On January 15, 1941, the "Trial of the 59" began in Lviv, also known as the "Trial of the Second Executive of the OUN."
As early as September 1940, mass arrests of young people involved with the OUN began in Lviv. Soviet authorities accused them of terrorist activities, participation in an "anti-Soviet nationalist organization," possession of documents and literature, and espionage on behalf of Germany. The investigation lasted more than three months, during which the defendants were tortured. Investigators forbade the arrested from sleeping and conducted interrogations at night.
Fifty-nine young people, mostly high school and university students, including members and sympathizers of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), were put on trial. The trial lasted until January 18. The court ruled to execute 42 OUN members, including 11 women. Twenty of the convicted were shot immediately after the trial. The rest were sentenced to 10 years in prison camps.
Soon after, the case was reviewed, and the OUN members who were still alive had their sentences changed to 10 years in prison camps as well.
In the "Trial of the 59," unlike the usual practice of Stalinist "justice" widely used in 1937-1938—the passing of sentences by extrajudicial bodies—a closed political trial was organized.
The hearings were held in the premises of the Lviv Regional Directorate of the NKVD. The prosecution accused Ukrainian youth of belonging to the OUN, anti-Soviet activities, and preparing for an armed uprising against Soviet power.
It was a unique trial, even for the bloodthirsty Stalinist era. The only crime of those who were shot was that they imagined Ukraine as an independent state.
The "Trial of the 59" was followed by others. The Soviet authorities continued the mass extermination of Ukrainian nationalists and conscious Ukrainians, carrying out Sovietization, eliminating public life, and imposing Bolshevik ideology, consistently continuing the practice of the "Great Terror."
The totalitarian regime did not break the Ukrainian people, their spirit, and their courage. The Russian Federation inherited the worst Stalinist traditions, becoming a terrorist state and implementing the same repressive practices in the occupied territories. Today, Ukrainian defenders are fighting to defeat the aggressor once and for all and prevent further attempts by the Russian Federation to destroy the Ukrainian people, our statehood, and resort to blackmailing all of humanity.