Stepan Koval (born on 01/03/1914 in Korchyn village, Radekhiv district of Lviv region. - 2001, Ivano-Frankivsk) – a cornet of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) (from 08/31/1944). His pseudonyms were “Rubash,” “Rubashenko,” “Rubaschenko,” “Burlaka,” “Yurko,” “Yuriy.” He was a Kurin otaman of UIA.

He was born in the family of middle peasants. In 1930 he received a secondary education in the village school. Since 1930 he learned deaconing. Since 1933 Stepan became an active adherent of UNO. He had a talent for singing, participated in a choir and drama societies of “Prosvita”, conducted a choir. In 1936-1938 he served in artillery of the Polish Army. He was imprisoned there for a term of 5 years for “reading the Ukrainian Literature” and demonstration of “outrage of Ukrainian oppression”. In September 1939 Stepan Koval was released from the prison. Being rather afraid of the arrest by the new Soviet government he crossed illegally the territory of the General Governorship. By June 1941 he was in Hrubieszów County, Lublin Province (now - Poland). He lived in Zhuzhel village and Dolmativ town. Stepan Koval organized the paramilitary youth organizations of the “Sich” there, worked at the mill and in the food department.

In the summer of 1941 he and the groups, which derived from ONU (B) arrived to Lviv.  As stated in the Soviet data, he refused to work as a policemen in Lviv, moved to Lutsk and began teaching in the German agricultural school “Landvirtshaft.” According to P. Sodol, having arrived Stepan Koval was appointed as the Deputy Commander of the educational Kurin, later reorganized into the agricultural school. Sotnik of UIA V. Novak recalled that from July 1941 Stepan Koval became the Deputy Commander of the Kurin “The Unit of the separate mission named after Ye.Konovalets”. Subsequently the Germans turned this department into the economic school. Then S. Koval became a member of an illegal UNO (B), led by G.Kuzma (“Moroz”).

From September 1941 (according to another data - since the autumn of 1942) he headed the school. He was training people for UNO illegally. In the summer of 1942 S. Koval married Olga Kosyuk. On March 20, 1943 he moved up the pupils of his school (300-320 people) into the UIA and captured all the weapons (100 rifles). That is why the German troops burned the house and took all the property of the family of his S. Koval wife. On June 1-13, 1943 he took part in liberation of Kolka town from the Germans. In summer he commanded the UIA sotnia “Bogdan”. His sotnia fought with the Germans in Hirka Polonka and Kotiv villages, they carried out a requite campaign on the Polish colony Pshebrazhe (as the Poles destroyed the Ukrainian village of Krasnyi Sad in Senkevychivskyi district), in the mid of 1943 they also fought against the Soviet partisans in Kryzhynskyi wood, between Berestiany and Tsuman villages, on the territory of Chernyzh and Zhuravychi villages. Since the summer or November of 1943 - until the autumn of 1944 he was a commander of the group “Kotlovyna” (“Hvastivskyi”), the group “Turiv” with the base in Kolka town (approx. 300 people in the beginning of autumn of 1943, 600 people in early spring of 1944).

In January or February of 1944 a squad “Kotlovyna”, having divided into small units, crossed the front line. Then it was subordinated by the group “Zagrava” and renamed to “Hvastivskyi” squad. On April 22, 1944 “Yurii” passed the command of the squad to “V. Chornota”. The squad consisted of “Strila”, “Zalizniak”, “Orel”, “Korin”, "Zhuk”, “Iarmaka”, “Bogun”, “Lev”, “Uzbek”, “Gryts” and  “Igor” divisions (there was no communication with the last 4 divisions at that time), a school and a hospital (this is according to the “Deed of conveyance of Hvastivskyi squad”, and according to the notes of “Klym Savur” on the number of squads of the UIA, the squad of “Rubash” consisted of only 1 hundred - 120 people after crossing the front line in April).

Probably in the 1st case there were listed all the units that were nominally in the squad, but after crossing the front they failed to find connection. By the end of 1944 the squad constantly fought with the Soviet troops. From June 1944 until the autumn of 1945 Koval was an adjutant of I. Lytvynchuk - the Head of the squad 33 (“Zawykhost”), at the end of 1944 he became the deputy of I.Lytvynchuk. At the turn of 1944 and 1945 in order to escape the constant harassment of the Soviet military units S.Koval formed a special group, which diverted the attention of enemies, while the backbone of the squad withdrew to a safe place.

From November 1, 1944 Stepan Koval was the head of the personal Counterintelligence Division 33 (“Zawykhost”) of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the Head of the Division “Aziaty” (before its disbandment in June 1945). At that time he was looking in the following way: a medium height, stocky man with a lean shaved face, long brown hair; he wore British uniform, a green overcoat, a service jacket, breeches, a field cap, boots and he always had “his gun and a German submachine gun.”

In early 1945 Stepan Koval took part in a raid in Holobskyi, Manevytskyi, Kamin-Kashyrskyi, Tsumanskyi and Kolkivskyi districts of Volyn region to renew the UNO network there. He was charged in connection with the Ministry of the National Security and arrested by the Security Service, but he managed to escape from custody. Thus, he left UIA and in autumn of 1945 moved to his “small home” in Korchyn village, Radekhiv district of Lviv region, where he was hiding from both the UNO (b) and the Soviet government. The following year, he acquired a certificate of an immigrant in Zubkiv village (Sokalshchyna) and changed his name to Dmytro Lytvyn (in 1944-1946 the Ukrainians were relocated from the Polish to the Ukrainian territory).

Then he worked as a regent of the church choir in Dolmativ village. In 1948 he married for a second time to Dariia Bodnarovska. From 1949 to 1954, being a citizen of the USSR, he was the artistic director of Stanislaviv Culture Centre (Mykytyntsi village, Zarichna St, 75a); “he was worthy of thanks and often awarded with certificates.” The people's amateur choir “Pervotsvit (the Primrose)”, headed for a long time by Stepan Koval, goes on its active creative work in Mykytntsi village until now. Somehow Stepan Koval was uncovered by the “authorities.”

In 1954 he was condemned by the military tribunal of the Carpathian Military District for 10 years (the articles 54-4 and 54-11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR). (His mother Sophia Myronivna Koval and his sister Olga Yosypivna Koval were evicted in remote areas of the Soviet Union back in 1951). Koval was carring a sentence for 2 years and 8 months. He was released from prison early for his good behavior, and in 1956 his conviction was expunged. He returned to Ivano-Frankivsk and worked as a choral conductor and a teacher. In 1985 he retired. According to the conclusion of the Prosecutor's Office in Volyn Regional of September 15, 1992 Stepan Koval was rehabilitated.

 

THE SOURCE: http://henrik-kvinto.livejournal.com/2455.html