Grigori Shton

The Black Council gives a vivid picture of the different levels of society in seventeenth-century Ukraine. The main theme is the need for people to be motivated by high ideals as they engage in the struggle of truth with injustice.

Bolshevists aim to set their rules on the lands of the Western Ukraine repeatedly occupied by them. UPA – the partisan army – resists their policy. Civil population becomes a hostage of this war "without rules", and above all – relatives of the insurgents. Invaders and their allies cruelly torture Ukrainian people, but the struggle continues. Irritated, "bolshevists" start evicting people to Siberia. UPA tries to prevent this action, but the forces are not equal... Insurgents can only take revenge and punish the executioners.