In the village of Rozvazh (Rivne region), the historian, art connoisseur Nikolai Bendyuk and his friend found original engravings by the artist Nil Khasevych. The public figure and member of the OUN illustrated the satirical magazines of the UPA "Ukrainian pepper" and "Hrin", and also designed other underground publications. More than fifty sheets of his authorship lay in the attic in a recently purchased old house. They were in a small bag hidden in a pile of straw. The engravings are dated 1949.
Once upon a time, a fighter of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army lived in this house, distributing agitation with drawings by Khasevych. Some of them had to be hidden: after the last head of the Security Council of the OUN of the Ostrozhsky district was shot in 1950, the distribution of propaganda materials became very dangerous.
Since then, the house has passed from one owner to another, during which time no one dared to clean up the attic. Now the works made from the original clichés of the graphics are being restored. All finds will be cleaned of the fungus, and then distributed among several state museums. It is planned to replenish the museum collections already this year, by the 80th anniversary of the UPA, which will be celebrated on October 14.
Nil Khasevych was born in 1905 in the village of Diuksin (Rivne region), in the early 1920s he worked as an assistant icon painter, and was educated at the Warsaw Academy of Arts. Over time, the artist moved from painting to graphics, his work could be seen at exhibitions in Lviv, Berlin, Los Angeles. In 1943 he joined the underground activities of the OUN.
