Ukraine is short of heroes. Many have been murdered, while others have had their memories blackened in other peoples’ histories. This is what is now happening with World War II-era freedom fighter Stepan Bandera, who led a difficult struggle during a violent period to sow the seeds of his nation’s present, yet painfully fragile independence.
Bandera symbolized the plight of millions of Ukrainians who suffered under various foreign occupiers for most of their history. For this, Bandera – killed in 1959 by a KGB agent while living in exile – received Ukraine’s highest honor, the Hero of Ukraine, posthumously awarded during Victor Yushchenko’s last days as president.
Bandera headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and backed its military wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought against Poles, Soviets and Nazis, who in turn fought against each other. But now the Poles, the Kremlin and more recently the European Union are together in condemning these insurgents as Nazi collaborators. The European Parliament voted on Feb. 25 to ask Kyiv to rescind the award.
Sadly, many Ukrainians have also succumbed to the historical condemnation of others. The history of World War II is complex, particularly in the region of modern-day western Ukraine. It was bloody on all sides, and few who led the charge into battle came out with clean hands. However, the post-war Nuremburg trials never condemned Bandera’s movement for war crimes. Bandera’s supporters briefly fought alongside Nazi soldiers to oust the Soviets from western Ukraine, where Russian czars had never ruled. In this, the UPA was little different to similar partisan movements in the Baltic countries. In contrast, the Soviets under Josef Stalin were aggressors on par with the Third Reich, with whom Stalin forged the secretive and sinister Molotov-Ribbentrop alliance in 1939 to carve up Eastern Europe.
Stalin’s regime also watched passively as the Third Reich attempted to wipe out European Jews. Now Kremlin leaders honor Stalin. There is no clear evidence of mass murder of Jews or Nazi collaboration by Bandera’s movement. There is clear evidence that his movement was aimed at attaining Ukrainian independence, much like Jews fought for an independent Israeli state.
When Bandera’s movement declared national independence, the Nazis imprisoned him. But his army fought against all enemies of his homeland with vigor. How much of a Nazi collaborator was Bandera, if he and close associates spent much of the war in a Nazi prison, and if close relatives died in Nazi camps?
Now, when his nation seeks to honor him, the campaign to tarnish him and thus Ukrainian sovereignty is being renewed. He wasn’t a Nazi, a Bolshevik or a Pole. He was a Ukrainian who deserves to be judged by the nation he served.
