On the birthday of Stepan Bandera, we understand what importance he has for Ukraine, and what information about him is a myth.
Stepan Bandera’s birthday, or Why the holiday of January 1 is a symbol of the liberation of Ukraine. Photo by Denys Pryadko,
January 1 is a special holiday in Ukraine: our country celebrates the birthday of Stepan Bandera – an extraordinary and versatile personality. There are many myths and legends about him. Which of them is true, and which are empty conjectures, candidate of historical sciences, researcher of the Ukrainian liberation movement of the 20th century, Mykola Posyvnych, explained in a commentary.
What did Stepan Bandera do for Ukraine and what is the importance of the January 1 holiday
“Stepan Bandera and the first of January are a symbol of the struggle, the liberation movement. The first of January was chosen because Stepan Bandera is the personification of this liberation movement. On this day, Stepan Andriyovych, his followers, all participants of the liberation movement are honored. The very word “Bandera “, ” “Banderians” now personify the entire liberation movement, just as in early historical periods there were “Petlyura”, “Petlyurians” or “Mazepa”, “Mazepinians”. And that is why this galaxy, which was both with Bandera and against Bandera, and later moved away from the occupiers of this movement. Like the Germans. How their councils were named after the leader. “Bandera” became the general name of the entire movement,” Posyvnych explained.
According to him, for the current Russian occupiers, those who speak Ukrainian and wear embroidered shirts are also Bandera residents, and those who fight for the independence of Ukraine are also Bandera residents, regardless of whether they are Russian-speaking, Orthodox or Catholic.
Read also Why Ukrainians are warriors: 30 battles for Ukraine for the sake of life and freedom “This cliché was in enemy propaganda 70 years ago and still exists today. Still in the underground publicist Petro Fedun (pseudonym – Petro Poltava, deputy head of the General Secretariat of the Ukrainian Main Liberation, member OUN and a member of the OUN- Wire) in 1948 wrote the propaganda and journalistic work “Who are the Bandera residents and what are they fighting for?” , what upsets him is to be an icon of the liberation movement, even a model to be the hardest in life, to be so holy as to promote ideas and be a standard and a model. He became such an icon for Ukraine,” the historian believes.
At the same time, the expert emphasized that for our enemies – the Russians – Bandera is an “anti-icon”, because he was one of the most successful symbols, was, as it is now fashionable to say, the manager of the liberation process. That is why enemy propaganda made him the personification of all fighters against the occupation – it is much easier to fight against one person on the propaganda front: they say, if it weren’t for Bandera, Ukrainians wouldn’t be fighting.
“That’s why these words – Bandera, Banderites – are such a good informational tool, when you can consciously manipulate them, and it is much easier to fight against one person than against hundreds of thousands”, – explained the researcher of the Ukrainian liberation movement.
Stepan Bandera: biography
January 1, 1909 – on this very day, Stepan Bandera was born in the family of a Greek Catholic priest in the village of Stariy Ughryniv (located on the territory of the modern Ivano-Frankivsk region, and at that time it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire).
Stepan took an active political position from his father: he also took an active part in political life, at one time he was an ambassador in the ZUNR-UNR parliament in Stanislav.
Bandera graduated from the gymnasium, then until 1933 he studied at the agronomic department of the Higher Polytechnic School in Lviv. Even then, the Polish authorities took the boy to task for his participation in Ukrainian national initiatives. He never managed to graduate from the Bandera Polytechnic School: he was arrested on the eve of the diploma exam.
Bandera joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) as early as 1929, and four years later became the official regional leader of the OUN in western Ukrainian lands.
In the OUN, Bandera revealed himself as a radical politician: for example, he organized several political murders (in particular, Oleksiy Mailov, secretary of the USSR consulate in Lviv – as the OUN’s response to the Holodomor in Ukraine).
In 1936, Bandera was sentenced to life imprisonment, but after the occupation of Poland by Germany in 1939, the politician was released. During this period, Bandera is working on expanding the network of the liberation organization to the territory of Ukraine – but these plans were not destined to come true: a split began in the organization.
The part of the OUN, which finally came under the leadership of Bandera, received the name “Banderivtsi” or OUN(b). With the help of these supporters, Bandera dreamed of creating an independent Ukrainian state on the western Ukrainian territory. He announced its creation on June 30, 1941 in Lviv – but the German authorities did not support such a decision. Bandera is arrested and thrown into Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
After that, the Ukrainian units of the UPA (finally formed in the spring of 1943) began to fight not only against Polish and Soviet partisans, but also against the German occupation. At the same time, Stepan himself never personally headed the UPA.
Bandera resigned in 1944. And immediately returned to activities in the OUN.
In 1959, Bandera was killed in Munich, where he spent the last years of his life. Soviet agent Bohdan Stashynskyi is responsible for Bandera’s death.
How Stepan Bandera’s birthday is celebrated in Ukraine
On January 1, Bandera’s birthday, it has already become a tradition in Kyiv to hold a torchlight procession in honor of the people’s figure.
In Lviv, in honor of this event, a public vigil is held near the Bandera monument, as well as prayers for the fate of Ukraine.
