From late 1944, Vil’na Ukraїna published several speeches by representatives of Ukrainian peasants, workers, and intelligentsia. All of them argued in support of Soviet power and condemned the “Ukrainian-German nationalists.” On 12 November 1944, speeches by peasant representatives of the Lviv oblast appeared. Ivan Mekh, head of the village council of Sukhovil, said:

We suffered cruel treatment for three years under the German predators, they tortured and murdered us for three years, they wanted to turn us into slaves. But they did not succeed.

At the request of the great Stalin the whole Soviet people supported the Great Patriotic War and began a fervent fight against the Hitlerite oppressors. Our peasants did not believe the Germans and their assistants, the German-Ukrainian nationalists, and we harmed the enemy as much as we could.[1838]

Ivan Turok from the village of Nahachiv said in his speech:

The Germans killed our people and burned our villages. The Banderite bandits did the same.

Our nation cursed them, they did so much harm!

We liquidated the remains of the fascist rule, we rebuilt the economy, and the Banderites tried to disturb us from doing so. Death to the Banderites! (Applause, calls: “Shame on the Banderites! Death to them!”)

Comrades! How long will we tolerate the Ukrainian-German nationalists? We have to grapple with them as soon as possible.

From the first days of the liberation of our village, more than 300 people joined the Red Army. They are now combating the enemy on his own territory; they protect the honor of the Soviet motherland. And here some remnants mumble that they love Ukraine and that they fight for it.

Nothing of the kind! Banderites are the same fascists as the German bandits. They were hired by Hitler to kill the Ukrainian people. We have to come together to wipe out the fascist lickspittles. Enough hate for them has accumulated in us. We will wipe out the Ukrainian-German nationalists. (Applause.) Comrades! The Red Army is pushing the enemy further and further. We read with great pleasure in Comrade Stalin’s speech that the fascist beast will soon be killed in its own lair and that the flag of victory will soon be planted over Berlin. (Applause.)[1839]

M. H. Trehuba, head of the oblast health authority, stated: “These agents of the German fascists, the German-Ukrainian nationalists, tried to slow down our work. They mumble something about ‘independent Ukraine’ but in reality they are the worst enemies of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. They dream about making the Ukrainian people slaves of fascist Germany again.”[1840]

Ol’ha Sobol’, a school-teacher in Zolochiv, described how people suffered under German occupation and how they were now rebuilding the social structures with the help of the Soviet authorities. Then she explained that “our work would be even more effective if the scum of society, the German-Ukrainian nationalists, did not bother us.