental during the winter blockades
of forests by the NKVD.
The need to increase a number
kryivkas was satisfied at the expense
of their quality. Often, kryivkas were
primitive, poorly camouflaged structures,
and, as a result, were discovered by the
NKVD and by the SMERSH. Like in the
previous years, they, mostly, served as
storage facilities.
Only in the spring of 1944, 530
kryivkas, used as storage facilities (for
weapons: 135; for foods: 369; for military
equipment: 26) were revealed in Volyn
by the SMERSH unit of the 1st Ukrainian
front. Almost 170 тоns of grain,
17 tons of salt, and 29 tons of other
foods were kept in those facilities.
Insurgents constructed kryivkas where
they manage to accommodate four
automobiles, 12 guns, 35 mortars,
almost 1,000 units of small arms,
hundreds of thousands of cartidges,
thousands of grenades, mines etc.
On the whole, in the year 1944, more
than 800 of kryivkas-storage facilities
were disclosed by the NKVD and the

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SMERSH in Volyn, which means prior
to the time when the Soviet power was
established at least 1,000 big shelters
had been constructed in the area.
In the process of kryivkas’ cons­
truction, one had to adhere strictly to
the rules of conspiracy. Thus, every
dugout was built by underground
workers, who would later stay there. So,
apart from them, nobody was supposed
to know where a site was located. Earth
was either thrown into a nearby river
or taken out to a freshly tilled field. The
site for a dugout was selected according
to such criteria as inconspicuousness,
inaccessibility for the enemy as well as
availability of an opportunity to retreat.
Therefore, an underground shelter
could be located either in the forest or
in a settlement.
Kryivkas varied in size and form:
some of them were small shelters
which could accommodate one or two
insurgents whereas the others had
several spacious rooms. The latter were
situated in the mountainous area, and
were inaccessible for the NKVD units.
Therefore, they were never revealed, and
functioned till the middle of the 1950s.
Here is a how a big kryivka is
described by an underground worker
M. Savchyn:
“Almost the whole bunker was hidden
underground. In front of the window, an
open square pit was left. The daylight got
into the pit, and from there inside the bunker. It was really very important to have
daylight. First of all, it was good for protection of eyes; and apart from that, one
did not have to stock a lot of oil (and at