Bofon
Open-knowledge reference entry
Bofons (short for "battle fund", Ukrainian: бойовий фонд) - one-sided (rarely two-sided) monetary documents (receipts) issued by the Ukrainian nationalist organizations Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in their insurgency against the Soviet Union during and after World War II. They carried national symbols and symbols of the OUN and UPA and corresponding inscriptions (or only with symbols, without inscriptions), with fixed denominations or without denominations. Authorized persons on behalf of the OUN or UPA issued them to the population for voluntarily contributed, collected as a contingent, requisitioned funds, in the form of cash, sometimes food, clothing, etc. In addition to their purely financial role, bofons also served an agitational function, so they were used in insurgent propaganda work.
In different periods of the OUN's activity, the fund was called "combat", "liberation", "revolutionary", "national", "military" and even "operational" for strategic and tactical reasons. Despite this diversity, the term "war fund" gained the greatest popularity, probably because it was used more often. Over time, there was a reduction, the vowel sound "o" changed to "i" or to "e", "y", depending on the location. As a result, in Galicia and Bukovina, OUN monetary documents came to be called "befones" and "bifons", and in Volyn (Rivne, Volyn, Zhytomyr regions) and Belarusian Polissya - "bifons". In addition, these language varieties quickly migrated to insurgent documents and literature of underground authors, and thus to the publications of the Ukrainian diaspora.
Individual banknotes were reprinted in OUN detachments on the periphery, where craftsmen cut clichés on pear and ash plates for serial issues of money. Famous Christmas series of bofons, which depicted the dreams and hopes of the Ukrainian insurgents.
The public source identifies “Bofon” as open-knowledge reference entry. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bofon, Open-knowledge and entry.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bofon”, the useful work is to connect “open-knowledge reference entry” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4095235. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bofon”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bofon primary sources, Bofon archive and Bofon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bofon”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bofon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.