Stepan Andriyovych Bandera (
Ukrainian: Степа́н Андрі́йович Банде́ра,
romanized:
Stepán Andríyovych Bandéra, IPA:
[steˈpɑn ɐnˈd⁽ʲ⁾r⁽ʲ⁾ijoʋɪt͡ʃ bɐnˈdɛrɐ];
Polish:
Stepan Andrijowycz Bandera; 1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959)
was a Ukrainian far-right leader[1][nb 1] of the radical, terrorist wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
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Bandera collaborated with Nazi Germany at times during World War II.
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In late 1942, when Bandera was in a German concentration camp,
his organization, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was involved in a massacre of Poles in Volhynia and, in early 1944, ethnic cleansing also spread to Eastern Galicia. It is estimated that more than 35,000 and up to 60,000 Poles, mostly women and children along with unarmed men, were killed during the spring and summer campaign of 1943 in Volhynia, and up to 133,000 if other regions, such as Eastern Galicia, are included
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Bandera held anti-semitic views.[87][nb 6] According to political scientist Alexander John Motyl, antisemitism was not a core part of Ukrainian nationalism in the way it was for Nazism, and the Soviet Union and Poland were considered to be the primary enemies of the OUN. However, Bandera and his men considered Jews to be a "problem" because they were believed to be involved in aiding the Soviets to take Ukrainian territory, as well as not being Ukrainian.
According to
Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe "Bandera's worldview was shaped by numerous far-right values and concepts including ultranationalism, fascism, racism, and antisemitism; by fascination with violence; by the belief that only war could establish a Ukrainian state; and by hostility to democracy, communism, and socialism. Like other young Ukrainian nationalists, he combined extremism with religion and used religion to sacralize politics and violence."
[76]
Historian
John-Paul Himka writes that
Bandera remained true to the fascist ideology to the end.
[47]
Swedish-American historian
Per Anders Rudling said that
Bandera and his followers "advocated the selective breeding to create a 'pure' Ukrainian race[77] and that "the OUN shared the fascist attributes of anti-liberalism, anti-conservatism, and anti-communism, an armed party, totalitarianism, anti-Semitism, Führerprinzip, and adoption of fascist greetings. Its leaders eagerly emphasized to Hitler and Ribbentrop that they shared the Nazi Weltanschauung and a commitment to a fascist New Europe."
[78][
full citation needed]
American historian Timothy Snyder has described Bandera as a fascist.[79] Political scientist
Andreas Umland characterized Bandera as a "Ukrainian ultranationalist", and also told Deutsche Welle that he was not a "nazi", noting Ukrainian nationalism then was "not a copy of Nazism".
[32]
Historian
David Marples described Bandera’s views as "not untypical of his generation", but as holding "an extreme political stance that rejected any form of cooperation with the rulers of Ukrainian territories: the Poles and the Soviet authorities". For Bandera, Russia was the chief adversary, but he also lacked tolerance for Poles and Jews. Marples also described Bandera as "neither an orator nor a theoretician" and wrote that he had minimal importance as a thinker.
[3] Marples considered Rossolinski-Liebe to place too much importance on Bandera's views, writing that Rossolinski-Liebe struggled to find anything of note written by Bandera, and had assumed he was influenced by OUN publicist
Dmytro Dontsov and OUN journals.
[80]
Ukrainian historian Andrii Portnov writes that Bandera remained a proponent of authoritarian and violent politics until his death
Aggressive nationalism
