I think there is no need to talk about what is happening in Ukraine now. I just want to point out that Civil War. Started by Ukrainian traitors in 1941 with the support Nazi Germany and money, and continued today - with the support of the West and the United States in money and information (I think the supply of weapons from the United States will not rust).

Can we now fight with weapons in our hands? I'm afraid not. Do we have money in an amount that can compete with the US? No definitely.

But we have a field of war, the victory on which depends entirely on us. This is an information field.

The Nazism that is now rising in Ukraine has Bandera roots, uses his rhetoric, uses his methods. And we, knowing their history, their tricks, can resist them. To everyone who stands on the information barricades to help.

MYTHS ABOUT BANDEROV

Myth No. 1 Bandera did not fight from the very beginning with Russia and, especially, Russians, as they are credited with.

Bandera from the very beginning of their appearance waged a fierce war against the Poles (who were occupiers) and Russians (who were also considered "Muscovite" occupiers). And they were preparing for this war much ahead of time.

"Lahousen gave me an order for review ... The order stated that in order to deliver a lightning strike on the Soviet Union, Abwehr-2, when carrying out subversive work against the USSR, should use its agents to incite national enmity between peoples Soviet Union. In particular, I personally instructed the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalists German agents Melnik (nicknamed "Consul-1") and Bandera, immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union, organize provocative speeches in Ukraine in order to undermine the nearest rear of the Soviet troops, and also in order to convince the international community that there seems to be a decomposition of the Soviet rear."

E. Stolze: ".. At the end of the war with Poland, Germany was intensively preparing for a war against the Soviet Union, and therefore, measures were taken along the Abwehr line to intensify subversive activities, because those measures that were carried out through Melnik and other agents seemed insufficient.

For this purpose, the well-known Ukrainian nationalist Bandera Stepan was recruited, who during the war was released by the Germans from prison, where he was imprisoned by the Polish authorities for participating in a terrorist act against the leaders of the Polish government.

(source - materials of the Nuremberg Trial. Book Nuremberg Trial,. M.)

As Petro Poltava, the "historian" of Bandera, writes about this:

Banderites are in recent times ubiquitous, popular name for all participants in the insurgent and underground liberation struggle, which began against the Nazis during the Nazi occupation, and since 1944 (sic!) Continues against the Bolshevik invaders.

Myth #2 The Banderaites never considered the Russian people as an enemy, nor any other people, such as Poles, Germans or Jews.

There are so many facts here that a small fraction is enough to clearly see their position on this issue.

Testimony of General E. Lahousen, one of the leaders of the Abwehr, at the meeting of the International Military Tribunal on November 30, 1945

"... Canaris was instructed to create an insurrectionary movement in Ukrainian Galicia, the purpose of which would be the extermination of Jews and Poles ... it is necessary to stage an uprising or insurrectionary movement in such a way that all the courtyards of the Poles were engulfed in fire and that all Jews were killed."

Fascist troops occupy Lvov. Together with them, the famous Abwehr battalion "Nachtigal" (translated from German - "Nightingale"), consisting of Bandera and led by Roman Shukhevych, Bandera's closest ally, entered the city.

On the same day, the whole city was sealed with Stepan Bandera's appeals: "People! Know! Moscow, Poland, Magyars, Jews are your enemies.

In 1941, Ya. Stetsko declared: “Moscow and the Jews are the biggest enemies of Ukraine. I consider Moscow the main and decisive enemy, which imperiously held Ukraine in captivity. And, nevertheless, I appreciate the hostile and wrecking will of the Jews, who helped Moscow to enslave Ukraine. Therefore, I stand on the positions of the extermination of the Jews and the expediency of transferring to Ukraine German methods extermination of the Jews, excluding their assimilation".

(Sources: Berkhoff K.C., Carynnyk M. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Dyukov A. On the participation of the OUN - UPA in the Holocaust: "Moscow and Jews are the main enemies of Ukraine" // IA "REGNUM", 10/14/2007)

I cannot but quote the words of one of Bandera's supporters about how they were guided during the war by the "three principles of Bandera":

"- a fraternal attitude towards those of them who support the struggle of the Ukrainian people for their state and interests; - a tolerant attitude towards those of them who simply live in Ukraine; - a hostile attitude towards those who are hostile to Ukraine, its independence, the state and language."

This paragraph is from the category of those when it is so sad that it is already funny.

Myth #3 Bandera's ideology is not fascist or Nazi

One of the OUN theorists wrote: A. Andrievsky: "Our newest nationalism is not the result of the efforts of the Ukrainian mind, but the product of Italian fascism and German national socialism. Dontsov prepared the basis for such a hobby."

(Source: "Stepan Bandera. Perspectives of the Ukrainian Revolution". - Drogobich, 1998. - S. 5-8; Gordusevich S. Stepan Bandera. Lyudina and myth. - K., 2000. - S. 43-44)

Myth No. 4 Bandera did not cooperate with the German occupation regime before the war, but met them as liberators

After the end of the 1st World War and the Civil War, the “Sich Riflemen” and other similar people who found themselves in exile were organized in the UVO (Ukrainian military organization), later transformed into the OUN. And back in the 1930s, the “fighters for freedom” gently clung to Hitler , financial streams also flowed, immediately invigorating the hearts of the OUN. They even adjusted the ideology, a kind of second-rate fascism came out. But with pretensions: “Walk in rows, make up rows and bathe in blood, guard in fire. Fire and blood, life is that will, but death is smacking at their breasts ... You hear the cry - Zig heil! Heil! Sig heil! (Yu. Lipa "Ukrainian Doba", Lviv, 1934).

Already in 1938. in Germany, several training centers were created where OUN saboteurs were trained. Although there were different views in the leadership of the Reich about their viability, the chief of the Abwehr, V. Canaris, stated: "There are no scum, there are only cadres."

Myth No. 5 Stepan Bandera himself fought against Hitler, so he was killed back in 1941. sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (a similar myth - Bandera stopped cooperating with the German occupation regime after 1941)

Two weeks after the capture of Lvov, the Nachtigall battalion, formed under the leadership of Bandera, turned the German rear into a field for their showdown with the Poles, which caused Hitler's extreme displeasure. And it's not that they felt sorry for some "Untermensch". The task of the General Staff of any belligerent country is to bring chaos behind enemy lines and vice versa, to ensure order in their own rear. In addition, the Germans believed that the population of the occupied countries should, with or without enthusiasm, work for the good of the Reich, and not lie with their throats cut in a ditch.

In addition, in an unknown direction (to the accounts of Swiss banks), a large amount of money allocated by German intelligence to finance the OUN leaked.

So, according to Lazarek: "S. Bandera received 2.5 million marks from the Germans, that is, as much as Melnik receives," source - materials of the Nuremberg trial) and transferred to a personal account in a Swiss bank.

(Historical portraits: Makhno, Petlyura, Bandera. - K., 1990. - P. 24)

But that was not all - without the demand of the Germans, the Act on the proclamation of the Ukrainian state was adopted. The OUN hoped that the Germans would come to terms with this. An attempt to arbitrarily proclaim a state on territory already occupied German troops, where the latter have already suffered losses, while the OUN could not or did not want to organize a large-scale uprising in the rear of the Red Army in Western Ukraine, ended sadly for Bandera.

July 5, 1941 At a meeting, Adolf Hitler said: “Parteigenosse Himmler, machen Sie Ordnung mit diesen Bande! ” (Parteigenosse Himmler, clean up this gang!). Almost immediately, the Gestapo arrested S. Bandera, Ya. Stetsko, as well as about 300 members of the OUN. "Nachtigal" was urgently reorganized into a police battalion and transferred to Belarus to fight the partisans, and Bandera was taken under House arrest in Krakow, and then transferred to Sachsenhausen, to a kind of hotel, where high-ranking Nazi accomplices, temporarily withdrawn to the reserve, sat.

The Bandera people were very worried:

"Hundreds of Ukrainian patriots were thrown into concentration camps and prisons by the Nazis. mass terror. In the Auschwitz concentration camp, the brothers of Stepan Bandera, Oleksa and Vasyl, were brutally tortured.

And no matter how the Bandera people insist, the story does not end there.

In 1944, Hitler removed Bandera from the reserve and included him in the Ukrainian National Committee, whose task was to organize the fight against the advancing Red Army.

“In early April 1945, Bandera was instructed by the Main Directorate of Imperial Security to gather all Ukrainian nationalists in the Berlin area and defend the city from the advancing Red Army units. Bandera created detachments of Ukrainian nationalists who acted as part of the Volkssturm, while he fled. He left the dacha of the 4-D department and fled to Weimar. Burlai told me that Bandera agreed with Danyliv on a joint transition to the side of the Americans.

And now let's give the floor to the Bandera people, but we want to know the opinion of both sides:

“Having felt the power of the UPA in their own skin, the Germans began to look for an ally in the OUN-UPA against Moscow. In December 1944, Bandera and several other members of the OUN-revolutionary were released. They were offered negotiations on possible cooperation. Ukrainian statehood and creation Ukrainian army as separate, independent from the German, armed forces of an independent power. The Nazis did not agree to recognize the independence of Ukraine and sought to create a pro-German puppet government and Ukrainian military formations as part of german army. Bandera resolutely rejected these proposals.

(Source - Stepan Bandera's article. Life and work.
The Bandera brothers died in Auschwitz in 1942 - they were beaten to death by Polish prisoners. Eye for an eye.

Myth No. 7 Bandera with the same dedication waged a desperate struggle against both Hitler's fascism and Stalin's reactionary-repressive regime.

I will first quote the text of the comrade, who very clearly and logically compared several facts, and then I will present several facts for justification. I repeat here and there.

"The current followers of Bandera sharply reject the cooperation of Bandera with the Germans and insist on their confrontation. Even the figure of 800 Nazis killed in battles with the "UPA warriors" (actually, the average Soviet partisan detachment had bigger accounts. But the German archives answer the requests of our veterans that they have no information about those who died at the hands of Bandera. As well as about these battles themselves. Some kind of theater of the absurd! It turns out that the Germans, with the maniacal idiots, supply their enemies with money, equipment, weapons: more than 700 mortars, about 10 thousand heavy and light machine guns, 100 thousand hand grenades, 12 million cartridges, etc. Moreover, they train foremen for the UPA in training center in Neuhammer and others, assigning them German military ranks.

No, the Germans certainly had some skirmishes with Bandera. It happened that the Germans acted as owners and punished them in a disciplinary manner: they put them in camps, even shot them. What do you want? The same "Volyn massacre", when Bandera in the summer of 1943. slaughtered all the Polish villages of Volhynia and thus disrupted the planned supply of products for German army- a headache for the German quartermasters! The German neat people also looked askance at the bad habit of the Bandera people to clog wells with corpses with drinking water etc."

"Supporters of the OUN, on the orders of Bandera, served in the German police, punitive battalions ... For example, the same Roman Shukhevych, who was one of the ministers of the Bandera government dispersed by the Germans, continued to serve the Germans in the Nachtigal battalion, then became one of the commanders punitive battalion SS. Until December 1942, he earned two crosses and the rank of SS captain for the successful suppression of partisan movement on the territory of Belarus.

"The Germans gave the OUN-UPA 100 thousand rifles and machine guns, 10 thousand machine guns, 700 mortars, a lot of ammunition. Former Nazi leaders of the Abwehr Lahuzen, Stolze, Lazarek, Paulus testified to this at the trial."

(Source - materials of the Nuremberg court bnogo process)

Myth No. 8 Bandera did not commit the atrocities that they are prescribed

This is such an absurd myth that it is enough just to give some of the names: the Lvov Jewish pogrom, the Volyn massacre, Babi Yar. And one more example, not so well-known, but painful because it is "everyday", "ordinary".

The affidavit of Herman Grebe, read out by US prosecutor Stari.

"On the night of July 13, 1942, all the inhabitants of the ghetto in the city of Rivne ... were liquidated ... Shortly after 10 p.m., the ghetto was surrounded by a large detachment of the SS and about three times as large a detachment of Ukrainian police. Groups of SS men and police broke into houses. People living there driven out into the street in the form in which they were caught.

People were evicted from their homes with such haste that in some cases small children were left in their beds. All night persecuted, beaten and wounded people moved along the illuminated streets. The women carried their dead children in their arms. Some children were dragged to the train by the arms and legs of their dead parents...

Soon the Ukrainian police broke into house 5 on Bangofstrasse, pulled out 7 Jews from there and dragged them to the ghetto...

“Two features are striking in this document: firstly, the ratio of SS men and Ukrainian policemen - the bulk of the killers were not Germans, but “fighters for Ukraine”; secondly, the main opponents of these “fighters” were children - the witness speaks of them constantly."

(Source - Nuremberg trials. Collection of documents, - V.2, S.500)

Myth No. 9 The atrocities that are prescribed to Bandera were committed by the NKDVs, disguised as Bandera to discredit the insurgent movement and deprive them of popular support.

How serious the situation with the spread of this lie is, is evidenced by the fact that the myth of “disguised enkavedeshniki” is enshrined in the so-called. "Professional conclusion working group historians to study the activities of the OUN-UPA”, published in Ukraine in a mass circulation of 120,000 copies, and centrally distributed to all libraries, secondary and higher educational institutions. On October 14, 2005, at a meeting of the Government Commission, this "Vysnovok" was approved as an official assessment of the activities of the OUN-UPA. Here in the argumentation, one can go in two ways - direct and indirect.

Direct - to understand all the subtleties information war. All this is discussed in the book The Great Slandered War-2 in the article by Oleg Rossov "The myth of disguised NKVDeshniks. Special groups of the NKVD in the fight against bandit formations in Western Ukraine." Or use the materials of the article.

Indirect - Bandera fought against the Soviet Union - a fact. They received money and weapons from the Germans - a fact. And they did not play toys with these weapons. They arranged massacres- fact. In order for all this to be done by the NKVD, it is necessary that the UPA did not exist at all. And there was one this NKVD, which ran everything. The situation in which disguised UPA organize massacres of the population with impunity, and the UPA, who see all this, suffer greatly and do nothing at the same time (or better, they follow and ask not to kill anyone) is simply outrageous drug addict nonsense.

Myth No. 10 The UPA was not convicted by the Nurgberg Tribunal, which is proof of their non-participation in the massacres and indicates their struggle against Nazism.

The OUN is mentioned several times in the documents, but the activities of this organization simply did not fall under the charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Japanese war criminals, for example, were not tried in Nuremberg either. And Croatian Ustashe.

However, it does not follow from this that they did not commit crimes (and they did not write the book "The Devil's Kitchen"). But Bandera's followers continue to insist on this, as if it justifies everything. Probably because there is no statute of limitations for these crimes. The time for the Japanese has come (Japanese war criminals were tried later in 1946 by the Tokyo Military Tribunal. Charter Tokyo Tribunal incorporated the most important provisions of the charter Nuremberg Tribunal), not far off and them.

Myth #11 Final. They (Banedra) fought for the independence of Ukraine and the liberation of the Ukrainian people.

The Banderists were an extremely small (permanent composition of 6.5 thousand) well-organized, armed, trained and motivated by their idea group of militants. Which during the occupation of Poland could not do anything (Bandera himself, until the capture of Poland by the Germans, was in a Polish prison for an attempt. By the way, the Germans released him). They were able to speak in a serious way only when they found themselves the strongest ally in the face of Nazi Germany. They lived on their money, shot civilians with their weapons.

The Germans gave the OUN-UPA 100,000 rifles and machine guns, 10,000 machine guns, 700 mortars, a lot of ammunition. Former Nazi leaders of the Abwehr Lahousen, Stolze, Lazarek, Paulus testified at the trial.

Threats and lies recruited people into their ranks.

To ensure a massive influx of volunteers to the UPA in 1942. Shukhevych announced official war both the Bolsheviks and the Germans. This was confusing, and many people, wanting to fight the Germans, joined Shukhevych’s detachments, which numbered up to 100 thousand people, and in fact it turned out that despite calls to fight both against the Bolsheviks and against the Germans, the leadership of the OUN-UPA directs its main efforts to fight the red partisans and the peaceful Polish population of Volhynia.

(Source - film Line of War. Shukhevych R.I. - leader of the OUN)

After the general appeal, in order to avoid mass outflows of people who joined the OUN and realized that they had been deceived, the OUN set one condition for the Germans - to keep the fact of cooperation between them secret.

Here is how the minister of the Bandera "government" "Gerasimovsky" (I. Grinyokh) wrote about this to the German command:

"The delivery of weapons and sabotage means from the German side across the front line for the UPA units should be carried out according to the rules of conspiracy, so as not to give the Bolsheviks any evidence regarding the Ukrainians - allies of the Germans who remained behind the front line. Therefore, the OUN asks that negotiations, an agreement go on from the center and that the security police should be partners on the part of the Germans, as far as possible, since they are familiar with the rules of conspiracy.

(Source - the book "Without the right to rehabilitation", chapter R. Shukhevych, author of the chapter Poddubny L.A.)

Those who tried to resist were beaten and killed. Those who performed their duties with insufficient zeal were killed, along with the whole family.

In 1943, an order was given to "eliminate" deserters from the UPA and beat draft evaders with ramrods.

This is a struggle of a group of terrorists for power, not for the independence of Ukraine. These are attempts by threats, weapons and massacres force civilians to recognize their influence. They were remembered as the murderers of their own countrymen.

Bandera, of course, chose other words to justify:

"With about 20 thousand members, the OUN had a great influence on the Ukrainian population" (with weapons in their hands and with the support of the Nazis - author's note).

(Source article "STEPAN BANDER",

The number of people killed on the territory of Ukraine during the Second World War by the Nazis (including Bandera):

In Crimea, civilians were loaded onto barges, taken out to sea and sunk. Over 144,000 people were killed in this way.

AT Babi Yar, near Kyiv, they shot over 100,000 men, women, children and the elderly. In this city in January 1942, after the explosion at the German headquarters on Dzerzhinskaya Street, the Germans arrested 1,250 old people, minors, women with babies as hostages. In Kyiv, they killed over 195,000 people.

In Rovno and in the Rivne region they killed and tortured over 100,000 civilians.

In Dnepropetrovsk, near the Transport Institute, they shot and threw alive into a huge ravine 11,000 women, old people and children.

In the Kamenetz-Podolsk region, 31,000 Jews were killed and destroyed, including 13,000 brought from Hungary.

At least 200,000 Soviet citizens were killed in the Odessa region.

In Kharkov, about 195,000 people were tortured, shot or strangled in "gas chambers".

In Gomel, the Germans gathered local residents they were imprisoned, tortured, and then taken to the center of the city and publicly shot.

(Source - materials of the Nuremberg trial)

Aren't there too many "dissenters" and those "on whom they had a great influence" killed? ...

And good. We decided to suddenly forget that Bandera killed their fellow countrymen. If they were fighting for an idea, wouldn't they team up with everyone who supports that idea? But no - back in 1940, the OUN split into two organizations, OUN-b (Bandera) and OUN-m (Melnikov).

But Bandera's supporters, of course, formulate it differently: "The organization had internal conflicts: between young, inexperienced, impatient and more experienced and reasonable, who went through the war and revolution, between the leadership of the OUN, living in comfortable conditions of emigration, and the bulk of the OUN members, who worked underground and police persecution.

(Source "STEPAN BANDERA",

Bandera "tried their hand" on the OUN-Melnikovites. Then, in a few months in 1940, the security service eliminated about 400 of its political opponents.

Then they will hunt and knock on each other in the Gestapo throughout the war.

Disagreements between members? Come on. 400 corpses - is it just a disagreement? Think about it - these are not losses for the entire period of the Second World War. These are the results of the work of several (!) months at a time when the war had not yet begun. This is how they treated "like-minded people." Or maybe it was something else? Maybe it was a struggle for power and political influence? For who will manage the German money? Maybe it's inevitable when you deceive people, saying that you are fighting for freedom and independence, but in reality everything turned out to be not quite so? This is - clean water politics. Otherwise, they would not have started to arrange a showdown among themselves, as they do with political competitors. This is what they do when they strive for power, and not when they save the people. But that's not all. In relations between the Bandera themselves, too, not everything was smooth.

In 1943, the edge wire assigned the following tasks to the Security Council:

"eliminate" deserters from the UPA and beat draft evaders with ramrods;

Continue to "control" the loyalty of the OUN members themselves.

In the summer of 1945, Bandera issued his famous thrice secret decree, which, in particular, spoke of the need "immediately and most secretly ... to eliminate the aforementioned elements of the OUN and UPA (those who may surrender to the authorities) in two ways: large and small detachments of the UPA to fight the Bolsheviks and create situations for them to be destroyed by the Soviets at posts and "ambushes" ("The land blames", p. 150). The security service had to deal with the rest.

Now let's put these facts together.

They kill their countrymen and call it the liberation of the people.

They kill their like-minded people who have chosen a different leader, and call it the struggle for the independence of the country.

They kill and betray each other and this is called unity and brotherhood.

I can tell you what it's called. It's all summed up in one word - BETRAYAL.

Betrayal of the People.

Betrayal of the motherland.

Betrayal of the Idea.

A TRAITOR is worse than an ENEMY. The enemy has principles. The traitor has none. The enemy has values, the traitor's only value is his own skin.

The historian Boris Yulin wrote about this very intelligibly. Further quote:

“What is the act of betrayal? It lies in the fact that a citizen of the country deliberately goes into the service of the enemies of the country. Usually this is a transition to the side of the enemy during hostilities.

Since there will always be a moral monster who considers such an act reasonable, punishment for betrayal has always been provided in all countries. And rightly so, because we are talking about the survival of the country and the people. The destruction of traitors is like amputation for gangrene or removal of worms. There is no humanism here.

The act of betrayal is connected precisely with the consciousness of the action. That is, the person understands what he is doing.

A small nuance - there is no justification for betrayal. They try to find him only the same freaks as the traitor himself. For example, they attribute the fight against the regime to a traitor.”

For us, betrayal is also an act for which they do not forgive. There is no statute of limitations for him. And we will remember this when we go to the information barricades.

And we will remember if we happen to meet on the real ones.

Already on February 9, 1943, Bandera, under the guise of red partisans (this is the question of "dressing up parts of the NKVD as Bandera"), entered the Polish village of Parosle. The peasants, who managed to make friends with the partisans, warmly welcomed the guests. Enough

Having drunk themselves, the bandits began to rape and then kill women and girls. Before they were killed, their chests, noses and ears were cut off. Then they began to torture the rest of the villagers. Before death, the men's genitals, noses, tongues and ears were cut off. Finished off with blows
ax to the head.

Two teenagers, the Gorshkevich brothers, who tried to call real partisans for help, had their stomachs cut open, their legs and arms cut off, and the wounds were covered with salt, leaving the half-dead to die in the field. In total, 173 people were tortured in the village, including 43 children.

In one house, among scraps and moonshine bottles, real partisans who entered the village the next day found a one-year-old child pinned to the table with a bayonet. OUN merry fellows stuffed a half-eaten sauerkraut into his mouth.

Also in Kalusovo, Vladimir district, two-month-old Joseph Fil
they tore it apart by the legs, and put the parts of the calf on the table.

In general, the Bandera people had a special tenderness for innocent Polish children.

In the village of Lozova in the Ternopil region, they "decorated" the trunk of each tree
the corpse of a child who had been killed before.

According to the British researcher Korman, children were nailed to trees in such a way that the appearance of a “wreath” was created.

The Bandera people called this alley "the road to independent Ukraine."

And on July 13, the Bandera people “registered” the main street in Dry Vine into another
"The path to independence", impaled 50 children on a picket fence.

During the attack on Terebeiki in August 1943, adult Poles were cut with saws like logs, while children were killed with axes or drowned in a well. Similarly, in the summer of 1944, a hundred "Igor" "sawed" 140 gypsies, including 67 children.

In the village of Osmigovichi, in July 1943, the Banderists threw small children into
well, and the big ones were closed in the basement and filled up.

One warrior, holding the baby by the legs, hit his head against the wall. And so that the mother of the baby did not interfere with having fun, she was pierced with a bayonet. But in general, mothers are not particularly
bothered Bandera, because, as a rule, they died of a broken heart, seeing
martyrdom of their children.

A few months ago, on Sparrow Night, armed men came to a peasant hut not far from the city of Sarny and stabbed the owners to death. The girl, eyes wide with horror, looked at the agony of her parents. One of the bandits put the point of a knife to the throat of a child, but in last minute born in his brain new idea: "Live for the glory of Stepan Bandera! And so that you don’t die of hunger, we will leave you food. Well, lads, chop pork for her! .."

The boys liked this offer. A few minutes later, in front of the girl, numb with horror, a mountain of meat grew from her bleeding father and mother ... "

This cannibalistic scene was captured by Yaroslav Galan, a Ukrainian writer.

Education

Bandera - who are they? Bandera during the war. Bandera flag

In the light of the events taking place in Ukraine, very many people are interested in Bandera. Who are these people, where did this movement come from? In this article we will try to answer these and other very relevant questions. Today, about the past of this movement, there is a lot scary stories, some people justify it, some condemn it or even treat it with hatred.

Historical information about the appearance of Bandera

So, Bandera - who are they? There are a lot of negative definitions of this movement. At times Patriotic War these were people who supported the ideology of Stepan Bandera, one of the leaders of Ukrainian nationalism. Then they committed many murders of non-Ukrainians, justifying this with the desire for freedom and independence for their country.

To date, there is a lot of evidence of the crimes of Bandera's followers, which were committed during the Great Patriotic War. They killed those who did not belong to the Ukrainian nation, who had people of a different nationality in their relatives. Some of the murders committed by Bandera (photo below) can hardly be called atrocities. And it all started with the idea of ​​liberating western Ukraine from the power of the Polish invaders.

Stepan Bandera. short biography

Now about the leader of the mentioned movement. Stepan Bandera was born in 1909 in the family of a Greek Catholic priest. In addition to him, the family had six more children. Obviously, Stepan absorbed the idea of ​​nationalism with the instructions of his father, who tried to pass on his worldview to his children. This was also facilitated by the first World War, which passed in front of the still impressionable child.

Bandera lived in his father's house until 1919, after which he moved to the city of Stryi and entered the gymnasium. He studied there for eight years. It was in the gymnasium that his nationalist activities began, which later led to the appearance of Bandera in Ukraine. He became the leader of the youth in Western Ukraine, defending its independence by any means, not even shunning what is now, in the modern world, called terrorism.

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Political activities of Stepan Bandera

After graduating from the gymnasium, Stepan, in addition to social activities, was engaged in the work entrusted to him by the Ukrainian military organization. Bandera has been in it since the senior years of the gymnasium. He became an official member of this organization in 1927. He began to work in the intelligence department, and then in the propaganda department. He was followed by young people who adhered to his radical nationalist views.

During his activity in this organization, he achieved great heights and popularity, especially in the city of Lvov, whose Bandera people (as they would later be called) really considered him an idol. Became the head of the underground organization OUN.

Now a little about political career Stepan. On account of his several organized murders of prominent politicians against which the nationalists fought at that time. For one of them, in 1934, he was convicted and sentenced to death, which, however, after some time was replaced by life imprisonment. He stayed in prison until the age of 39, when, due to the occupation of Poland, all the prisoners (with them Stepan) were released.

The leader of the nationalists continued his activities. And if we discuss the question "Bandera - who are they", then we can answer that these are his followers, who at one time supported him.

Bandera's activities during World War II

At this time, Stepan had just been released. Joining his supporters, he visited Lvov, where, having assessed the situation, he decided that the Soviet Union was now the main enemy of Ukraine's independence.

We can assume that the Ukrainian Bandera officially appeared after the split of the OUN, when two people with completely opposite views began to claim the post of head of this organization. These are S. Bandera and A. Melnik. The first believed that Germany would not help the Ukrainians to gain the desired freedom, so you need to rely only on yourself. The alliance with the Germans could be seen as a purely temporary action. The second thought differently. In the end, everyone went to their camps. The closest supporters of Bandera were S. Lenkavsky, Ya. Stetsko, N. Lebed, V. Okhrimovich, R. Shukhevych.

In June 1941, an act was proclaimed on the revival of the Ukrainian state, the result of which was the imprisonment of Bandera in Germany. The Germans did not want this turn of events at all. As Stepan predicted, they had completely different plans for Ukraine.

Bandera stayed in a German prison until September 1944. It wasn't the best scary place, exactly such political criminals were kept there. The Germans themselves, after three years, released Stepan to freedom. It was rather an act of protest against his declaration of an independent Ukrainian state.

For these three years, Bandera could not engage in politics, although he maintained contact with his associates through his wife. However, all this time, Western Ukraine, whose Bandera did not give up their activities, continued to fight against the invaders of the territories.

Life of Stepan Bandera after release

After his release in September 1944, S. Bandera decides to stay in Germany. The impossibility of returning to the territory of the Soviet Union did not prevent the organization of a foreign branch of the OUN (b).

At this time, according to some sources, he was recruited and worked for intelligence and counterintelligence in Germany. And according to other sources, he refused this offer.

Until the fifties, this man led the life of a conspirator, as he was hunted down, but after that he moved to live in Munich with his family. Until the end of his days, he went along with the guards in order to protect himself from assassination attempts, which, by the way, were many. Here he was known under the name Popel.

However, this did not save him from death. In 1959 he was killed by KGB agent B. Stashinsky. He shot Bandera in the face with a syringe pistol (content - potassium cyanide). They did not have time to save him, Stepan died on the way to the hospital. The shooter was later arrested and jailed for eight years. After leaving it, the fate of Stashinsky is unknown.

After the death of Bandera, the family remained - the wife Oparovskaya Yaroslava, the son Andrey, the daughters Natalya and Lesya. Despite all his deeds, he loved his family and protected in every possible way.

Thus ended the life of a man who was the ideological inspirer of the nationalist movement in Western Ukraine, as well as the organizer of numerous political assassinations. His followers committed many murders, hiding behind the idea of ​​Ukraine's independence, liberating it from the Polish, and then Soviet power.

In 2010, Bandera was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, despite the fact that many people condemned it. However, in 2011, the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine decided that this person cannot be considered a hero.

Bandera's followers during World War II

So, continuing their activities during World War II, Bandera (photos of their atrocities are widely available today) actively began to fight first with the Polish occupation, and then with the Red Army defeating the Germans. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was formed, which supported Stepan's idea of ​​Ukrainian independence. Everyone was an enemy - Jews, Poles and other nationalities. And they were all to be destroyed.

An ardent follower and friend of Bandera was Roman Shukhevych, who practically led the OUN in his absence. In 41, the Nachtigal battalion was subordinate to him, which destroyed a large number of residents of Lviv of Polish nationality. From that moment on, the massacre of the civilian population of Ukraine began.

In addition, they have other atrocities on their account, namely the murder of the inhabitants of the village of Korbelisy in Volhynia. Many were burned alive. In total, about 2800 people died then.

Terrible atrocities were committed in the village of Lozovaya, where more than a hundred inhabitants were killed, and with various mockeries.

There are other evidence terrible fate civilian population. Almost all children of non-Ukrainian nationality were subject to death, and martyrdom at that. Very many people were torn off or chopped off different parts of the body, their stomachs were ripped open. Some were tied alive to poles with barbed wire. Those were really terrible times.

Today there are historians who believe that the representatives of the OUN-UPA really enjoyed the fanaticism they carried out. Even german nazis were not so happy. These data are collected from the reports of arrested and interrogated Bandera. This was also claimed by some Germans who collaborated with them.

Bandera in the UPA

The Bandera UPA is a formed armed army that was subordinate to the leaders of the OUN (b). It was then that various representatives began to join it, who supported this movement and their idea.

Its main goal was the Soviet partisans, as well as the destruction of everyone and everything who had nothing to do with Ukraine. Many people still remember their cruelty, when entire settlements were slaughtered just for belonging to a different nationality.

At the time of the offensive of the liberation Red Army, the UPA had about fifty thousand active fighters. Each of them had his own clear ideological position, tough character and hatred towards the "soviets", which was facilitated by the years of the past Stalinist repressions.

However, there were weak sides army. This, of course, is ammunition and the actual weapon.

How Banderists acted during the war

If we discuss the crimes of Bandera as part of the UPA, then today, by the standards of historians, they are quite numerous. For example, about 200 people from the village of Kuty (Armenians and Poles) were subject to death. All of them were slaughtered during the ethnic cleansing of this territory.

The well-known Volyn massacre affected many settlements. It was a terrible time. Some leaders of the movement we are considering were of the following opinion: let less population, but it will be pure Ukrainians.

By different estimates, then from twenty to one hundred thousand people died (and this was civilians!) at the hands of people who supported the idea of ​​nationalism under the leadership of S. Bandera. No, even very noble motives, can justify the violent death of so many people.

Opposition to Bandera

The crimes of Bandera caused a huge opposition to them from the side Soviet partisans during the war. As the territory of Ukraine was liberated from the Germans, the Red Army intensified its actions and the formation of the UPA. They tried to prevent the establishment of Soviet power on "their" land. Various acts of sabotage were carried out, for example, the burning of shops, the destruction of telegraph communications, and the killing of people who were in the ranks of the Red Army. Sometimes entire families were massacred just because they were loyal to the Russian partisans.

The Soviet troops, as the territories were liberated, also carried out a cleansing of the German-Ukrainian nationalists. Almost all were destroyed large groups UPA. However, small detachments appeared, which became more and more difficult to catch.

It was difficult time for Western Ukrainians. One side - Soviet army, which carried out the mobilization of the adult male population. On the other hand, the formations of the UPA, which exterminated everyone who was in any way connected with the Soviets.

After the end of World War II, workers of the NKGB and the NKVD were sent to this territory to free themselves from nationalist groups. In addition, explanatory work was carried out among the population, as a result of which the so-called “destruction squads” were created. They helped in the elimination of bandit formations.

The fight against Bandera continued until the fifties, when the underground groups of the OUN-UPA were finally defeated.

Followers of Bandera today

Today, on Ukrainian territory, one can observe the revival of the followers of Stepan Bandera. Many Ukrainians adopted the idea of ​​nationalism, but completely forgot about those scary times that were then. Perhaps even find an excuse for them. Stepan Bandera became the idol of many young people, as it once was. Some representatives of the older generation believe (and regret) that not all Bandera people were once destroyed by their grandfathers. Opinions differ, and very strongly.

Supporters and followers of the OUN leader celebrate the birthday of their idol with a torchlight procession, with red and black flags. They cover their faces with bandages and hold his portraits in their hands. The procession takes place almost throughout the city, but this does not happen everywhere. Some people have a rather negative attitude towards such a vivid manifestation of veneration for Stepan Bandera.

As for ideology, the modern Bandera people in Ukraine took it from their predecessors. Even the slogan “Glory to Ukraine - Glory to the Heroes” was borrowed from them.

Symbols of the followers of Stepan Bandera

The symbol of today's nationalists, as in past times, is a red and black canvas. This Bandera flag was approved back in 1941. He symbolizes revolutionary movement, the fight against the occupiers of Ukrainian lands. True, during the Second World War it was not used as often as it is now.

If we talk specifically about the flag, then these colors are found in many countries at such revolutionary events. For example, in Latin America it was used very often.

Thus, when considering the question: "Bandera - who are these people?" we must also mention their flag, which after the Maidan of Ukraine and subsequent events became very recognizable.

Modern monuments to Bandera and his victims

To date, there are a lot of monuments reminiscent of the atrocities committed and the victims that the Bandera people left behind during the war. They are located in many cities and villages. The largest number of them is located in Lviv and its environs. There are also similar facilities in Luhansk, Svatovo, Shalygino, Simferopol, Volyn and Ternopil regions.

In Poland, in the city of Legnica, there is a whole alley dedicated to those who died at the hands of the UPA. In Wroclaw, a monument-mausoleum was erected in memory of the victims who fell at the hands of the OUN-UPA in 39-47 of the last century.

However, there is also a monument to Bandera in Poland. It is located near Radymno. Installed illegally, there is even an order to demolish it, but the memorial still stands.

In addition, there are numerous monuments to Stepan Bandera. A sufficient number of them are scattered across Western Ukraine - from large monuments to small busts. They also exist abroad, for example, in Germany, where the leader of the nationalist Ukrainian movement was buried.

Two years after the sentencing of Stepan Bandera in 1938, Yevgeny Konovalets, the founder of the OUN, was killed by the NKVD. Andrey Melnik was chosen as his successor at the training camp in Italy. Stepan Bandera was categorically against the new appointment. On the one hand, he did not see anyone at the head of the OUN. Nobody but yourself. On the other hand, Andriy Melnyk was less resolute, tolerant, and therefore could harm Ukrainian nationalism, which should be radical in the struggle for an idea.

In the period from July 1936 to September 1939 until the liberation by the German troops who captured Poland, Stepan Bandera was in Polish prisons, where he got acquainted with the works of the ideologist of Ukrainian nationalism Dmitry Dontsov. The prisoner came to the conclusion that "... the activities of the OUN are not revolutionary enough." In the future, Bandera will do his best to correct this shortcoming. The release of Stepan Bandera from prison by the Germans is not surprising, since the German command not only knew about him - in 1932 Bandera was trained at the intelligence school in Danzig. The very fact of the constant cooperation of the leader of the nationalists is a well-known and indisputable fact. AT postwar period Colonel of the German Abwehr Erwin Stolze described in detail his cooperation with Andrei Melnik and Stepan Bandera, as evidenced by archival data.

However, after the release of Stepan Bandera, a split in the OUN became inevitable. Andrei Melnik preferred the absolute protectorate of Nazi Germany and did not support the creation of an underground, Stepan Bandera, on the contrary, advocated a strong underground, waging a partisan war and considered the German protectorate as a temporary option. Even the curator Erwin Stolze failed to reconcile his opponents. Bandera decided to make the OUN more revolutionary. The OUN split into OUN(b) led by Bandera and OUN(m) led by Melnyk. In the future, the confrontation between these organizations will become bloody. In the struggle for power in Ukraine, all methods are acceptable.

A few months before the attack on the USSR, on the orders of Stepan Bandera, a legion was created from Ukrainian nationalists, which later became part of the Nachtigal special forces battalion. It was this battalion that was one of the first to enter the abandoned Soviet troops Lvov at the end of June 1941. Many corpses were found in Lviv prisons - the retreating Enkvdeshniki did not have time to evacuate the prisoners, among whom were nationalists, so they were simply shot on the spot. This caused an incredible reaction from Bandera's supporters. The cry was thrown to kill Russians, Jews, Hungarians and Poles. Simultaneously with the pogrom in Lvov, Stepan Bandera proclaimed the creation of an independent Ukrainian state. Independent, however, under the patronage of Nazi Germany. And whether the whole Ukrainian people wanted this or only the nationalists, it does not matter.

During the Holocaust in Lvov, arranged mainly by the “Banderites”, and not by the Nazis, as is commonly believed, from four to seven thousand people were killed in six days, according to various estimates. It was the arrival of the command of the German regular army that stopped the massacre organized by the Ukrainian nationalists.

Stepan Bandera in German disgrace

The antics of Ukrainian nationalists led by Stepan Bandera did not go unnoticed by the German Fuhrer. The German command appreciated the desire of Ukrainian nationalists to fight the Bolsheviks in every possible way, but outright lawlessness was not needed even by such criminals as the Nazis. Moreover, it was impossible to forgive arbitrariness and self-will with the proclamation of an independent Ukrainian state. At the expense of Ukraine, Adolf Hitler had other plans, by no means similar to those of Bandera.

For arbitrariness, Stepan Bandera was arrested by those who had recently released him. For arbitrariness, and not for fighting against the Germans. He was placed in the Sachsenhausen prison, where, according to many historians, he was kept in good conditions, had the opportunity to see his wife, etc.

In the autumn of 1944, about a hundred Ukrainians were released from the Sachsenhausen prison by the Germans, including Stepan Bandera. It was not in vain that the leader of the nationalists was amnestied - it was he who, with his organizational skills, could help restrain the offensive of the Soviet troops. Coordinating the actions of the OUN and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), created in 1942, Stepan Bandera significantly delayed the defeat of the German army, which, having gained time, managed to mobilize its forces. And at the same time destroy tens of thousands of prisoners of war and prisoners of concentration camps.

Death of the leader of Ukrainian nationalists

The last years of his life, Stepan Bandera was forced to constantly hide - too many wanted him dead. Even despite the fact that he had already collaborated with British intelligence, his life did not become calmer. With enviable frequency, agents of the special services and those who had personal reasons to hate Bandera attempted on his life.

The next and last was the assassination of the KGB agent Bogdan Stashinsky, fellow countryman Stepan Bandera. On October 15, 1959, at the entrance of his own house in the German city of Munich, a young man, whom he had seen in church the day before, stepped towards Bandera. In the hands of a stranger was a newspaper rolled up into a tube. It was in it that there was a pistol syringe with a solution of potassium cyanide. A jet of liquid splashed right in the face of Stepan Bandera, who died just a few minutes later.

The murder of the main Ukrainian nationalist caused a public outcry, especially since the agent Stashinsky, detained by the German police, confessed to everything.

Instead of an epilogue

Within the framework of one article it is impossible to describe in detail the life and activities of a person. Especially if we are talking about such an ambiguous personality as Stepan Bandera. To respect or hate Stepan Bandera is a personal matter for everyone who is not indifferent to him. But one should take into account the fact that Stepan Bandera actively cooperated with the fascist regime not so much in the interests of the Ukrainian people, but for the sake of a specific organization, namely the OUN, and, of course, in order to satisfy his ambitions. Also, we must not forget the fact that the blood of tens of thousands of murdered people is on the hands of Stepan Bandera. They had the imprudence not to be born Ukrainians or not to think in Ukrainian. But one thing is for sure - Stepan Bandera can be put on a pedestal. On a pedestal next to such tyrants and dictators as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

During the period of active struggle against the UPA and OUN in 1941-1949, according to the NKVD, thousands of military operations were carried out, during which tens of thousands of Ukrainian nationalists were killed. Many families of UPA members were deported from the Ukrainian SSR, thousands of families were arrested and evicted to other regions.

One of the well-known precedents of the trial of Bandera is a show trial in 1941 of 59 students and students of Lvov, suspected of having links with the OUN and anti-Soviet activities. The youngest was 15 years old, the eldest - 30. The investigation lasted about four months, it was found that many of the young people were ordinary members of the OUN, but the students pleaded not guilty and declared that they were enemies of the Soviet regime. Initially, 42 people were sentenced to death, and 17 wanted to be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

However, the Board supreme court in the end, she commuted the sentence, and 19 convicts were shot, while others were given terms of 4 to 10 years in prison. One of the students was deported abroad.
You can also recall the mention of Ukrainian nationalists at the famous Nuremberg Trials. General Lahausen, who spoke as a witness, directly stated that the Ukrainian nationalists collaborated with the German government: "These detachments were supposed to carry out acts of sabotage behind enemy lines and organize comprehensive sabotage."

However, despite the obvious evidence of the participation of Bandera and other members of the split OUN in the fight against the Soviet Union, Ukrainian nationalists were not defendants at the Nuremberg trial. In the USSR, a law was not even passed condemning the OUN and the UPA, but the fight against the nationalist underground continued until the mid-1950s, and was, in fact, separate specific punitive acts.

Those from the OUN and UPA who survived the bloody battles with the Soviet troops and were not sentenced to death penalty, in the bulk went to the Gulag. The typical fate of a convicted Banderite is 10 years in prison in Irkutsk, Norilsk and other Gulag camps. However, for work in the camp they paid wages and even read camp labor like business days.

The huge mass of collaborators, hundreds of thousands of people, represented a serious force. It is not surprising that after the trial and several years of exile in the camps, they organized a series of powerful uprisings.

The main force was the OUN, however, the Baltic partisans and Russian punishers also participated in organizing the riots. The exiled Ukrainian nationalists had a well-built hierarchy, similar to the one that was actually in the wild, and therefore they managed to first overcome the "thieves", and then, using the skills of underground organization and conspiracy already tested in practice, try to free several prisoners and arrange riots.

Prisoners in the camps recall: “We rejoiced when the death of Stalin was announced in March 1953. In May 1953, two months later, an uprising broke out in the Norilsk Gorlag. I think that this uprising was the beginning of a long process of withering away of Stalinism, which on thirty years later led to the collapse of Soviet power and the Soviet Union Max and I accepted Active participation in this uprising, the main driving force which were Ukrainians of Western Ukraine, supporters of Stepan Bandera".

Later in the camps, it was the convicted OUN members who staged strikes and refused to give out coal without fulfilling the requirements necessary for them, for example, amnesties. Bandera, after difficult negotiations, nevertheless managed to achieve some benefits: they were given a 9-hour working day, they were allowed to meet and correspond with relatives, transfer money earned to families, and increase salaries. However, the prisoners wanted only one thing - release. Their strikes were brutally suppressed, at the cost of the lives of dozens of prisoners. However, this was only the beginning. The continued bold antics of Bandera in the camps led to the fact that in 1955 they were declared an amnesty in honor of the 10th anniversary of the Victory.

According to official documents, on August 1, 1956, more than 20 thousand OUN returned from exile and prisons to western lands USSR, including 7 thousand - to the Lviv region.