Nazism in eastern Europe

Part I

Part II

• December 22, 2022

This day is a festival, an orgy of evidences. The coffin is carried on a US made military Humvee. In Lviv, historical birthplace of the Ukrainian Nazism, a honor military guard escorts the funeral of Yurii Shukhevych (1933-2022), hero of Ukraine since August 19, 2006, after the pro-West orange revolution. He was a far-right politician and the proud son of Nazi war criminal Roman Shukhevych (1907-1950, cf. supra, June 30)

Azov paramilitaries are regarding the winter solstice as the day of the dead. In tribute to fallen members of the Nazi regiment, they burn a fake drakkar, which represents the trip of the dead to the valhalla. I stress it, they are not a bunch of boy scouts at the stage of puberty, Azov is a formation of the Ukrainian national guard

• January 1, 2023

The press reports with complacency that in Lviv, western Ukraine, people celebrate the birthday of Stepan Bandera (1909-1959, cf. infra, Local debates, June 30, 2022), Nazi leader during WW2. The central government does not, but since the beginning of the Russian special military operation for liberation of Donbass, demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, is controlling the media, closely monitoring the ideological connotation of all publications

The photos come actually from the Telegram channel of Maksym Kozytskyi, the head of the local regional military administration (OVA), who writes

“If Bolshevism is replaced by another form of Russian imperialism tomorrow, it will also first of all turn with all its forces against the independence of Ukraine, its enslavement. The Russian people, as they still do, will bear that imperialism, will do everything to keep Ukraine enslaved” – Prophetic words of Stepan Bandera.

As a prominent Ukrainian bequeathed, we are fighting – the whole nation stands for freedom, the well-being of the Ukrainian nation. Today is the 114th anniversary of Stepan Bandera’s birthday. A person who demonstrated patriotism, determination, consistency in the fight for the homeland. We draw strength and wisdom from our great ancestors, and continue their work. We will win. Glory to Ukraine!

The official Twitter account of the Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada (supreme council), references also Bandera for his birthday, deletes later the ideological message. Israeli left-wing newspaper Haaretz will stress it the day after

The choice of the quote is so interesting, is reflecting the objective alliance between NATO and the Ukrainian Nazism, for the dismantling of Russia.

• March 2, 2023

Across Russia border, the Atlanticist forces carry out a terrorist raid in Bryansk region. The operation is psychological (PSYOP), the goal is to target and terrorize Russian civilians

The assailants are members of the Russian Volunteer Corps (Russkiy dobrovol’cheskiy korpus, RDK), a bunch of Nazi defectors, who have settled in Ukraine for years, are usually working for the Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), are bearing sometimes the symbols of the Russian Liberation Army (Russkaya Osvoboditel’naya Armiya, ROA, 1942-1945), Nazi auxiliaries during WW2.

• March 10, 2023

The high command of the Ukrainian armed forces attends the funeral in Kiev of Dmitry Kotsyubaylo, killed in Bakhmut area on March 7

Here are defense minister Oleksii Reznikov (fourth from left in the first rank), commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi (third) and Kyrylo Budanov (first), head of the military intelligence (GUR). Even the president and an official guest, Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin, tour the ceremony

Voldoymyr Zelenskyy has stressed it, the awarded hero was a symbol. Dmitry Kotsyubaylo, callsign Da Vinci, was member of Nazi Pravyi Sektor [right sektor] organization, commander within the DUK (Dobrovolʹchyy ukrayinsʹkyy korpus, Ukrainian volunteer corps, its military branch, 67th mechanized brigade since November 2022) of the 1st battalion. One of his grandfathers was member of the UPA, the Ukrainian Nazi paramilitary organization during WW2, celebrated in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Ukraine as a pantheon of national heroes.

• June 15, 2023

A prominent fighter is buried in Ukraine, has been likely killed at the border of Belgorod region. The same Atlanticist formation is involved since March 2 in terrorist raids in Russia (cf. supra)

The Russian Volunteer Corps (Russkiy dobrovol’cheskiy korpus, RDK) is a combat formation of the Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), is gathering Nazi defectors from Russia. The tribute is

The fighters of the Russian Volunteer Corps saw off their comrade-in-arms, Dmitry “Strem”, on his last journey. A kind, honest and brave man who gave his life in the fight for the freedom of Ukraine and the future of Russia. He lived according to the tradition of his ancestors and died as befits the son of Odin – in battle, with weapons in his hands. Eternal glory to the Hero! [since August 24, 2018 (cf. supra), that slogan is official within the Ukrainian armed forces, dates back to April 1941, appeared around Stepan Bandera, then a minion of Germany in occupied Poland]

Here are Nazi militants Denis Kapustin and Alexey Levkin. The first has lived in Germany between 2001 and 2017, when he has settled in Ukraine, is commanding the RDK. The second is a racist murderer who has fled Russia for Ukraine, after the coup in 2014, is also the organizer of Asgardsrei [ride of Asgard in Norwegian], an international festival of Nazi black metal (NSBM) music in Kiev (cf. infra, The homes debates, December 14, 2014).

Local debates

• October 13, 1991

In western Ukraine, Lviv was Austro-Hungarian (Lemberg) before WW1, Polish (Lwow) before WW2. The Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) is founded there, 50 days after the dissolution of Soviet Union

Its emblem is a Nazi symbol, the Wolfsangel (cf. supra, The infection of the State, June 15, 2019), that a formation of the armed forces, Azov, will later bear.

• February 14, 2004

35-year-old Oleh Tyahnybok is the new leader of the SNPU. In order to moderate the image of the Nazi party, he changes its name to Svoboda (liberty).

On March 4, 2014, after the rightist coup in Kiev (cf. infra, February 21, 2014), he will meet Secretary of State John Kerry

• October 14, 2007

Socialist militants protest in Kiev against another demonstration, which is celebrating the 65th anniversary of the UPA (cf. infra, June 30, 2022), the military branch of the Ukrainian nationalism during WW2, which has slaughtered tens thousand Polish civilians

On March 20, 2022, after the beginning of the Russian special military operation for liberation of Donbass, denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will ban all left political parties.

• June 27, 2010

In Lviv, UPA veterans pay tribute to Roman Shukhevych (cf. supra, The infection of the State, June 30, 2022) for his 103rd birthday

• September 14, 2012

After building with private donations on a land that the municipal council has given, a memorial is unveiled in Bauska, Latvia,

to the defenders of Bauska against the second Soviet occupation on July 28 – September 14, 1944

While the German defenses were crumbling in 1944, several hundred local volunteers have defended the town until death against the Red Army. These men had not carried out any resistance against the Nazi authorities.

• April 28, 2013

In Lviv, Nazi militants celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Ukrainian 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (cf. supra, Historical benchmarks, April 28, 1943). On the tee shirts of the first rank, meine Ehre heißt Treue means loyalty is my honour, was the motto of the SS during WW2

• July 21, 2013

In period uniforms, young militants bury in Lviv region, western Ukraine, the corpses of Ukrainian SS, who have been killed against the Red Army or anti-Nazi partisans, within the 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (cf. supra, Historical benchmarks, April 28, 1943)

• February 21, 2014

Ukraine is an associate member of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States, former Soviet Union) economic union since April 1994. Its president, Viktor Yanukovych, has been democratically elected on February 25, 2010. A free trade agreement was negotiated with the European Union, but on February 25, 2013, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, stated that its enforcement required that Ukraine quit its association with the CIS. On November 21, Yanukovych put the signature of the agreement on hold.

In Lviv, Western Ukraine, protestors started chanting

for the EU, death to the enemies, dirty Russian speakers on the gallows

Their sponsor was Oleh Tyahnybok, leader of Nazi Svoboda party (cf. supra, February 14, 2004). First a few and peaceful in Kiev, the protestors were 500,000 at Maidan square on December 1, the most from the west, around a Nazi and bellicose core. US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland visited Kiev on December 5, supported the protestors. The economy was deteriorating, Ukraine was asking for financial support. Europe refused, Russia agreed. On December 17, 2013, a new agreement was signed with Russia

At Maidan square, on February 18, 2014, shots targeted the riot police and the protestors, the situation has escalated to a bloodbath. On February 21, Yanukovych signs an agreement with the leaders of the parliamentary opposition and leaves the country. 103 protestors and 13 police officers have died. The Nazis hold one third of the interim government, notably defense. NATO has achieved a rightist coup in Ukraine.

Pro-Europe citizens and Nazis have rebelled late 2013 in the west and Kiev, against the legal government. Pro-Yanukovych and pro-Russia citizens will rise in March 2014 in Crimea and Donbass against Russophobia. The new government will call them terrorists, will send against them the loyal members of the armed forces and Nazi militants, legalized meanwhile as paramilitaries, which will start shelling civilian areas. That will be the beginning of the war in Donbass.

• May 2, 2014

In Donbass, a revolution has founded Donetsk People’s Republic on April 8, 2014. In order to crush federalism in Odessa, southern Ukraine, nationalist militants, many outsider, are clashing with local Russian-speaking autonomist protestors. The first attack the Trade Unions House, where left militants have settled their headquarters. They yell Kill the Russians, set ablaze the building with petrol bombs. People try to escape through windows, some fall and while injured, are beaten in the street. 48 victims are killed, burned in the building or slaughtered outside

• October 11, 2014

Juris Millers is producing Cukurs. Herberts Cukurs, a musical which is premiered in Liepāja, Latvia. The subject is Herberts Cukurs (1900-1965), whom some have proclaimed the most famous Latvian. In my opinion, he is even the most famous Baltic. Millers stresses

we are not Herbert Cukurs’ advocates and we are not his judges, I hope this performance will make you think

So cool, so progressive. Minister of foreign affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs states that he cannot support a production which is not in good taste, but defends the producer’s right to free speech

Cukurs was in the 1930s a famous long-distance aviator

During the Nazi invasion of Soviet Union, the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, SS intelligence agency) formed in July 1941 in Riga a Latvian auxiliary police, Lettische Hilfspolizei, with local far-right volunteers. Cukurs was its deputy commander. Until 1945, the at most 1,500-strong Sonderkommando Arajs slaughtered about 26,000 Jews in Latvia and Belarus.

In 1945, Cukurs fled to Germany with the defeated Nazi forces, then to Brazil, through the Ratlines, the escape routes that the Catholic clergy and the US intelligence were managing. The Mossad, Israeli foreign intelligence, managed to denazify him in Uruguay in February 1965.

• December 14, 2014

Ten months after the right-wing coup around Maidan square, Kiev hosts its first edition of Asgardsrei [ride of Asgard in Norwegian], an international festival of Nazi black metal (NSBM) music

The organizer is Alexey Levkin, a racist murderer who has fled Russia. Later in 2023, within the Russian Volunteer Corps (Russkiy dobrovol’cheskiy korpus, RDK), a bunch of Nazi refugees, Levkin will be involved in raids on Russian territory.

• February 11, 2016

February 11 is the anniversary in Lithuania of the declaration in 1918 of independence (cf. Historical benchmarks, January 31, 1942), which was gained over Russia and the Red Army. Several hundred young people demonstrate through the streets of Kaunas, the second city of the country. No skinheads, only a few swastikas (in 1918 ?), they look like children of the middle class, products of the national education since the independence from Soviet Union

The theme is we know our nation’s heroes. Which ones ? Fighters against the Red Army in 1918 ? Just a little bit, many were too young. Did they fight against Nazi Germany ? Never

• Adolfas Ramanauskas (1918-1957) has written himself during the days of liberation from the Bolshevik occupation [the Nazi invasion late June 1941 and thereafter], I commanded a partisan unit in the area surrounding Druskininkai and in that town. Did these partisans fight against the German Nazi forces ? No, they slaughtered communist militants and Jews. There was resistance in Lithuania during the Nazi occupation, but they were Russians and Poles. After WW2, Adolfas Ramanauskas has fought against the Soviet administration, the KGB denazified him in 1957.
• Jonas Noreika (1910-1947) was an antisemitic militant during the 1930s, thurifer of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. After the Soviet occupation in 1940, he joined the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) for the liberation of the country. After the Nazi invasion, he led personally the massacre of 1,800 Jews in Plungė, on July 13-15, 1941. In August, the German authorities appointed him governor of Šiauliai district. Local fascists were reluctant to fight against the Red Army outside Lithuania, he failed to fulfill orders to raise a SS division and was arrested in March 1943. Back in Soviet Lithuania after WW2, Jonas Noreika was denazified in February 1947.
• Povilas Plechavičius (1890-1973) was already a veteran within the imperial Russian army, when he started in 1918 fighting against the Red Army in Lithuania, became lieutenant general in 1929. At the request of the German authorities, he called in February 1943 for the enlistment of volunteers into the Litauische Sonderverbände [Lithuanian special league, LVR], a territorial defense force against the Red Army. These paramilitaries were confronting Soviet and Polish partisans, but were locally defeated in May 1944. Due to these failures and his reluctance to obey German orders, Povilas Plechavičius was temporarily arrested on May 15. Free, he reached the Anglo-American lines in July, emigrated later to the US.
• Kazys Škirpa (1895-1979) was serviceman within the imperial Russian army, when he started in 1918 fighting against the Red Army in Lithuania. When the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania in 1940, he was ambassador to Nazi Germany, where he formed the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) for the liberation of the country. After the Nazi invasion, the German authorities were not enjoying his demands of independence and did not allow him to leave for Lithuania. Kazys Škirpa emigrated to the US in 1949.
• Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejys (1915-1948) graduated from a military academy in 1940, when Lithuania was already part of the Soviet Union. After the Nazi invasion, in 1943, he was commanding the Schutzmannschaft Bataillon 252 (auxiliary police), which was guarding Majdanek Konzentrationslager (KZ), in Poland. He decided to resist after the Soviet victory and back to Lithuania, became leader in Tauras district, where he used to order the slaughters of whole communist or Russian families. Antanas Baltūsis-Žvejys was denazified in 1948.
• Juozas Ambrazevičius (1903-1974) was a literary historian and nationalist politician. During the Nazi invasion in June 1941, he became acting head of the provisional government, a German sponsored structure, which dissolved itself in August, when the LAF understood that Germany would not grant Lithuania independence. Juozas Ambrazevičius emigrated to the US in 1948.

Nowadays, the Lithuanian authorities are honoring to some extent most of these pathetic characters.

• February 24, 2016

February 24 is the anniversary in Estonia of the declaration in 1918 of independence (cf. supra, Historical benchmarks, January 31, 1942), which was gained over Russia and the Red Army. In Stenbock House, the seat of the government, Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas welcomes the veterans, members of the Union of Estonian Freedom Fighters

You know firsthand that the freedom in which we live today—and a borderless Europe—cannot be taken for granted

Veterans of 1918 are pretty rare in 2016 and actually, the Union is gathering survivors of the 20. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS. Some are wearing its insignia on their tie

Taavi Rõivas is member of the democratic liberal Estonian Reform Party.

• October 14, 2016

In Kiev, veterans are celebrating the the 74th anniversary of the UPA (cf. infra, June 30, 2022), the military branch of the Ukrainian nationalism during WW2, which has slaughtered tens thousand Polish civilians. One is carrying a German Maschinenpistole 40

• April 13, 2018

In Kiev, young Pravyi Sektor [right sector] militants attack WW2 veterans, who are intending to lay flowers at the memorial to Nikolai Vatutin (1901-1944), Soviet leader of the 1st Ukrainian Front, whose armies have defeated the Nazis in Ukraine

The militants pour red paint on the monument

The Soviet general has died on April 15, 1944, after an injury during an ambush on February 28, in the vicinity of Ostroh, Rivne region, Polish territory before 1939, northwest Ukraine nowadays. Since December, the Red Army had crushed there the German 1. Panzerarmee

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, cf. infra, June 30, 2022) has carried out the ambush, was then conducting guerilla behind Soviet lines, had so far slaughtered Polish civilians, as an ethnic cleansing, when the Germans were controlling the region.

Pravyi Sektor is a Ukrainian Nazi political organization, is still bearing the red and black flag of the former UPA

• August 14, 2019

Bellingcat is a bunch of Western OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) nerds, whom British or US intelligence agencies may use as irregular auxiliaries. They publish on their blog a piece about the translations in Ukrainian and Russian of Brenton Tarrant’s manifesto, which was his claim of responsibility for his terrorist attack against Muslim worshipers in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, 2019. Then 28 years old, Tarrant slaughtered 100 victims with an assault rifle, 51 died. The readers of both translations are mostly in Ukraine, Bellingcat writes. But the article would be more complete if it precised that the Nazi organizations are illegal in Russia, where the State security agency (FSB) is chasing their militants, while in Ukraine, many members of the armed forces are openly subscribing to that ideology

A Ukrainian reader has sent that photo to the publisher after reception of the manifesto, at left. The bookmark is a flyer of Karpatska Sich battalion (cf. supra, The infection of the State, March 15, 2018), which was formed in 2014 as the armed branch of Nazi Svoboda party (cf. supra, February 14, 2004). Sich is part of the nationalist paramilitary forces within the Ukrainian ministry of interior.

• December 3, 2019

Born in Lviv, western Ukraine, 42-year-old Volodymyr Viatrovych is historian, a revisionist and counterfeiter. Published in 2002, one of his first books is Army of the Immortals, where he disregarded sources and falsified stories, in order to glorify OUN and UPA (cf. infra, June 30, 2022). He reoffended in 2011 with The Second Polish-Ukrainian War 1942-1947, where he attempted to show that the mass killing of at least 50,000, may be 100,000 Polish civilians, would have been collateral damage of a war between Poles and UPA Nazis

After the rightist coup at Maidan (cf. supra, February 21, 2014), he has been a State representative, head between March 2014 and September 2019 of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. No kidding.

Viatrovych enters this day the parliament as member of European Solidarity, a Christian democratic and pro-European Union party

• December 15, 2019

30-year-old Roman Zozulya is a Ukrainian international football player with Nazi sympathies. He is praising Stepan Bandera (cf. infra, June 30, 2022) on social networks, is supporting Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary formations since the outbreak of war in Donbass, is making jokes about Nazism, an individual behavior which is not exceptional in Ukraine

The issue becomes interesting when Zozulya plays for Rayo Vallecano, a Spanish club in Madrid, where supporters of his own team chant puto Nazi at him. Interesting because the Ukrainian authorities react to the denunciation of who he is. On Facebook, Voldoymyr Zelenskyy writes that Zozulya is not only a cool football player but a true patriot. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Kateryna Zelenko urges the Spanish authorities and the Spanish Football Federation to respond appropriately to the incident.

• April 28, 2020

Today is the 77th anniversary of the Ukrainian 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS, Galizien (cf. supra, Historical benchmarks, April 28, 1943). Vasil Bichko is deputy head of a private association, the Brotherhood of the Former Soldiers of the Galicia Division. In Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region (cf. supra, Historical benchmarks, October 22, 1941), he awards 95 year-old Vasil Nakonechny the Ritterkreuz [knight’s cross]

Due to age, the veteran is unable to completely unfold the elbow, but look how he is happy.

• June 9, 2020

On social networks, he promotes Natiokratie [in German], the major work in 1935 of Mykola Stsiborskyi (1897-1941). Mykola Kravchenko (1983-2022) is a historical character of the modern Ukrainian nationalist nebula, member of former Nazi Patriot of Ukraine paramilitary organization (1999-2004), member of Nazi National Corps party (2016- ?), the ideologue of Nazi Azov organization (2014- ?, cf. supra, The infection of the State, July 21, 2022)

Mykola Stsiborskyi (1897-1941) was a fascist, a thurifer of Benito Mussolini. Born in Zhytomyr, then Russian empire, Russian army captain during WW1, fighter later against the Red Army, he became in exile a prominent member of the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, cf. infra, June 30, 2022). Yet a moderate, he was advocating for Natiocracy, an authoritarian one-party government which would enforce duty, hierarchy, discipline. His wife was Jewish and Stsiborskyi was not antisemitic. While the German Nazis were occupying his birthplace, he was gunned down there on August 30, 1941. The shooter was a member of OUN-B, the faction that was leading Stepan Bandera (cf. infra, June 30, 2022), a Ukrainian nationalist from the west, born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, in a region which was Polish before WW2.

In July 2019, the National Corps gathered 2.15% of popular vote, but Kravchenko is member of the deep State, the fascist paramilitary organizations which are deciding since 2014 on the main issue in Ukraine, Donbass, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making money. The ideologue is advocating for the Concept of Multilevel Citizenship, is arguing that the right to vote should be limited to certain groups of people. The Russian special military operation will denazify him on March 14, 2022.

• January 1, 2021

A few hundred people parade in Kiev in tribute to Stepan Bandera (cf. infra, June 30, 2022), for his 112th birthday. They bear the flag of Nazi Svoboda party (cf. supra, February 14, 2004) and their banner claims

our religion is nationalism, our prophet is Stepan Bandera

• February 16, 2021

Lviv regional council appeals to government and parliament to amend the law on

the legal status and memory of fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century, in order to recognize the status of the soldiers of the first Ukrainian division of Galicia [14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS, cf. supra, Historical benchmarks, April 28, 1943]

• April 28, 2021

Today is the 78th anniversary of the Ukrainian 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (cf. supra, Historical benchmarks, April 28, 1943), which is celebrated every year in Lviv and for the first time in Kiev, where 300 militants parade

Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacts

we categorically condemn any manifestation of propaganda of totalitarian regimes -in particular the National Socialist- and attempts to revise truth about World War II

He condemns, we is his wish. So, the Ukrainian SS are officially inappropriate. They were under German command. But since 2015, Ukraine celebrates the Defenders Day (cf. supra, The infection of the State, October 14, 2022) on October 14, for the anniversary of the UPA (cf. infra, June 30, 2022), which was Nazi, has slaughtered between 50,000 and 100,000 Polish civilians at its own initiative, has conducted later a guerilla against the enemies of the SS, the Red Army. That was the reality of WW2.

• May 7, 2021

I am wondering, what is the opinion of Volodymyr Zelenskyy ?

A municipal initiative, a new plaque is unveiled in Ivano Frankivsk (cf. supra, Historical benchmarks, October 22, 1941), in tribute to a local hero, Mykhaylo Mulyk (1920-2020), former OUN militant, former SS within the 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS, Galizien

• February 27, 2022

For liberation of Russian-speaking Donbass, that the Ukrainian forces are shelling since 2014, demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, Russia has started a special military operation on February 24. Three days later, this photo surfaces on social networks

The blue and yellow Ukrainian national colors are applied in this adaptation of the Reichskriegsflagge, German imperial war flag between 1938 and 1945. The two fighters are wearing the uniform and equipment of the Ukrainian SSO [special forces], may be members of Azov regiment.

• March 9, 2022

Volunteers are rushing after Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed, on February 24, a decree on martial law and general mobilization in Ukraine. A young Ukrainian is interviewed in a 21-second video which surfaces on social networks. The situation is a climax but his words are likely expressing what many Ukrainians and service members are thinking since 2014

I have waged war, have fought at 17 years old. I am Ukrainian, I am Nazi, have fought against Donetsk People’s Republic.

[journalist, about Donbass inhabitants] Are they Ukrainian or Russian ?

I cannot call these people Ukrainians. We do not need them. When the Ukrainian tanks will enter Donetsk, they will be exterminated.

[journalist] Then, maybe we should stop the war now ?

No, we must exterminate them.

• April 10, 2022

The Ukrainian edition of US fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue publishes an article titled Who is Bandera : 3 books about the legendary Ukrainian

“Stepan Bandera – a hero or a traitor?” “What wrong did Bandera do?” “What made Bandera famous?” These are just a few of the Google queries dedicated to Stepan Bandera. In recent months, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement has become, without a doubt, one of the most popular Ukrainians in the world, facts about whom are now being searched on the Internet by both Ukrainians and not only… Well, objective answers to the question of who Bandera really was, it is not easy to find what values ​​he professed and what he really wanted for Ukraine – but you can try to look for it in books. We have collected the most interesting fact […]

Gosh

Beware, the first question, hero or traitor, is a trap. Traitor against what ? Stepan Bandera (1909-1959), national hero of Zelenskyy’s Ukraine, was indeed a Ukrainian nationalist, was born in Galicia, as a subject of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which was dismembered at the end of WW1. When he started his terrorist activity in the 1930s, Bandera was a citizen of Poland and one of his first victims was the Polish interior minister. He has never betrayed anything, the problem with Bandera is that he was a Nazi (cf. infra, June 30).

• May 2, 2022

The Russian and republican [from Russian-speaking separatist Donetsk People’s Republic] forces are besieging Mariupol since March 11. The city has been freed but die-hard Ukrainian fighters, including the core of Nazi Azov regiment, are still entrenched in the basement of Azovstal steel mill, will surrender on May 20.

During a ceasefire, civilians are evacuated from the battlefield and among them, a deserter is spotted and taken prisoner

Many, even among millennials, still know what is the swastika, at right. ROA, at left, means Russkaya Osvoboditel’naya Armiya (Russian Liberation Army), also called Vlasov army (1944-1945). Nazi Germany recruited the members of this military formation among Soviet prisoners of war, Ukrainian, Belarusian or Russian. Soviet Union later tried general Andrey Vlasov, who was hanged on August 1, 1946.

• May 14, 2022

The battle for Mariupol will soon end, the Russian and republican forces have searched a base of Nazi Azov regiment in Yuryevka, a sea resort, about 40 km southwest of the city. Amid business cards of Western diplomats and the usual Wolfsangel, they have found an original badge where a famous historical character is portrayed

The tribute to Adolf Hitler is MY GRANDPA IS AN AUSTRIAN ARTIST.

• June 30, 2022

Jung & Naiv - Politik für Desinteressierte is a famous German interview program broadcasted on YouTube and Facebook. The guest is today Andriy Melnyk, ambassador from Ukraine since January 12, 2015. A three-hour-long interview

Journalist Tilo Jung reads a historical flier from the OUN

Muscovites, Poles, Hungarians and Jews are your enemies, destroy them !

About his national hero, the ambassador answers

Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles […] was not a Nazi collaborator either […] The Poles also massacred the Ukrainians

that such accusations would be propaganda from Russia and Israel

Stepan Bandera (1909-1959) was a nationalist leader, born in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian empire, then Poland, when in 1934, he engineered the assassination of the Polish interior minister. The German invasion freed him and in 1940, he was managing the radical faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), a partnership with Abwehr [German military intelligence] and Gestapo. At the beginning of the Nazi offensive against Soviet Union, in June 1941, he pled with Adolf Hitler for an independent fascist Ukraine, ally of Nazi Germany, that he declared unilaterally in the occupied territories one week later. The German authorities had enjoyed the death of 4,000 Jewish civilians, whom the nationalists had slaughtered in Lviv and nearby cities a few days before, but disagreed on the independent stuff, arrested him temporarily in July. After the war, Bandera sought shelter in West Germany, where the US intelligence and Nazi underground groups were protecting him. The KGB managed to denazify him in Munich, on October 15, 1959

Since the 1930s, the OUN had always been an auxiliary organization of the German intelligence against Poland and Soviet Union. When they finally understood that the German Nazis would not grant them an independent fascist State, ally of Germany, the Ukrainian nationalists formed the UPA. Among lies and myths that many Ukrainians are broadcasting with the complacency of some Western media and politicians, especially in Canada, where the Ukrainian immigration is severe, one is that the Ukrainian nationalists would have fought against the German Nazis. FAKE. The Ukrainian nationalists, the OUN, the UPA, have NEVER fought against Nazi Germany. Actually, the German authorities did not give a damn about UPA, because Bandera’s thugs were carrying out ethnic cleansing, later fought against the enemies of the Nazis, the Red Army. Between late 1942 and 1945, they slaughtered Polish civilians, at least 50,000, maybe 100,000. There were anti-Nazi partisans in nowadays Ukraine, they were Poles or Soviet fighters.

• July 1, 2022

The Ukrainian foreign ministry distances itself

The opinion of the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk, which he expressed in an interview with a German journalist, is his personal opinion and does not reflect the positions of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry

• July 9, 2022

Melnyk is sacked. But the decree from Volodymyr Zelenskyy targets also the ambassadors to Hungary, India, Norway and Czech Republic. The sudden but obvious reason is that the Western military support is regarded as insufficient and his stance is not the best PR in the historical Heimat of Nazism. Melnyk has openly articulated his ideas, that mobs are sharing in Ukraine. His fall from grace is situational.

Part III