"Shevchenko Company": the Civil War in Spain

State Enterprise "Ukrainian Television Film Studio "Ukrtelefilm", 1989.

The film "Shevchenko Company" is dedicated to the events of the Civil War in Spain (1937–1939) and the forgotten combat and life path of the "internationalist fighters" who were part of the military unit of volunteers of the Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko Company.

On the video: Western Ukraine, interviews with the last living fighters of the company; archives of Ukraine, reading of documents; the family of political instructor Nazar Demyanchuk ("Sergeant Siradza") talks about his father; Lviv Regional Archive, funds, photographs of fighters; memories of company members, life in emigration, stories about repressions; photographs of fighters.

Scriptwriter — Yuriy Pokalchuk. Director — Viktor Kolodny.

Contains elements of Soviet propaganda.

Reference: The Ukrainian Taras Shevchenko Company was an infantry unit of the International Brigades, formed on July 8, 1937 as part of the XIII Polish Brigade named after Yaroslav Dombrowski (as the 4th company of the José Palafox Battalion) and involved in the main operations of 1937–1938 on the side of the Spanish Republic. Its core was made up of Ukrainians from the territories of the then Polish Republic, mainly associated with the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, although the unit had a mixed national composition. After the end of the campaign, some of the volunteers were persecuted and repressed: in Poland they were interned and imprisoned, and in the USSR and its controlled structures, repressive practices affected, in particular, the CPSU circles. In general, there were more Ukrainians in the International Brigades than one unit.