The Ukrainian Partisan Army was formed in the midst of World War II to fight for an independent nation. As such it was opposed to the Soviet Red Army, the Poles, and the Germans, though it occasionally collaborated with the Wehrmacht is combating Communist forces. The UPA was guilty of ethnic cleansing against Polish civilians and many of its members had earlier aided the Germans in rounding up Jews.
After end of the war, it continued to battle for years as an underground army against the USSR. These Christmas cards emphasize their religious allegiance to Orthodoxy in the face of godless Bolshevism. By 1953 military action and infiltration by the Soviet secret police had ended the UPA’s effectiveness and crushed hopes of an independent Ukraine.
