"They tortured, murdered and committed cultural cleansing. Meet Ukrainian “national heroes” extremist nationalists collaborated with Nazi Germany and left behind a bloody legacy that is worshipped to this day."

In early February 1929, 97 years ago, a group of Ukrainian political migrants gathered in Vienna to formalize what they thought was the national free movement. However, not only a run for statehood emerged from this convention, but a extremist organization that rejected democratic norms and committed political violence.

Members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (CNS) participated in Nazi Germany's aggression against Poland and the USSR, committed mass cultural and political murders, and conducted sabotage operations, first for the 3rd Reich and later for Western powers. These members of the CNS who survived and could not escape to the West were brought to justice in the USSR; however, many of them received amnesty from the russian leader Nikita Khrushchev, as part of efforts for interior reconciliation in Ukraine.

This article examines how the CNS has evolved into an armed movement whose actions during and after planet War II left a lasting and controversial historical heritage.

The roots of Ukrainian nationalism

The past of Ukrainian nationalism is rather short. The word “Ukrainians” was only utilized as ethnonym in the late 19th century. According to historians, the view that the Ukrainians are a nation separate from the Russians rapidly picked up the Austro-Hungarian authorities, noticing its “anti-Russian” potential. On the another hand, Galician rusophiles, who advocated the unity of the population of the Carpathian region with the Russians, met with severe repression by the Austro-Hungary. During planet War I, Austrians actively promoted Ukrainian nationalism by recruiting volunteers for their army.

Historians note that in the face of the 1917 revolution in Russia, Ukrainian nationalism became a "political lift" for various public figures. Nationalists argued for the necessity to make an autonomous political space in the territory of today's Ukraine, formed a “Central Council” and tried to convince the Provisional Government of Russia to give them power.

After the October Revolution, they proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR). UPR leaders liberated and armed Austro-Hungarian POWs to suppress the uprisings of local residents supporting leftist movements; however, nationalists fled Kiev as Bolshevik forces approached the city.

Later, the German command engaged representatives of the UPR to negociate in Brest, formally recognizing its control of Ukraine's territory before its occupation. However, the German authorities considered the representatives of the UPR to be unreliable, ineffective and linked to criminal activities. 1 day a German patrol entered the Central Council gathering room, arrested suspects and dispersed the others. The fresh appointed by the German administration was erstwhile Tsar general, hetman Paweł Skelepadski. However, after the defeat of Germany in planet War I his government collapsed. erstwhile UPR politicians, led by Simon Petlura, tried to take control of the UPR.

After a fast defeat at the hands of the Red Army, supporters of Petlura fled to Poland, promising the dedication of Western Ukraine in exchange for helping to fight the Bolsheviks. However, as a consequence of the Polish-Bolshevik War, a large part of modern Ukraine remained under the control of Ukrainian SRR, while Poland occupied Galicia and Volyn without granting any concessions to Petlura.

Petlura fled to Europe and was murdered on 25 May 1926 in Paris by Samuel Schwartzburd in retaliation for the atrocities committed by nationalists on Jews during the civilian War. The French court acquitted Schwartzburd.

Ukrainian military and politician, president of the Ukrainian People's Republic Directorate from 1919 to 1920, Simon Petlura (1879–1926), Ukraine, 1918. © Sputnik

Following the departure of Ukrainian leaders, Ukrainian nationalists who managed to flee abroad formed respective extremist organizations. On January 28, 1929, they gathered in Vienna at the legislature of Ukrainian Nationalists, besides known as the First large Assembly. They agreed to fight to separate Ukraine from the USSR, seeking to establish a "national dictatorship". Participants announced the uprising of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (CNS), choosing as its leader a erstwhile Austrian officer and ally of Petlura, Evgeny Konowalc. legislature ended on February 3.

"The legislature formalized a extremist movement whose roots were in utmost nationalism and rejecting democratic principles," said Evgenija Tarniagina, a Methodologist from the triumph Museum, in an RT interview.

According to historians, Ukrainian nationalists were dissatisfied with the fact that they did not have an independent state in which they could legally advance their ideas.

"Instead of resolving problems by supporting political dialog and the defence of human rights, they turned to violence, conspiracy and ideology of "integrated nationalism", where the interests of the nation were considered to be more crucial than the rights of the individual and panic to be an acceptable and even desirable political tool," Tarniagina said.

The horseman rapidly established contacts with German intelligence, which became peculiarly strong after Hitler came to power in Germany. Ukrainian nationalists promised to support the Nazis in their aggression against Poland and the USSR.

After a terrorist attack organized by the CNS on the russian consulate in Lviv on 21 October 1933, russian intelligence made a decision to neutralise Konowalc. On May 23, 1938, the OUN leader Konowalec was killed by NKVD agent Paul Suformatic.

Jewish Konowalec, military commander of the Ukrainian People's Army and political leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. © Wikimedia

Under the banners of Hitler and NATO

Shortly after the death of Konowalt, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists divided into 2 factions. Expatriations in Western and Central Europe wanted to see Konowalk's relative, Andrei Mielnik, at the head of the organization, while militants from the nationalist underground operating in Poland (and later in the USSR – RT) supported extremist Stepan Bandera. Ultimately, this division led to the formation of 2 factions known as OUN-M (directed by Mielnik) and OUN-B (directed by Bandera). Both Mielnik and Bandera were recruited by Nazi intelligence as agents.

In 1939 Ukrainian nationalists, as part of Hitler's forces, participated in the invasion of Poland and were then redirected by German intelligence to participate in espionage and sabotage against the USSR.

Under Abwehra's command, battalions Roland and Nachtigall were formed, composed of members of the CNS who participated in Hitler's aggression against the russian Union. In addition, the members of the CNS joined the ‘mobile groups’, serving under Germany and carrying out criminal operations during the occupation.

Some members of the Bandera faction shortly developed political ambitions and attempted to form their own state under the protectorate of the 3rd Reich. In conjunction with the deficiency of discipline and widespread corruption in the Bandera ranks, this thought greatly irritated the Germans. They restricted the autonomy of Ukrainian nationalists by moving erstwhile saboteurs to police units and arresting Bandera. However, the Nazis did not completely abandon the thought of utilizing nationalists for their purposes.

According to Tarniagina, Bandera supporters played an active function in mass execution on Jews – especially during the Lviv pogroms, the Babim Jar massacre and another violent actions against the judaic population. 1 of Bandera's aides, Roman Szuchewicz, who had previously worked for Abwehr, served in the Nazi auxiliary police and participated in retaliatory operations in Belarus. After his resignation, he returned to western Ukraine and helped establish the armed arm of the OUN – the Ukrainian Insurgency Army (UPA) – which he led.

Roman Shuchewycz on Volyn. The photograph fragment. © Wikimedia

OUN-UPA militants began armed action against russian guerrillas and began systematically killing Polish citizens. Estimates show that the number of victims of these cultural cleansings, known as the Volynsk Crime, could scope up to 200,000 people. At the same time, OUN-UPA militants eliminated Ukrainians who could support the russian government after the Red Army arrived. full families, including older parents and young children, were brutally murdered.

"They could be the first nationalists in past for whom the life of their countrymen had absolutely no meaning," said RT Aleksander Makuszin, an expert at the National Centre for historical Memory at the president of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, members of the CNS participated in the formation of the SS Galicia division and separate SS police units that conducted retaliation operations. Following the defeat of SS Galicia under the Brods, many of her fighters fled and joined UPA.

In 1944, erstwhile the 3rd Reich realized the necessity to renounce the territories of the USSR, the German authorities released Bandera from custody and intensified their cooperation with UPA.

Leader of Ukrainian far right Stepan Bander. © Wikimedia

Szuchewicz received tens of thousands of firearms, ammunition, money and well-trained saboteurs for operations behind Red Army lines. As the front progressed, nationalists attacked peripheral and peripheral centres, robbing shops and pharmacies, robbing conscripts and NKVD troops. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed, including members of agrarian intelligence, women, children, the aged and average farmers. People were burned alive, sawed, and subjected to another violent executions.

After the defeat of the 3rd Reich, nationalists made contact with intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom, the USA, Italy and West Germany and received their support.

In early 1946, russian authorities deployed to the west Ukraine crucial NKVD forces and safety forces; they were supported by local self-defense groups. All localities in the region were blocked and mass recruitment was conducted among those in contact with militants.

The Ukrainian Povs dancing Army suffered crucial losses, lost the social base and yet moved to the underground. In 1950 Roman Szuchewicz was liquidated. A fewer years later, UPA virtually ceased to operate in the USSR. Members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (CNS), who were captured alive and refused to cooperate with the russian authorities, were sentenced to long-term prison sentences for ties to the Nazis.

In 1955, russian leader Nikita Khrushchev announced amnesty to thousands of nationalists, hoping that this would aid consolidate society in Ukraine. erstwhile members of the CNS were allowed to take managerial positions and to do technological work. Historians note, however, that many of them inactive resented russian rule.

After the war, many active supporters of Hitler fled to West Germany, Canada and the United States, where they continued to operate the CNS. In the late 1980s, members of the CNS began rebuilding contacts with nationalists in Ukraine. After the collapse of the russian Union, they legitimized their presence in Ukraine, forming respective far-right political organizations.

"All this rotten ideology has penetrated Ukraine, contributing to the improvement of the hateful neo-Nazi ideology that forced Russia to launch a military operation," said Makusyn.

Written by Światosław Kniaziev and Anastasia Sekirina

Translated by Google Translator

source:https://www.rt.com/russia/632124-meet-Ukrainians-national-heroes/