Nazis in Ukraine — It’s Worse Than You Think
An entire generation is being brainwashed with Nazi hate — and it needs to stop.
As we know, one of the reasons Putin gave for invading Ukraine was the need to “de-Nazify” the country.
This does not simply mean the overthrow of the Kiev regime and the eradication of the neo-Nazi militias. It means reversing the government mandated programs of Nazification that have been perpetrated on an entire generation of Ukrainians over the past decade or more.
Since 2005, the ultranationalists in Kiev have largely SUCCEEDED in changing the views and opinions of average Ukrainians to become more pro-Nazi and more anti-Russian.
Putin’s goal of de-Nazification means eradicating the odious cult of Stepan Bandera, the infamous Nazi collaborator, and the “Banderites” that still follow his anti-Russian, anti-Semitic Nazi philosophy.
Indeed, starting with the so-called “Orange Revolution” of 2005 and then especially following the Maidan Coup of 2014, Ukraine has sought to brainwash its children (and the population in general) by pushing a Nazi-style propaganda effort that would have made Goebbels proud.
Here’s what’s inside this article
This article will detail how that campaign of Nazi indoctrination has succeeded thanks to several factors:
The imposition of the ultranationalist Nazi ideology that had always been specific to Western Ukraine has, thanks to decades of meddling and machinations of the United States and its Western allies, culminating in the violent coup d’état in 2014, now been imposed on the country in a “top down” strategy via the complete capture of the levers and organs of government, media and so-called “civil society”;
The limitless funding given by the West to the far-right and the coup government in Kiev has been funneled to neo-Nazi organisations in order to revitalise, restore and reinforce the odious Banderite philosophy at all levels and in all ares of Ukrainian society, from popular culture and youth organisations to educational institutions and curricula, even to the “public square”;
The extremists in Kiev as well as the extreme militant neo-Nazi youth groups have been lavishly supported by the vast international Ukrainian diaspora, where the Nazi-Banderite movement has been allowed to flourish and prosper unimpeded, uncriticised and unquestioned by the Western societies in which they have settled.
The result is a new generation of Ukrainian youth, as hate-filled and violent as they are arrogant and supremacist.
Over the past decade there has been a truly shocking transformation. One example: songs that were once banned and rightly condemned as fascistic and barbaric are now embraced by Ukraine’s young as simple, harmless “folk songs”:
“Rehabilitating” the OUN and UPA
The main objective of the Banderites in charge in Kiev is to turn Bandera and his WWII-era fascist criminals from disgraced Nazis into national heroes. This means above all changing the perceptions of Bandera’s Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN):
The OUN sought to infiltrate legal political parties, universities and other political structures and institutions. The OUN’s strategies to achieve Ukrainian independence included violence and terrorism against perceived foreign and domestic enemies, particularly Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Kingdom of Romania, and the Soviet Union.
In 1940, the OUN split into two parts. The older, more moderate members supported Andriy Atanasovych Melnyk and the OUN-M, while the younger and more radical members supported Stepan Bandera’s OUN-B.
The OUN-B was allied with Hitler’s Nazi forces in WWII:
At a congress of Ukrainian nationalists, held in Krakow in April 1941, the attendees officially adopted numerous fascist principles, symbols and rituals. These included the principle of ‘One nation, one party, one leader’, the black-and-red flag symbolising blood and soil, and the fascist salute, which became a greeting. In addition to that, both the ideology and the actions of OUN included anti-Semitic themes.
After the start of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), the OUN-B in the person of Yaroslav Stetsko declared an independent Ukrainian state on 30 June 1941 in occupied Lviv, while the region was under the control of Nazi Germany, pledging loyalty to Adolf Hitler.
The War Crimes of the UPA
Bandera was also head of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the military wing of the OUN-B, which carried out all manner of atrocities against Poles, Jews and Russians while working with the Nazis.
What the Banderites did
As an Austrian, Hitler was well aware of the ethnic affinities of the Western Ukrainians:
“Russian Ukraine cannot be compared to Austrian Galicia… The Austrian-Galician Ruthenians are closely intertwined with the Austrian state. Therefore, in Galicia it is possible to allow the SS to form one division from the local population.” — Adolf Hitler, 1942.
Hitler knew his history. In fact, Stepan Bandera’s home town of Lviv was actually named “Lemberg” at the time of his birth. It was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the capital city of “Austrian Galicia” until after WWI.
Under the militant leadership of Bandera in World War II, the UPA organized the Ukrainian Waffen SS “Galician” Division, as well as the “Nachtigall” and “Roland” battalions that collaborated with the Nazis and were responsible for the genocide of over 500,000 people.
Following the war, however, Ukrainian Nazis were able to escape trial at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity. Moreover, neither the Banderites, the Ukrainian Waffen SS, nor any other Ukrainian collaborators have ever apologised for their participation in genocide.
Indeed, Ukrainians to this day hold ceremonies and parades honouring those who fought for Hitler’s Waffen SS in WWII.
What Banderites believe
For the Banderites, the liberation from fascist occupation by the Red Army in October 1944 and the victory over fascism in Germany in May 1945 did not constitute a liberation, not a victory, but a new occupation of Ukraine by Soviet Russia.
They only accept as legitimate (1) the Ukrainian state that was proclaimed by Yaroslav Stetsko in 1941 under the Nazis and (2) the current Ukrainian state that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Since the Orange Revolution in 2005, there has been a determined, well-planned and well-funded movement in Ukraine to resurrect the “cover story” that the Banderite Ukrainian fascists in the OUN-UPA were valiant“victims” of the Nazis, rather than collaborators.
This movement, unfortunately, has met with great success- not least thanks to the help of the Ukrainian diaspora and the anti-Russian Western powers.
Targeting the young through popular culture
Ukrainian nationalist organisations and political movements have been disseminating their ideology among young people with Kiev’s backing and funding.
Since the Ukrainian Nazis were never held to account for their war crimes, today they are free to practice their ideology openly and without shame.
Asgardsrei — Ukraine’s Annual Neo-Nazi Music Festival
Asgardsrei is a festival of national socialist black metal (NSBM) that takes place every December in Kiev. It was started originally in Moscow by Russian far-right extremist Alexey Levkin, but moved with Levkin to Ukraine in 2014 when he left Russia to fight with the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion (Levkin remains involved with the Azov movement).
“Banderstadt” — another Nazi Music Festival
Banderstadt is an informal name of the city of Lviv, the birthplace of Stepan Bandera. The name “Banderstadt” comes from the surname Bandera and the German “Stadt” — meaning “city”.
The Banderstadt Music Festival is a prime example of Ukrainian brainwashing of their young. Billed as a “Festival of the Ukrainian Spirit”, it is organised and funded by the Ukraine Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The official (Ukrainian) Wikipedia page states that the festival first started in 2007, shortly after the US-backed “Orange Revolution“ — a CIA organised “color revolution” that succeeded in placing Banderite nationalists in the government.
That first Banderstadt festival was, according to the organisers, “ dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the formation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)”. The UPA was the military wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists — also known as the OUN-B (“B” for “Bandera”).
A Slovakian blogger attended the Banderstadt 2017 festival and was stunned by the distinctly Russophobic nature of the event:
It would not hurt to focus on the performances of nationalist “heroes” from the infamous Azov Battalion, regular guests of the festival, who teach children there “patriotic” handling of weapons. Manifestations of anti-Russian hatred are common, e.g. competition in shooting portraits of V. Putin . Xenophobia and hatred against Russians oozes even from the buffets: the well-known culinary specialty of the festival is “Moscow soup”, during which inappropriate jokes are made about “muscovites” (a derogatory term for Russians).
Ukrainian singer Jamala, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, sang at Banderstadt 2016.
Banderstadt Ultras — the premier Nazi Football Club
There is even a football fan club in Lviv that names itself using the Bandera neologism.
Here is a video of the Banderstadt Ultras at a football match (and no, they are not all calling a taxi):
Lessons from the Hitler Youth
Banderite Nazis in Ukraine have created a robust network of “youth” organisations, blending scouting, camping and community service with ideology, militarism, and anti-Russian hatred.
Ukrainian Youth Nationalist Congress
The Ukrainian Youth National Congress, also known simply as the MNK, is OUN-B’s militant youth group in Ukraine. It was formed in 2001 and its website prominently quotes Yurii Lipa, a famous nationalist radical:
“Ukraine will be free not after the liberation of Kyiv, but after the destruction of Moscow as the capital of the Russian superpower” — Ukraine Youth Nationalist Congress (MNK)
The MNK is perhaps best know for the various regional “Summer Camps” it operates. These camps teach paramilitary skills and a virulent form of Banderite nationalism. In 2021, MNK operated 7 of these camps, with names such as “Avengers”, “Path of the Unconquered”. “Knight of Honour” and “Underground”. There is even one called “Lysonya” — referring to a famous WWI battle between Russians and Ukrainians (who were fighting for Austria).
Weaponising Youth for Nationalist Activism
The MNK also runs various “Public Campaigns” which embrace nationalist activist themes, such as the “Decommunization Campaign”.
Following the 2014 Maidan Coup in Kiev, Ukrainian lawmakers passed a series of bills known collectively as the Decommunization Laws, meant to sever the country’s ties to its Russian and Soviet past. One of the bills prohibited what it called the “public denial of the legitimacy of the struggle for independence of Ukraine in the twentieth century.”
Transforming Nazi collaborators into “freedom fighters”
In practical terms, these bills paved the way for the rehabilitation of Ukrainian ultranationalist leaders who had collaborated with the Nazis:
One of the four bills in the package, On the Legal Status and Honouring of Fighters for Ukraine’s Independence in the Twentieth Century, covers a long list of individuals and organisations from human rights activists to guerrillas accused of ethnic cleansing. It would allow veterans of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), followers of Bandera, to receive state benefits, and rules that denial or disrespect of their role in fighting for Ukrainian independence is an unlawful “desecration of their memory”.
While the new laws were cheered in Western Ukraine, they were controversial in many other parts of the country.
The MNK jumped into action to hasten the “Nazification” of monuments, streets, parks and other public commons:
MNK members are taught that the history of Ukraine is one of struggle against “Russian imperialism”. This view of history posits that the Ukrainian people are different and distinct from Russians, when in reality that characterisation only applies to a small minority of Ukrainians living in the Western provinces (which used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian and Polish empires):
Despite its neo-Nazi orientation, MNK is heavily financed by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation as well as USAID and the NED, and provided a lot of support for the pro-Europe, pro-Western movement and the Maidan protests:
Another program of the MNK is the ongoing campaign to prepare themselves — and Ukrainian society as a whole — to hate and oppose and eradicate all things Russian from Ukraine:
Ukrainian Youth Association (CYM)
Even more globe-straddling than the MNK is the Ukrainian Youth Association (CYM).
Based in Canada, the CYM also has chapters in Ukraine, USA, Australia, Belgium, Great Britain, Spain, Estonia, Germany, Portugal, France and of course, Argentina (because, you know — NAZIS).
The CYM, because of its strong origins within the international diaspora, is even more pro-Bandera than the MNK. On their website they have dedications to the OUN leader:
“The Ukrainian Youth Association, as a youth and nationalistic organisation, strongly upholds Bandera as a righteous hero of Ukraine and a symbol of a fighting Ukraine”.
CYM is extremely militant. The organisation’s official slogan for 2023 is: “NOW SYMBOLS — NOW FIGHTERS!”
PLAST — Bandera’s Own Scouting Organisation
In addition to the MNK and CYM, Ukraine has a more openly military group called “PLAST”. This group was first formed in 1911 and has always been a “military patriotic” youth organisation and a part of the OUN and UPA.
From the official PLAST website:
“PLAST” greatly facilitated the work of the OUN due to the fact that it could carry out propaganda among young people in educational institutions.
Many of the leaders and active members of the OUN and UPA were brought up by “PLAST”, in particular the leader of the OUN(b) Stepan Bandera, Colonel-General of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army Roman Shukhevych.
Not your normal scouting organisation
PLAST is not to be confused with the international scout movement. Indeed, there is a “normal”, internationally recognised scouting organisation in Ukraine called the National Organisation of the Scouts of Ukraine (NOSU). This is the organisation one thinks of when we think of scouting — it has neither the nationalist nor the militarist aspects that characterise PLAST.
PLAST set up shop in other countries
PLAST existed in Western Ukraine until 1930 and, after WWII, was transferred to the countries settled by postwar Ukrainian “refugees “ — i.e., Banderite Nazi collaborators who fled Ukraine when the Soviets marched in. These Banderites went first to Germany and Austria, and after 1948, to Canada ,USA, UK, Australia and of course, Argentina (because, you know — NAZIS).
In Canada, for example, PLAST established branches across the country. Today there are PLAST centres in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, St.Catharines, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary:
After the collapse of the USSR, Plast renewed its activities in Ukraine where it became a national organization with branches in all oblasts (provinces) of Ukraine. Plast in Canada aided in the development of the reborn organization in Ukraine, often with the support and sponsorship of Canadian government programs.
Other extremist youth organisations are also flourishing
In 2018, the neo-Nazi Svoboda and C14 organisations received over 1 million Hryvinias in Ukrainian government grants for “patriotic youth education” projects. In 2019, the authorities allocated funds for the military patriotic youth camp Khorunzhy (“Standard-Bearer”), named after Nazi collaborator Taras Bulba-Borovets, and several other similar projects.
Indeed, the Azov Battalion itself set up a “boot camp” for kids in the Eastern town of Sumy.
Indoctrination through “Education”
Anna Novosad became Minister of Education for Ukraine following the Maidan Coup. Her biography always mentions that, in this role, she “contributed and led the comprehensive school reform in Ukraine”.
She is Western educated and served an internship in Canada under the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program before becoming minister. She is also a Fellow in the Open Societies Fund (a Soros foundation for “transforming civil society”).
Novosad described her mission during a speech in Kiev at the Yalta European Strategy forum:
According to Novosad, the past five years after the “revolution” showed that Russia is an enemy of Ukraine, and in history books it is still written about friendship with the “aggressor”. Therefore, she was convinced that history books should be rewritten and any mention of friendship with Russia removed from there.
Rewriting the textbooks = rewriting history
In 2008, the Institute of National Memory (UNIP) was tasked with writing new textbooks on Ukrainian history “in order to help bring up the younger generation in a spirit recognising their national identity, respect and love for their native land”.
This process became perverted, however, following the Maidan Coup. By 2018, according to Eduard Dolinsky of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, it was clear that the UNIP was rewriting the history of Ukraine as it pertained to WWII and the Holocaust:
Given the Government of Ukraine’s wholesale rewriting of history we can now assume that Ukraine’s new generation will grow up with literally no knowledge of the Holocaust and how 1.4 million (in some estimates 1.5 million or more) Ukrainian Jews were massacred, many with the active and enthusiastic assistance of the Nazis’ Ukrainian nationalist collaborators.
In the eyes of numerous of Ukraine’s Western supporters, this represents an affront to all basic Western standards of human decency and is truly a tragedy for an ostensibly democratic Ukraine committed to future membership in the European Union.
Teaching the “Thousand Year” Ukrainian Reich
Ukrainian textbooks are still perverted in their portrayal of Ukraine and its place in history and the world.
In April 2023, Russian representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia came to the UN Security Council with a Ukrainian textbook, echoing the claim made by the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, adding some more colour along the way:
“The Ministry of Education of Ukraine is engaged in total rewriting of history. I took an 8th grade geography textbook. If you believe it, the ancestors of the French, Spaniards, Turks and even Jews came from Ukraine. I want to address my French colleague: Nicolas, did you know that you are actually Ukrainian? If you don’t believe it, read the textbook. It has an iron logic: since the ancestors of the French are Gauls, they came from Galicia in Ukraine. Do you know that, according to the author of the textbook, Ukrainians and Poles have Slavic origin, and Russians — Ugro-Finnish?”
“Slavs were also denied to Belarusians, they were referred to as Baltic peoples. The history textbook of Ukraine for the 7th grade says that “the formation of the Ukrainian people has 140 thousand years.” The history textbook for the 9th grade states that “by the end of the XIX century, Ukrainians were one of the largest nations in Europe.”
“The author of the book “The Ukrainian Nation” is generally convinced that “the population of Eastern Europe entered the first millennium of the new era under the name Ukrainians.”
Department of “National Patriotic Education” (NPE)
The Strategy for the National-Patriotic Education of Children and Youth was ratified by the (Post-Coup) President of Ukraine in 2015. It was all about “Militarising Citizenship” in Ukraine.
As mentioned above, Kiev government funding of neo-Nazi militias and their associated youth groups has even been confirmed by the US government propaganda outlet RadioFreeEurope:
C14, a group whose members have openly expressed neo-Nazi views and been involved in the recent violent attacks on Romany camps in Kyiv, and the far-right affiliated Svoboda political party, are the recipients of Youth and Sports Ministry grants for “national-patriotic education projects,” according to a June 13 report by Hromadske Radio. [NOTE: Youth and Sports Ministry is the same Ministry that funds the Nazi Banderstadt Festival]
In several instances analysed by Bellingcat:
…organizations that were approved for and apparently received state NPE projects funding share leadership with C14 and National Corps; both of these groups attracted international attention in 2018 because of their reported roles in attacks on members of Ukraine’s Roma minority, LGBT populations, feminist activists, and journalists. Furthermore, in 2019, these same groups made headlines due to violent clashes they had with Ukrainian law enforcement in separate incidents that led to charges against these organizations’ members. For example, in March 2019, clashes between National Corps and police in Cherkasy left 22 members of law enforcement with injuries, according to a statement by Ukraine’s National Police.
The “Education Assembly” and C14
The so-called Education Assembly is another youth indoctrination group that is tied to the odious C14 militia, which was also designated by the US State Department as a nationalist hate group that instigated a Nazi-style pogrom against a Roma camp in 2018.
In fact, one of Education Assembly’s co-founders, Yevhen Karas, was actually the notorious leader of C14.
Karas is infamous for his outrageous statements like “we enjoy killing” and claiming that C14 were responsible for the Maidan Coup. Without the violent “muscle” of C14, he says, Maidan “would have been a gay parade”.
Russophobia on blast
The Hromadske Radio report on C14 also said: “Most of C14’s actions do seem to be directed at Russia, or those sympathetic towards Russia.” Clearly this anti-Russian hatred is what Education Assembly is designed to promote.
The Institute of National Memory (UNIP)
The Institute of National Memory (UNIP) was tasked with much more than its original mandate of just rewriting the history textbooks. Since the Maidan Coup it has become a “force multiplier” for the Nazis in Ukraine. The interpretation and teaching of history was moved from a regional to a national level, which allowed the Nazis in Kiev to flex their muscle and exert influence far beyond what their small numbers would normally allow.
First, it is important to know that the UNIP was originally formed in 2005 following the so-called Orange Revolution that saw a pro-Western government win control in Kiev.
In 2010, however, then President Viktor Yanukovych issued a decree that lowered its status to a mere research institution. This was reversed once the Banderites seized power.
After the Maidan Coup and the installation of the US-backed nationalist coup regime, the UNIP was elevated to an official government body with a substantial budget.
Following its 2014 revolution, when National memory became nationalised and centralised, Ukrainian lawmakers in Kiev passed a series of bills known collectively as the Decommunisation Laws, meant to sever the country’s ties to its Russian and Soviet past. One of the bills prohibited what it called the “public denial of the legitimacy of the struggle for independence of Ukraine in the twentieth century.”
It seems absurd and unnecessary on its face that Ukraine would need “de-communisation” 23 years after the fall of the USSR, but by using this “cover story” the Ukrainian nationalists were able to eradicate Russian heritage in Ukraine, while “rehabilitating” the criminal past of the OUN and UPA.
The Institute for National Memory (UINP), also translated as the “Institute for National Remembrance” was tasked with implementing Decommunisation.
Starting in 2015, the UINP fell under the de facto control of Ukrainian nationalist forces, specifically the Liberation Movement Research Center (LMRC). This is a hard-core Banderite organisation dedicated to the glorification of the OUN and especially the UPA, whom they portray as valiant heroes fighting for the “liberation” of Ukraine from the Nazis, and then the Soviets.
The nationalist forces, which were not popular in Ukraine and which never managed well in the national elections, suddenly received a significant instrument to influence Ukrainian education and politics.
They were relentless in their pursuit of de-Russification under the official Decommunisation Laws. Streets all over Ukraine have been renamed after people like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych — whom the Times of Israel reminds us were leaders of the OUN-UPA, and whose men collaborated with the Nazis and were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews and Poles.
The UNIP, according to the Times, “undertook a massive campaign to rehabilitate their images, casting them as fighters for democracy whose followers saved Jews from the Germans”.
Rewriting history from the top down
Ukraine is moving to rewrite history on a European scale.
For example, in 2015, as Kiev’s colossal campaign of indoctrination, brainwashing and propaganda was hitting its stride, lavishly fuelled by Western dollars and supported by Neocons in Washington and Europe, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk appeared in a TV interview on ARD in Germany.
During this interview Yatsenyuk delivered an outrageously distorted version of the history of World War II, accusing the Soviet Union of having invaded Germany and Ukraine:
“Russian aggression in Ukraine is an attack on world order and order in Europe. All of us still clearly remember the Soviet invasion of Ukraine and Germany. That has to be avoided. And nobody has the right to rewrite the results of the Second World War. And that is exactly what Russia’s President Putin is trying to do.”
No one said a word. The German interviewer said nothing. The network issued no correction. The German government refused to condemn it. Yatsenyuk had gotten away with the most elemental part of any propaganda campaign: accuse your enemy of what you yourself are doing.
After all, Josef Goebbels, speaking at the Nuremberg rally in 1934, stated:
“The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the war was to accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing.”
Yatsenyuk had learned well from his Nazi masters.
The demonic diaspora comes home
The Jerusalem Post noted the connection between the Ukrainian OUN-B (Banderite) diaspora and the events in the Maidan in 2014:
A diaspora-funded cabal of western Ukrainian anti-communists and crypto-fascists has been quietly plotting to take over the rest of Ukraine since independence in 1991. They have patiently interpenetrated ruling spheres of electoral politics, culture, education, civics, and the power ministries to outlaw opponents and ensure the impunity of their own political violence specialists in public service. They have also convinced the West to support them in rewriting the primarily Soviet history — hence illegitimate to nationalists — of the Holocaust by Bullets in World War II-era western Ukraine.
There is a huge diaspora of the Ukrainian Nationalist youth groups (in addition to PLAST), and they have become well-connected in the power centres of North America:
The OUN-B affiliated League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), which wields significant influence in the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), the Toronto-based Buduchnist Credit Union (BCU) Financial Group, and the Conservative Party of Canada, has been one of the VL’s chief fundraisers via its BCU-sponsored “Friends of Ukraine Defense Forces Fund.”
On the homepage of its website, the LUC promotes the “Movement to Resist Capitulation” (ROK), which it has lobbied the UCC to support. The Center for US-Ukrainian Relations, allegedly led by the US leader of the OUN-B, has helped hook up Andriy Levus, who is an MNK member, the head of VL, and seemingly the de-facto leader of the ROK, with prominent hawks in Washington, such as the longtime president of the hardline American Foreign Policy Council.
This North American OUN-UPA diaspora really delivered for the Banderites in Kiev.
Following the Maidan Coup and the seizing of power by the government of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (aka “Yats”), the US State Department sent Kiev $320 million in aid to promote “National Unity, Democracy, Human Rights, and Media” — just in 2014! All told, the US spent over $5 BILLION in Ukraine to “build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance” according to Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland.
Kiev then turned around and funneled that money to extremist, ultranationalist propaganda organisations like the Department of National Patriotic Education, Institute of National Memory, the Education Assembly, the Ukrainian Youth National Congress, PLAST, the National Corps, the Liberation Movement Research Center, PORA, not to mention far-right neo-Nazi groups like Svoboda, C14 and Right Sector.
O[UN], Canada!
For its part, Canada has proven to be an extremely fertile ground for “true believers” in the Bandera movement. Indeed, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), the Ukrainian Youth Association (CYM)and the International Council in Support of Ukraine (ICSU), the global coordinating body of OUN-B affiliated organizations are all headquartered in Toronto.
As investigative journalist Moss Robeson writes:
Moreover, the Ukrainian Youth Association (CYM), also founded in 1946, is itself an international organization affiliated with the OUN-B, and teaches young people that being a patriotic Ukrainian means glorifying the OUN-UPA. CYM has partially done so in Canada via ceremonies held in front of memorials and portraits, and Edmonton’s bust of Shukhevych in particular. Outside of Ukraine, only in Canada is CYM so brazen about displaying portraits of its fascist heroes.
The Canadian Banderites actually enjoy high level political connections:
Through the so-called “Canadian Conference in Support of Ukraine” (CCSU), many of Canada’s leading Conservatives have befriended a historically criminal, fascist network of Ukrainian nationalists that has remained dedicated to pushing the West to the brink of war with Russia since before World War Two ended.
In fact, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has direct ties to a Nazi collaborator — her grandfather, Michael Chomiak, was given a powerful post, money, home and car by the German Army in Cracow, then the capital of the German administration of the Galician region.
Like so many Banderite Ukrainians who worked and fought for the Nazis, Chomiak was captured and spent two years “working” for US Army intelligence before he was allowed to enter Canada.
Ukraine is changing the West’s mind as well
It is not enough for Ukraine to brainwash its own citizens, however. They need to do the same for the entire Western populations as well.
Prior to the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Western media was well aware of Ukraine’s “Nazi problem”.
Even the US Congress passed a law in 2015 that “limits arms, training, and
other assistance to the neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia, the Azov Battalion”.
The reasoning was entered into the Congressional Record:
“Foreign Policy magazine has characterized the 1,000-man Azov Battalion as ‘openly neo-Nazi’ and ‘fascist.’ Numerous other news organizations, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the Associated Press have corroborated the dominance of White supremacist and anti-Semitic views within the group; yet Ukraine’s Interior Minister recently announced the Azov Battalion will be among the units to receive training and arms from Western allies, including the United States. Azov’s founder, Andriy Biletsky, organized the neo-Nazi group the Social-National Assembly in 2008. Azov men use neo-Nazi symbolism on their banner”.
The ban was lifted, however, in 2016 under pressure from the Pentagon, much to the chagrin of Efraim Zuroff of the Wiesenthal Center:
“In recent years, the United States has purposely ignored the glorification of Nazi collaborators, the granting of financial benefits to those who fought alongside the Nazis, and the systematic promotion of the canard of equivalency between Communist and Nazi crimes by these countries because of various political interests.”
In 2019, Congress tried again. 40 members of Congress wrote a letter to the US Secretary of State demanding that the Azov Battalion be be officially placed on the foreign terrorist organisation list alongside the Islamic State and al Qaeda.
The letter prompted a propaganda backlash from Ukraine:
Azov…is promoting an online petition to Zelensky demanding that he officially condemn the letter; it sent representative after representative on TV to talk about how it is not a terrorist group…Azov is using the opportunity to claim that not only the regiment but the whole group is hardly the neo-Nazi-friendly extremist movement its detractors claim it to be. “Veterans, not terrorists!” is the slogan.
CONCLUSION: The Nazis emerge victorious
Unfortunately, the various government ministries in Ukraine along with the alphabet soup of private sector organisations have achieved tremendous success at rewriting history.
Proof is in the polling
In 2022 the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a survey of Ukrainian views on Stepan Bandera’s OUN-UPA and their activities during WWII.
The results, when compared to a similar poll conducted in 2013 (pre-Maidan Coup), are startling.
In 2013, the largest cohort of respondents (42%) viewed the activities of the OUN-UPA “Negatively”. In other words, collaboration with the Nazis and mass killings of Poles, Jews and Russians was frowned upon by almost half the respondents.
By 2022, however, that percentage had sunk to only 8%. In fact, the 2022 poll showed that the largest cohort (43%) viewed the OUN-UPA “Positively”.
In addition, the number of respondents who found it “Hard to say for sure” increased from 27% on 2013 to 37% in 2022.
The mass propaganda campaign to rewrite history and portray Bandera and the OUN-UPA in a positive light was shown to be a resounding success. The Coup government has succeeded in convincing millions of people that Bandera was a hero, and creating doubt about Bandera’s guilt in the minds of millions more.
#End
Thank you for publishing this thorough piece.