Supporters of the glorification of the UPA and Bandera at a rally… there’s a reason why the uniforms look like those of the Wehrmacht… the UPA fought alongside the Nazis against their compatriots.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko does not consider his posthumous granting of the title of Hero of the Ukraine to Stepan Bandera as a political action. “This was not a political move; Bandera did not merit this due to his politics. Someone had to do it, so, I did it”, he said Friday evening on the programme Big-time Politics with Yevgeni Kiselyov on the TV channel Inter. On Friday, 22 January, Yushchenko announced the posthumous conferment of the title of Hero of the Ukraine to the leader of Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, Stepan Bandera, one of the chieftains of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought on the side of the Germans against Soviet troops. Some political analysts suggest that Yushchenko made this move with an eye to the local and possible early parliamentary elections in May, in which he plans to stand as a candidate for his party, “Our Ukraine”.
Asked why he didn’t award the title to Bandera a year ago, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, and not at the very end of his tenure as president, Yushchenko said that he needed time to persuade his fellow citizens of the necessity of this step. “For myself, I had no qualms about this decision. However, I faced the question of how the country would understand this”, he said. Yushchenko, who on 17 January lost the first round of presidential elections, previously awarded the title of Hero of the Ukraine to another Ukrainian nationalist warlord, Roman Shukhevych. During the Great Patriotic War, Bandera collaborated with the Nazis; he helped them form SS battalions of Ukrainian volunteers. He was implicated in terrorist activities in the western Ukraine. Yushchenko handed the decoration to Bandera’s grandson, Stephen Bandera, a Canadian citizen, who is a journalist working in the Ukraine.
These guys not only look like Nazis, they glorify those who murdered thousands of Poles, Russians, Jews, Roma, Magyars, and (gasp!) Ukrainians. Reflect well on the fact that the Bush neocons supported such human flotsam.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s award of the title of the Hero of the Ukraine to the terrorist Stepan Bandera is a step towards breaking up the country, the opposition Party of Regions said. “Awarding the title of Hero of the Ukraine to Stepan Bandera on in the Day of Ukrainian Unity doesn’t contribute to the unification of the Ukraine. This step further divides and polarises our country. The Party of Regions insists that the President of the Ukraine change his policies. In all matters, the head of state should be the president of all the Ukraine, not merely one small part of it. We must do everything possible to bring our regions together and bring our people together, not throw new stones of contention amongst our people”, said a statement released by the press service of the Party of Regions.
Ukrainian nationalists repeatedly demanded that the Ukrainian government award the title of Hero of the Ukraine to Bandera posthumously. Oleg Tyagnibok, the head of the Freedom Party, rebuked President Yushchenko, saying that he was “so involved in the present political struggle that he was scared to award Stepan Bandera the title of Hero of the Ukraine”. In December 2009, at a meeting in Vinnitsa, Mr Yushchenko said that he saw no problem in the official recognition of Bandera as a hero. The glorification of the UPA and its leaders has been criticised by much of the public, indeed, many World War II veterans and politicians accuse Bandera of having been a Nazi collaborator and of committing atrocities against the Polish population of the Western Ukraine and the Jews.
Do not be fooled… this is the face of evil. Nevertheless, I believe that we should leave such sorts in peace for the remainder of their days. God will judge, that is certain. Of course, the UPA and OUN were evil and racist, and we should not be silent about THAT. But, these old codgers should be left in peace… it’s obscene to persecute the old, after all.
A significant number of Russians (37 percent) believe that Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera was a terrorist and murderer, but only 6 percent think that he is a hero of the Ukrainian people, according to a poll by VTsIOM published on the eve of the 50th anniversary of his death. It is noteworthy that a quarter of Russians surveyed first heard about Bandera from the interviewer (24 percent). Another quarter (25 percent) believes him to be a complex and ambiguous historical figure, with both strengths and weaknesses. Bandera was one of the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, the head of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Some in the Ukrainian government have tried to paint out Bandera as a national hero, a leader of the “national liberation struggle” of the Ukrainian people against Soviet totalitarianism and Nazism. According to the poll, half of Russians (51 percent) believe that the concept of heroism is clearly positive, and no nation has the right to lift up murderers, terrorists, and criminals as heroes. This view is most common in Siberians (59 percent) and older respondents (59 percent). 40 percent of respondents said that every nation has its heroes, as a rule, residents of the Central District (44 percent), Volga and Urals (43 and 44 percent respectively), as well those under 34 (43-44 percent) tended to give this response. Russians, according to the poll, view heroism as a positive concept, so, most tend to consider Bandera a common criminal (47 percent). Those who said that every nation has its heroes, at the same time, more often considered him a controversial historical figure (25 percent) than a fighter for the independence of the Ukraine (8 percent). VTsIOM conducted the poll form 3-4 October 2009. 1,600 people were interviewed in 140 localities in 42 oblasts, territories, and republics. The statistical error of the poll is plus or minus 3.4 percent.
14 October 2009
21 and 22 January 2010
Alena Meita
RIA-Novosti
http://www.rian.ru/politics/20100122/205870854.html
http://www.rian.ru/politics/20100122/205809626.html
http://www.rian.ru/society/20091014/188797013.html
Editor’s Note:
Never forget that Stepan Bandera voluntarily collaborated with the Nazis… that says it all. Reflect on that when you hear Galician nationalists praise him.
Bandera was a common criminal (he was convicted of murder in 1934 and he was sprung out of jail by the Nazis) and thug of the first degree, for instance, he organised the so-called Sluzhba Bezpeky or SB, a secret police force he modelled on the Cheka. The common people feared them; it had a well-earned reputation for ruthlessness (as does the CIA-trained SBU of Yushchenko). His OUN was racist to the core; see, for instance, “the Jews of the USSR were the most faithful supporters of the Bolshevik regime and the vanguard of Muscovite imperialism in the Ukraine”. Note also this slogan of 16 July 1941, “Long live the Ukraine without Jews, Poles, and Germans; the Poles should go behind the river San, the Germans should go to Berlin, and the Jews should go to the gallows”. As a result, the OUN and UPA collaborated with the Nazis and helped them in the destruction of Eastern European Jewry. However, when the tide of war turned against the Nazis, they plunged a knife into the back of their erstwhile allies. That is to say, the Galician Uniate nationalists (both Bandera and his wife were children of Uniate clergymen) are unstable in the extreme, and only follow shallow, short-term, and selfish ends. Don’t forget that Uniate fanatics attack Orthodox hierarchs, clergy, believers, and churches in the Ukraine mercilessly, as the story of Fr Mikhail Shuvar illustrates abundantly.
“Birds of a feather flock together”… clichés are what they are, but they became such because they are true. If you glorify Bandera, you tell the world that you approve of murder, racism, disloyalty, treachery, and brutality. There is no way around it. Hmm… Yushchenko’s SBU beat up Fr Dmitri Sidor and Uniate fanatics smashed an iron bar into the face of Fr Mikhail Shuvar. I don’t think that there is any dispute as to where respectable people should stand. You should oppose both “Ukrainian nationalism” and Uniate pretensions. It’s the only decent way open. You don’t want to stand with those who glorify the SS, do you?
BMD
