On 15 June 1934,

Bronisław Pieracki Bronisław Wilhelm Pieracki (28 May 1895 – 15 June 1934) was a Polish military officer and politician. Life As a member of the Polish Legions in World War I, Pieracki took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–1919). He later supported J� ...

, the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

minister of the interior, was assassinated by the

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN; ) was a Ukrainian nationalist organization established on February 2, 1929 in Vienna, uniting the Ukrainian Military Organization with smaller, mainly youth, radical nationalist right-wing groups. ...

(OUN). The chosen assassin, Hryhorii Matseiko (also known by his

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"Gonta"), was a trusted member of the OUN.

Background

The OUN was formed in Poland in 1929 by a number of nationalist organizations. It professed ethno-nationalism, including hostility to Poles, and in its first decade carried out many acts of terrorism, including political assassinations.

The assassination

The assassination plan was decided at an OUN meeting in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Matseiko was supplied with a makeshift bomb and a 7.65mm caliber pistol from Bandera. In the morning of 15 June 1934 Matseiko (aged 31) appeared at the Foksal Street in Warsaw in front of a social club frequented by Pieracki. He waited there for several hours undetected. The minister arrived in his limousine at 3:30 pm; however, Matseiko's bomb failed. He pulled the gun and shot the minister from behind twice in the back of his head. Matseiko escaped successfully with the help of OUN emissaries as far as

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and then on to

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. Pieracki's state funeral was attended by some 100,000 people. The coffin was sent to

Nowy Sącz Nowy Sącz (; ; ; ; ) is a city in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of southern Poland. It is the district capital of Nowy Sącz County as a separate administrative unit. With a population of 83,116 as of 2021, it is the largest city in the Beskid S ...

in a special train and laid in his family tomb.

Aftermath

Despite the assassin dropping a blue and yellow ribbon, a symbol of the OUN, at the scene of the crime, the Polish authorities professed not to realize that OUN was behind the assassination and blamed the Polish

National Radical Camp The National Radical Camp () was an ultranationalist and antisemitic political movement which existed in the pre-World War II Second Polish Republic, and an illegal Polish anti-communist, As a result of this, the

Bereza Kartuska prison Bereza Kartuska Prison (, "Place of Isolation at Bereza Kartuska") was operated by Poland's Sanation government from 1934 to 1939 in Biaroza, Bereza Kartuska, Polesie Voivodeship (today, Biaroza, Belarus). Because the inmates were detained with ...

for

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

s was established. Proces gazeta Pieracki

A year later, it became known that OUN was behind the assassination of Bronisław Pieracki. The trial of OUN leaders before a Warsaw circuit court took place between 18 November 1935 and 13 January 1936. Sixteen OUN members, including

Stepan Bandera Stepan Andriyovych Bandera (, ; ; 1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical militant wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B. Bandera was born in Austria-Hungary, in Galicia (Eas ...

and Mykola Lebed, were found guilty of organizing the assassination. After a two-month trial in Warsaw, the court sentenced the guilty as follows: * Stepan Bandera, Mykola Lebed and Yaroslav Karpynets were sentenced to death (commuted to life imprisonment due to an amnesty); * Mykola Klymyshyn, Bohdan Pidhainy sentenced to life imprisonment; * Dariya Hnatkivska sentenced to 15 years imprisonment; * Ivan Malyutsa, Roman Myhal and Yevhen Kachmarsky - 12 years imprisonment; * Kateryna Zarytska - 8 years imprisonment; * Yaroslav Rak and Yakiv Chorny - 7 years imprisonment. The court also denied Hnatkivska, Malyutsa, Kachmarsky, Myhal, Chorny, Zarytska and Rak civil rights for 10 years. The actual assassin, Hryhorii Matseiko, never faced a judge; he died in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

in 1966.

Background

The assassination

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading