In 1946, the exhibition “Partisans of Ukraine in the Fight against the German-fascist Invaders” was opened in Kyiv, which, among other things, laid the foundation for the War Museum’s fund collection. Among its exhibits was a cleaver, with which, as the annotation said, “Ukrainian-German nationalists chopped down civilians in the village of Stara Huta, in the Ternopil region. Captured by partisans of the Mykhailov detachment of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Unit”. It is likely that at that time the corresponding wording was written down without any verification and “extra” questions from the words of those who handed over this weapon, or is it a “product” of the authors of that exhibition. Nevertheless, does this information actually correspond to reality?
A brief history of the aforementioned formation is as follows. In July-August 1941, an underground organization was created in the city of Slavuta under the leadership of Fedor Mykhailov. It operated in the territory of the Kamianets-Podilskyi (now Khmelnytskyi) region. In June 1942, a group of underground fighters was organized to escape from the Slavuta prisoner of war camp, on the basis of which a partisan detachment was later formed. At the end of July 1942, the Nazis managed to capture and execute Mykhaylov. Anton Odukha took over the command. In August 1943, the detachment was deployed into a unit. On April 21, 1944, by order of the Central Committee of the Communist party, it was disbanded.
In the Ternopil region, Kamianets-Podilskyi partisans were recorded in April 1943 and February 1944. Both times, units of this formation operated in the Shumsk district. It is there, on the border of the Ternopil and Rivne regions, that the village of Ruska Huta is located, which until 1946 was called Stara Huta (Hutysko).
The detachment commissar, Hnat Kuzovkov (Russian by nationality), spoke out notably about the attitude of the residents (Ukrainians) towards the “red avengers”. He noted that the partisans did not have mass support among the local population, since “replenishment came mainly from former prisoners of war who escaped from concentration camps and embarked on an active armed struggle against the Germans, as well as local underground workers.”
The actions of the partisans also did not contribute to this, as they mostly provoked reprisals against civilians by the German occupation administration. In fact, one of such actions took place in the village on April 4, 1944, when 200 residents died and 100 households were burned in result of a punitive raid by the Nazis.
On the other hand, the local history of the Ukrainian liberation movement in Shumsk district speaks of active attacks in 1942–1943 by armed OUN units (Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists)/UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) units on local German garrisons. This completely contradicted the establishing of the Kremlin’s "reality" in Ukraine using both bayonets and propaganda.
In July 1943, at the intersection of Ternopil, Rivne and Kamianets-Podilskyi regions, a three-day battle between OUN fighters and Odukha partisans took place. As a result, the latter retreated with losses. The transcript of those events quotes Kuzovkov’s words: "The matter almost came to hand-to-hand combat. Despite the casualties inflicted by our fighters from hidden positions, they fought and fought, wanting to finish the operation. I must say that in all my time I have never encountered such fanaticism in the fight. They fight better than the Germans... We have already relocated to the Slavuta district of Kamianets-Podilskyi region, and nationalist power has been established in the territory of the adjacent western districts of Ternopil region."
It is obvious that the truth about who owned the weapon, how it ended up with Soviet soldiers, and even more so whether its legend corresponds to reality, which seems extremely doubtful, was not needed by anyone at that time. Over time, it became extremely difficult to reconstruct the true history of the knife. However, such Soviet parade ideologues as “Ukraine is the land of partisan victories” and “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists are accomplices of the German-fascist invaders” are also disappearing after the collapse the Red Empire. This object, in its modern redefinition, primarily represents events that are puzzles of a specifically national military chronicle, which, in the conditions of another, largely based on the myths of “The Great Patriotic War”, aggression by Moscow, we are now discovering.