Stepan Andreevich Bandera(ukr. Stepan Andriovich Bandera) (January 1, 1909, Stary Ugrinov, Austria-Hungary - October 15, 1959, Munich, Germany) - one of the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, Hero of Ukraine (2010), in 1941-1959. head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN (b)).
Formation of the Nachtigal and Roland battalions
The Nazis planned to use the OUN to exterminate Poles and Jews. . In November 1939, about 400 Ukrainian nationalists began training in Abwehr camps.
According to a number of sources, at the beginning of 1941, S. Bandera held a series of meetings with the leadership of German military intelligence, which resulted in the beginning of the formation of the “Nachtigall” battalions (a number of sources mention the “Ukrainian Legion named after S. Bandera” and “Roland” among the names of this unit) , in the spring of 1941, the OUN-R received 2.5 million marks from the Abwehr to conduct subversive struggle in the USSR.
As follows from the memoirs of Y. Stetsko, Bandera, shortly before the war, secretly met with Admiral Canaris, the head of the Abwehr. Bandera himself indicated that at the meeting with Canaris, the conditions for training Ukrainian volunteer units under the Wehrmacht were mainly discussed.
Proclamation of anti-Jewish policy
In April 1941, the Revolutionary wire of the OUN convened “its own” in Krakow II Great Gathering of Ukrainian Nationalists, where Stepan Bandera was elected head of the OUN, and Yaroslav Stetsko as his deputy.
The organizational greeting of a member of the OUN was the Nazi salute. The colors of the OUN flag under the leadership of S. Bandera were adopted - black and red.
The decisions of the congress stated: “ Jews in the USSR are the most devoted support of the ruling Bolshevik regime and the vanguard of Moscow imperialism in Ukraine. The Moscow-Bolshevik government uses the anti-Jewish sentiments of the Ukrainian masses to divert their attention from the real cause of the troubles and to direct them to Jewish pogroms during the uprising. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists fights against Jews as a support of the Moscow-Bolshevik regime, while simultaneously informing the masses that Moscow is the main enemy» .
The basic document of the OUN (b) adopted after the Congress - the instructions “Struggle and activities of the OUN during the war” stated: “In times of chaos and unrest, one can afford to eliminate undesirable Polish, Moscow and Jewish figures, especially supporters of Bolshevik-Moscow imperialism; national minorities are divided into: a) those loyal to us, actually members of still oppressed peoples; b) hostile to us - Muscovites, Poles and Jews. a) have the same rights as Ukrainians..., b) destroy in the struggle, in particular those who will defend the regime: resettle to their lands, destroy, mainly the intelligentsia, which should not be allowed into any governing bodies, generally make “production” impossible intelligentsia, access to schools, etc. Leaders should be destroyed... Assimilation of Jews is excluded.”
On June 23, 1941, the OUN(b) sent its version of the memorandum to the Reich Chancellery; the OUN(m) would do this on July 3.
Anti-Jewish activities
Stry, memorial plaque at the school where Bandera studied.
After the entry of German troops into Soviet territory, on June 25, 1941, Y. Stetsko wrote in his letter-report to S. Bandera: “we are creating a police force that will help remove Jews.”
In the rear of the advanced units of the German troops, S. Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko with a group of supporters arrived in Lviv on June 29, where Bandera was detained and returned to Krakow, and Stetsko the next day convened the “Ukrainian National Assembly”, which proclaimed the “Ukrainian State” on June 30, 1941 "which, together with Greater Germany, will establish a new order throughout the world, headed by the "leader of the Ukrainian people, Stepan Bandera."
A statement by the head of the newly proclaimed “Ukrainian State” Yaroslav Stetsko said:
« Moscow and Judaism are the biggest enemies of Ukraine. I consider the main and decisive enemy to be Moscow, which imperiously kept Ukraine in captivity. And, nevertheless, I appreciate the hostile and sabotage will of the Jews who helped Moscow enslave Ukraine. Therefore, I stand in the position of extermination of Jews and the advisability of transferring German methods of extermination of Jews to Ukraine, excluding their assimilation" , The participation of the Nachtigal battalion as an organized force in the Jewish pogrom in Lvov in early July 1941 has not been proven.
From 20 (according to other sources 25) July 1941, Bandera and Stetsko were under house arrest in Berlin. The arrest did not prevent them from leading the OUN.
On August 14, 1941, Bandera writes a letter to Alfred Rosenberg in which he once again tries to clarify for the Germans the situation with the OUN (b). S. Bandera attached a memorandum entitled “Zur Lage in Lwiw (Lemberg)” to the letter, which had the following sections: “History of cooperation between the OUN and Germany”, “OUN and the new order in Europe”, “Foundations for Ukrainian-German friendship”, “ The state as a source of creative labor of the people”, “The goal of the OUN is the Ukrainian state”, “Act of 06/30/1941 and Ukrainian-German cooperation”, “The attitude of the OUN to the Ukrainian state government”, “OUN for further cooperation with Germany” and “Final provisions” . This memorandum, in particular, stated: “Ukrainians are fighting against all oppression, be it Jewish Bolshevism or Russian imperialism.”
On January 1, 1909, Stepan Andreevich Bandera, an ideologist and one of the founders of the nationalist movement of Ukraine, was born in the village of Stary Ugryniv on the territory of Galicia. His activities still cause fierce controversy, although more than 56 years have passed since the assassination of the politician. The biography of Stepan Bandera can help you understand the secret of the attractiveness of his ideology for some.
Family
His parents were sincere believers and closely associated with the Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church. Stepan’s father, Andrei Mikhailovich, served as a village priest and was actively involved in promoting the ideas of Ukrainian nationalism. In 1919, he was even elected to the National Rada of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, and then he fought in Denikin's troops. After the end of the Civil War, Andrei Mikhailovich returned to his native village and continued to serve as a village priest.
Stepan’s mother, Miroslava Vladimirovna, also came from the family of a clergyman. That is why the children, and there were six of them, were raised in the spirit of values that were significant to their parents and devotion to the ideas of Ukrainian nationalism.
Biography of Stepan Bandera: childhood
The family lived in a small house, which was provided to them by the church leadership. According to the testimony of his contemporaries, who are well acquainted with the biography of Stepan Bandera, he grew up as an obedient and pious boy. At the same time, already in the gymnasium, he tried to develop strong-willed qualities in himself, for example, by dousing himself with cold water in winter, which earned him joint disease for the rest of his life.
To enter the gymnasium, Stepan left his parents’ house quite early and moved to the city of Stryi to live with his grandparents. It was there that he acquired his first experience of political activity and showed himself to be a person with excellent organizational skills. Thus, Bandera participated in the activities of various political organizations, including the Union of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth.
After graduating from high school, Stepan returned to Ugryniv, began organizing young nationalists and even created a local choir.
Becoming a nationalist movement
Having entered the polytechnic school of the city of Lvov in 1929, Stepan Bendera continued his political activities.
It was a difficult period. As dissatisfaction with the Polish authorities increases among the radically minded part of society, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists becomes more and more active. It is engaged in terrorist acts, its militants attack mail trains and eliminate political opponents. And, as a response to terror and protests, mass repressions by the authorities begin.
In the 30s, Bandera, who had previously been mainly involved in propaganda, became one of the most active leaders of the OUN. He is repeatedly subjected to short arrests, mainly for distributing anti-Polish literature. By the way, the biography of Stepan Bandera during this period contains many dark pages. In particular, according to some sources, in 1932, under the guidance of German specialists, he underwent training at a special intelligence school in Danzig.
However, Bandera's work in important positions in the OUN turned out to be relatively short-lived. In 1934, he was arrested and then sentenced to hang for plotting the murder of Bronislaw Peracki, the Polish Minister of the Interior. True, capital punishment was later replaced by life imprisonment.
Activities during the German occupation
In 1939, after Poland was captured by Germany, Bandera Stepan, whose biography continues to arouse interest among scholars of the history of Eastern Europe in the 20th century, escapes from prison. He seeks to restore his influence in the OUN leadership and continue the fight for the ideals of Ukrainian nationalism, but faces a number of problems.
As you know, Galicia and Volyn, which were initially centers of the struggle for the creation of a sovereign Ukraine, at that time found themselves part of the USSR, and nationalist activity there became difficult. In addition, there was no unity at the top of the OUN. Supporters of one of its leaders, Andrei Melnik, advocated an alliance with Nazi Germany.
Disagreements lead to open clashes. The confrontation between OUN factions prompts Bender to begin recruiting armed units. Based on them, at a rally in Lvov in 1941, he proclaimed the creation of an independent state of Ukraine.
In Germany
The reaction of the occupation authorities was not long in coming. Stepan Bandera, whose brief biography is familiar to every Ukrainian schoolchild, together with his comrade-in-arms Yaroslav Stetsko was arrested by the Gestapo, and they were sent to Berlin. Employees of the German intelligence services offered cooperation and support to the OUN leader. In exchange for this, he had to abandon the propaganda of Ukrainian independence. He did not accept this offer and ended up in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he stayed until 1944.
However, in fairness it must be said that there he was in fairly comfortable conditions and even had the opportunity to meet his wife. Moreover, Bandera, while in Sachsenhausen, wrote and sent articles and documents of political content to his homeland. For example, he is the author of the brochure “The Struggle and Activities of the OUN(b) During the War,” in which he pays attention to the role of acts of violence, including ethnic violence.
According to some historians, the biography of Stepan Bandera in the period from 1939 to 1945 requires more careful study. In particular, according to some sources, he actively collaborated with the Abwehr and was involved in the training of reconnaissance groups, without, however, abandoning his ideological convictions.
After the war
After the defeat of fascism, Bandera Stepan, whose biography was repeatedly “rewritten” to please one or another political force, remained in West Germany and settled in Munich, where his wife and children also arrived. He continued active political activity as one of the leaders of the OUN, many of whose members also moved to Germany or were released from camps. Bandera's supporters declared the need to elect him as the lifelong leader of the organization. However, those who believed that the activities of nationalist associations should be managed on the territory of Ukraine did not agree with this. As the main argument in favor of their position, they pointed out that only by being on the ground can one soberly assess the situation, which had radically changed during the war years.
In an effort to expand the number of his supporters, Stepan Bandera (biography is briefly presented above) became the initiator of the organization of the ABN - Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Peoples, headed by Yaroslav Stetsko.
In 1947, nationalists who disagreed with his position finally abandoned the OUN, and he was elected its leader.
Death
The time has come to talk about the last page that ended the biography of Stepan Bandera. According to the most common version, he was killed by NKVD officer Bogdan Stashinsky. This happened in 1959, October 15. The killer was waiting for the politician at the entrance of the house and shot him in the face with a pistol with a syringe in which Bender was kept, died in an ambulance called by neighbors, without ever regaining consciousness.
Other versions of the murder
But was Stepan Bandera (biography, whose photo is presented above) really killed by an agent of the Soviet secret services? There are many versions. Firstly, on the day of the murder, for some reason Bandera released his bodyguards. Secondly, from the point of view of his significance at this time, Bandera no longer posed a danger as a political figure. At least for the USSR. And the NKVD did not at all need the martyrdom of a prominent nationalist in the past. Thirdly, Stashinsky was sentenced to a fairly lenient sentence - 8 years in prison. By the way, after being released, he disappeared.
According to a lesser-known version, Bandera was killed by one of his former comrades or a representative of Western intelligence services, which is most likely.
The fate of family members
Stepan Bandera's father was arrested by the NKVD on May 22, 1941 and executed two weeks after the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union. His brother Alexander lived in Italy for a long time. At the beginning of the war, he came to Lviv, was arrested by the Gestapo and died in Stepan Bandera’s other brother, Vasily, was also an active figure in the Ukrainian nationalist movement. In 1942 he was sent to Auschwitz by German occupation forces and killed by Polish caretakers.
Crimes
Today in Ukraine there are many people who revere Stepan Bandera almost as a saint. Striving for the independence of one's homeland is a noble cause, but nationalism never stops at praising one's people. He always needs to prove his superiority by humiliating his neighbor or, even worse, destroying him physically. In particular, many European and Russian historians consider the facts of Bandera’s involvement in the Volyn massacre to be proven, when thousands of Poles and Catholic Armenians, whom Bandera’s followers considered “second Jews,” were killed.
Stepan Bandera, whose biography, crimes and works require serious study, is a controversial personality, but undoubtedly extraordinary. His name currently continues to be a symbol of the nationalist movement and inspires some hot and, let’s say, not entirely smart heads to commit such terrible actions as shelling residential areas of their own cities.
short biography outlined in this article.
Stepan Bandera short biography
Stepan Bandera- Ukrainian politician, one of the main ideologists and theorists of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, chairman of the OUN-B Wire.
Bandera was born on January 1, 1909 in Stary Ugrin, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, in the family of a Greek Catholic priest.
From 1919 to 1927 Bandera studied at the Stryi gymnasium. After graduation, in 1928 he entered the agronomic department of the Higher Polytechnic School in Lvov. Stepan Bandera studied there for eight semesters, but never passed the diploma exam due to his political activities.
Since 1930 he became a member of the OUN, deeply imbued with its ideology. In 1932 - 1933, Stepan Andreevich became deputy and head of the Regional Executive, the so-called commandant of the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO).
In June 1934, Polish police arrested Stepan Andreevich Bandera and other members of the OUN. During the Warsaw trial they were tried for belonging to the OUN and for organizing political actions. Stepan Andreevich was sentenced to prison in the cities of Kielce, Wronki and Berest, where he alternately served until 1939. Even there he remained a guide for the OUN and maintained contact with the underground.
In connection with the German attack on Poland, the situation in the areas where prisoners were held became so critical that the prison administration hastily evacuated and thus all prisoners were released. In parallel with this, the OUN conductor Evgeniy Konovalets dies and the OUN conductor is headed by Andrei Melnik, a colonel. Returning to the ranks of the OUN, Stepan Bandera demanded his release and a change in the organization’s tactics. Such events contributed to the emergence of a serious conflict. Its consequence was the separation from the OUN of a group of people who supported Bandera and the formation of the OUN-B organization in April 1941. He actively fought against Moscow and Soviet power, for which the Soviet government saw him as a dangerous enemy.
As a result of this situation, Stepan Bandera constantly changes his place of residence, moving from place to place. He finally settled in the city of Munich, where his daughter studied. There he spent the last years of his life using a fake passport in the name of Stefan Popel.
October 15, 1959 he was killed by KGB agent Bogdan Stashinsky, who shot him in the face with a stream of potassium cyanide from a special pistol. Five days later he was buried in a Munich cemetery.
Banderas or Banderaites are people who share the idea of killing people of other nationalities other than Ukrainian. The group received its name in honor of the founder of the movement, Stepan Bandera.
As often happens, the name has become a household name, and today everyone who, to one degree or another, shares such views is called Bandera.
The movement originated back in 1927, when Stepan was finishing high school. The main idea of organizing a resistance group was based on the opinion that only pure Ukrainians can live in Ukraine.
Other nationalities and people of mixed blood must be expelled. Unfortunately, Bandera recognized death as the only possible way of exile.
Stepan Bandera was born on January 1, 1909 in the family of a priest, was a scout and wanted to study to become an agronomist. After graduating from high school, he joined the ranks of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists under the leadership of Konovalets.
And this is where the fun begins. According to historical notes, Stepan Bandera did not share the views of the leader of the OUN, and was guided by more radical views.
At that point in time, the territory of present-day Ukraine was under the rule of Poland. The ideas of liberating the native country from the occupiers found support among the students of the gymnasium even after Bandera’s graduation. Many residents were against the Polish invasion and the looming threat of Germany.
One of the OUN leaders, Melnik, held similar views, but planned to conclude a peace agreement with Hitler. Actually, on the basis of these contradictions, Bandera managed to gather a large army of followers.
Murder and prison
Bandera is considered responsible for the murder of a number of prominent political figures. His associates organized the murder of the Polish school curator Gadomski, the secretary of the Soviet consulate Mailov and the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Peracki.
At the same time, there were murders of Polish and Ukrainian citizens. Anyone suspected of having ties to a foreign government was doomed to a brutal death.
In 1934, Bandera was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, thanks to a fortunate coincidence (the invasion of German and Soviet troops), after five years the prison holidays ended.
Full of strength and desire to act, Bandera again gathered like-minded people around him. Now the USSR has been declared the main threat to the country’s well-being.
Against everyone
Bandera assumed that the alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union would not last long. Therefore, a strategy was developed to assert the independence of the Ukrainian state.
It was supposed to propose to the German government to enter into an alliance with Bandera’s army and legitimize the rights and freedoms of the inhabitants of their native country. Hitler did not consider it necessary to cooperate with Bandera and, under the guise of supposedly peaceful negotiations, took Stepan into custody.
So an ardent supporter of the struggle for the purity of the Ukrainian nation was sent to a concentration camp. Then difficult times came for Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union launched an offensive. Hitler decided to release some of the imprisoned nationalists and tried to win Bandera’s favor.
And again, the main condition for support was the desire of the main Bandera member to recognize the existence of a separate state of Ukraine. The Germans refused a second time. Bandera remained in Germany, life in exile began.
On the margins of history
After the liberation of Ukrainian lands, the activities of the OUN began to revive. But Bandera remained out of work; active German propaganda in the last years of the war turned the once heroic nationalist into a Soviet spy.
Stepan created a foreign branch of the Organization and tried to manage the situation gradually. For several years, until the early 50s, little was known about Bandera’s life. There are rumors that he collaborated with British intelligence and helped send spies into the Soviet Union.
In recent years, Bandera lived in Munich and tried to lead a normal life. Periodic assassination attempts forced members of the foreign OUN to provide their leader with personal security. But the security could not prevent the murder of the nationalist - on October 15, 1959, Stepan Bandera was killed with a pistol containing potassium cyanide m.
Let's sum it up
Many atrocities and brutal murders are attributed to the Bandera movement. Bandera’s followers are considered guilty of almost all the looting, torture and torment that occurs.
Thousands of innocently killed civilians and hundreds of occupiers. How much truth there is in these accusations can be decided, perhaps, only by the descendants of the participants in those distant events. Really calculated numbers of losses among Soviet people:
- Soviet military - 8350;
- Ordinary employees and committee chairmen – 3190;
- Peasants and collective farmers - 16345;
- Workers of other professions, children, housewives, old people – 2791 .
It is difficult to calculate how many civilians from other countries died. Some claim that entire villages were slaughtered, others focus on the invading troops.
As in that famous proverb - “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” - so Bandera swept through the country like a hurricane. Apparently, the ideas of total cleansing of the Motherland from foreigners have firmly settled in the hearts of people. Will we repeat the mistakes of the past now?
The name of Stepan Bandera is now identical to the concept of fascism for many, along with Hitler, Goebbels and Mussolini. But for many, Stepan Bandera is a symbol of the struggle for independence, sovereignty and unity of Ukraine, whose cult of personality is sacredly revered, and whose nationalist ideas still excite minds and are a cause of concern for the whole world. Stepan Bandera, a native of the kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, in Austria-Hungary, is the theorist and ideologist of all Ukrainian nationalism. He was born into the family of a Greek Catholic priest and was distinguished by religious fanaticism and, at the same time, obedience. He is the organizer of a number of terrorist acts, involved in the massacres of the Polish civilian population during, since 1927 - a member of the UVO (Ukrainian Military Organization), since 1933 - a member of the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists). He was also the regional guide of the OUN in Western Ukrainian lands.
Life of Stepan Bandera (01/1/1909-10/15/1959)
Stepan Bandera is the son of a priest, brought up in the spirit of Ukrainian nationalism, back in 1917 - 1920. commanded various combat units that fought against communism. He joined the Nationalist Youth Union in 1922. And in 1928 he became a student at the Lvov Higher Polytechnic School, enrolling in the Faculty of Agronomy. A year later, in 1929, he underwent training at an Italian school for saboteurs. In the same year he became a member of the OUN and soon led the radical group of this organization. He organized the murders of his political opponents, and also led robberies of post offices and postal trains. He also personally organized the murders of Tadeusz Gołówko (deputy of the Polish Sejm), Yemelyan Chekhovsky (Lviv police commissioner), Andrei Mailov (secretary of the Soviet consulate in Lviv). In 1939, Bandera, like many other nationalists, fled to Poland. This was due to the annexation of Western Ukraine to the Soviet Union. In occupied Poland, the Nazis released all members of the OUN, as they saw them as allies in the upcoming war with the Soviet Union. In the same year, having received freedom from the Germans, Bandera rebelled against Melnik, the leader of the OUN, whom he considered an unsuitable leader due to his lack of initiative.
During the war
On June 30, 1941, on behalf of Bandera, Y. Stetsko proclaimed the creation of Ukraine as a power. At the same time, Stepan’s supporters in Lviv staged pogroms, in which more than three thousand people died, after which Bandera was arrested by the Gestapo, where he signed an agreement to cooperate, and then called on all true Ukrainian people to help the Germans in everything and defeat Moscow. However, despite agreeing to cooperate, he was arrested again in September. He was sent to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp, where he was kept in quite decent conditions. Bandera was one of the initiators of the creation of the UPA (10/14/42), at the head of which he put, who replaced D. Klyachkivsky in this post. The goal of the UPA was, in general, the same - the struggle for the independence of Ukraine. But still, the OUN leaders did not recommend fighting the Germans, seeing them as allies. In 1943, the OUN decided at a meeting with the German authorities to jointly fight against partisanship. So it was decided that the Ukrainian Insurgent Army would protect the railways from partisans and support any initiatives of the German authorities in the already occupied territories. Germany, in return, supplied Bandera's army with weapons. In 1944, with a new round of cooperation proposed by Himler, Bandera was released and began training sabotage troops in Krakow as part of the 202nd Abwehr team. In February 1945, Stepan Bandera took over as leader of the OUN. By the way, he did not leave this post until his death.
After the War
After the end of the war, during 1946 and 1947, Bandera had to hide from the authorities, as he fell into the zone of American occupation of Germany. Stepan had to live illegally until the early 1950s, when he settled in Munich, where he could live almost legally. Four years later, in 1954, his wife and children joined him in Munich. By this time, the Americans were no longer pursuing Bandera, leaving him alone, but the intelligence agents of the Soviet Union still continued the hunt and did not give up hope of eliminating the leader of the OUN UPA. The OUN allocated powerful security to Bandera, who, collaborating with the German criminal police, saved their leader’s life several times by preventing attempts on his life. But in 1959, the Security Council of the OUN (b) nevertheless found out that the murder of Bandera had already been planned and this plan could be carried out at any time. He was offered, for the sake of safety, to leave Munich. At first he refused, but then he nevertheless entrusted the preparations for his departure to Stepan “Mechnik,” the head of intelligence of the OUN ZCH.
Murder of Stepan Bandera
On October 15, 1959, OUN leader Stepan got ready to go home for lunch. Together with his secretary, he went to the market, where he made a few purchases, then he left the secretary and went home alone. As always, security was waiting for him near the house. Leaving his car in the garage, Bandera opened the door to the entrance to the house where he lived with his family and went inside alone. The killer, who had been watching him for several months, was already waiting for him at the entrance. The killer, KGB agent - Bogdan Stashinsky - held in his hand the murder weapon - a pistol-syringe filled with potassium cyanide hidden in a newspaper tube wrapped. When Bandera went up to the third floor, he ran into Stashinsky and recognized him as the man he had seen in church that morning. “What are you doing here?” - he asked a logical question. Without answering, Stashinsky raised his hand with the newspaper forward and fired a shot in the face. The pop from the shot was almost inaudible, but the neighbors reacted to Bandera’s scream. Under the influence of potassium cyanide, the OUN leader slowly sank onto the steps, but Stashinsky was no longer nearby... Stepan Bandera died on the way to the hospital without regaining consciousness.
Monument to Stepan Bandera
At the moment, there are several monuments to the OUN leader Stepan Bandera, and all of them are concentrated in Western Ukraine, or more precisely, in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Ternopil regions. In Ivano-Frankivsk, the monument was erected for the centenary of Stepan Bandera in 2009, on January 1st. In Kolomyia the monument was erected in 1991, on August 18, in Gorodenka - in 2008, on November 30. It is interesting that the monument to Bandera in his small homeland, in Stary Ugrinov, was blown up by unknown people twice. Monuments to the OUN leader were also erected in Sambir, Stary Sambir, Lviv, Buchach, Terebovlya, Kremenets, Truskavets, Zalishchiki and many other settlements.
Performance evaluation
Now it is quite difficult to fully assess the activities and personality of the leader of the OUN, Stepan Bandera, because there is still no complete biography of him. It is even more difficult to evaluate books about Ukrainian nationalism because they were written exclusively by Ukrainian nationalists. People who were not drawn into the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism were never involved in researching his activities. Some historians accuse Bandera’s biographers of sparingly listing facts from his life, saying that he was an obedient son, a fanatically pious person, that he was a good friend, and talking rather dryly about his “heroism.” , fearing to make a cult of personality out of this controversial figure. Only one thing is clear: for some, Stepan Bandera is a ruthless killer of thousands and thousands of people, and for others, he is a fighter for the independence of his own country. And for such a lofty goal, they say, one cannot disdain any means, including cooperation with the fascists and the extermination of civilians, clearing a place on Polish soil in order to then create an independent state of Ukraine there and settle only Ukrainians. For some, Bandera is a romantic utopian, for others a dictator and tyrant, who from childhood prepared himself for a great mission. In a word, and you can’t argue with this – he is a very controversial figure.
