Before the archives containing files on Soviet security policy were declassified in the mid-1990s, authors who explored the conflict in the borderlands based their studies on the memoirs of Soviet partisans and nationalist guerrillas, propaganda pamphlets printed by the resistance and the Soviets, a few Soviet documents captured by Germans and nationalists, and reports of the German counterintelligence. None of these sources yielded much information on Soviet counterinsurgency, and most distorted other aspects of the conflict. The memoirs of Red partisans, sanitized by censors, had to fulfill the order of the Communist party to maintain the myth of an all-people's war against the German invaders. Their authors exaggerate the popular support partisans enjoyed; they rarely mention the nationalist opposition that in some regions was stronger than the German one, and if they do, they inaccurately portray the nationalists as mere German pawns. Since few former partisans survived until Perestroika, no important memoirs emerged when censorship ended in the former Soviet republics. Although some memoirs published in the Soviet Union are more honest than others, they have limited value as primary sources.

The former nationalist guerrillas who escaped to the West had no censors, yet, not unlike Red partisans, they pursued a political agenda. They typically misrepresented Soviet policy, oversimplified the social tensions in the borderlands, and downplayed the radicalism of their movements.