Stepan Bandera

Stepan Andriyovych Bandera (Ukrainian: Степан Андрійович Бандера) (1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian politician and theorist of the militant wing of the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists known for his involvement in terrorist activities. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he prepared the 30 June 1941 Proclamation of Ukrainian statehood in Lviv, after which he was arrested by the Germans. In 1944, with Germany rapidly losing ground in the war in the face of the advancing Allied armies, Bandera was released in the hope that he would be instrumental in deterring the advancing Soviet forces. He set up the headquarters of the re-established Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council, which worked underground. He settled with his family in West Germany where he remained the leader of the OUN-B and worked with several anti-communist organizations such as the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. Fourteen years after the end of the war, Bandera was assassinated in 1959 by KGB agents in Munich.

Stepan Bandera

Quotes

• The OUN values ​​the cost of living of its members, very much; but our idea in our notion is so majestic that when it comes to its realization, not one, not hundreds, but millions of victims must be dedicated in order to realize it.
  • Speech to the jury in Lwów (1936)

• When the people choose bread between bread and freedom, they eventually lose everything, including bread. If the people choose freedom, they will have bread grown by themselves and not taken away by anyone.
  • Source

• Even the best opportunities and readiness to help will not give up if the nation itself does not fight and forge its own destiny by its own struggle.
  • "World War III and the Liberation Struggle" (1950)

• In every ideological or political movement, the two most important components play an important role: the idea and the person. Leading ideas and worldviews in the ideological movement and guiding program decisions in the political - create the "soul", the essence, the inner meaning of the movement. People who recognize, disseminate and implement ideas and programs and for that purpose take an active part in the movement - create its living, active organism.
  • "Idea and Man in the Ideological Movement" (1954)

• Creation, formation of personnel for the liberation struggle - this is the most important, the main task of the whole revolutionary process.
  • "On the Question of the Main Cadres of the National Liberation Revolution" (1953)

• The ideological and political work of each political factor must be direct and immediate. In national life, each environment must perform its inherent function within such limits, forms and means that it can achieve on its own and which correspond to its real influences in Ukrainian society. Every serious environment must operate under all internal and external conditions, regardless of other factors.
  • "For a Complete Political Structure" (1958)

• Faith strengthens the forces of the soul the most. Through true and deep faith in God, the Savior, each person and the entire nation is able to continually draw from the eternally living source as much strength as their souls can perceive.
  • "From an Inexhaustible Source" (1957)

1954 interview with the West German radio

From CIA archives: Stepan Bandera’s 1954 interview to German radio" (1954)

• The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists with organizes and leads the fight of the Ukrainian people develops its activity in Ukraine as well as abroad, primarily in those western countries where the Ukrainian emigration has settled.
• The Ukrainian people takes up an extremely hostile attitude towards Bolshevism, communism, communist system and regime. It also takes a hostile attitude towards all the kinds of enslavement and exploitation of Ukraine by Russian imperialists. There is only a small number of Ukrainian fellow travelers of the Bolshevik regime who take up another attitude towards it. The revolutionary anti-Bolshevik fight of the Ukrainian liberation movement is the true spokesman of the attitude and aspiration of the Ukrainian people.
• The ultimate end of the Bolshevik policy is to destroy the peculiar substance of the Ukrainian people in every respect, and to drown the Ukrainian people in the sea of the so-called Soviet people or, rather, in the modern form of the Russian imperialism devouring other people. In this way, the Ukraine would allegedly turn into one of the Russian provinces. However, the Bolsheviks dare not speak openly of that end and pursue it in a straight way. On the contrary, they are compelled to apply very complicated means, and even to retreat in some fields.
• In the hearts of the Ukrainians, there is no feeling of hate toward the allied nations. On the contrary, they wish all the people to unite in their common fight against the enslaver, Russian Bolshevism.
• The name “Ukrainian nationalist” is consonant with “Ukrainian patriot” who is ready to fight for freedom of his people, to sacrifice for his people everything he has, even his life.
• The Ukrainian liberation fight is a component of the general liberation fight of all peoples enslaved by Russian imperialism. In our opinion, Bolshevism is only one of the forms of the traditional Russian imperialism. In our fight against the Russian-Bolshevik imperialism, we consider ourselves an ally of all the freedom-loving nations. We offered resistance to the Russian-Bolshevik imperialism in the past, we are opposing it now and we shall oppose it in the future.

About Stepan Bandera

• Stepan Bandera once put forward three attitudes towards non-Ukrainians. It is very simple. There is a fraternal one - for those who are fighting with us for Ukraine, regardless of nationality. There is a tolerance - to those people who live on that land, do not oppose our struggle, so we treat them normally, there is enough space for everyone in Ukraine. The third is hostile to those who oppose the national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people, and this is in any state, any nation has such positions.
  • Dmytro Yarosh, Ukrainian activist, politician, and military commander
  • "Опти Поба и путь в небытие" (28 July 2014)

• Bandera died as he lived - violently. Hated by the rulers of the Kremlin (Stalin and Khrushchev), he became a target for the Soviet secret services. When Bandera started to implement his plan for a great Ukraine, he must have been aware that he was playing a risky game, especially since it was based on an alliance with Hitler. Was he aware of how this might end? We will not find out, but he probably had to ask himself when he was in exile in Munich: will they come or not? They came. They always come.
  • Artur Górski, Polish politician
  • „Focus Historia” No.10, p. 3. (October 2014)

• We, Poles, have no reason to have warm feelings for the Ukrainian nationalist leader. On the contrary, although he was born, raised and educated in Poland, many consider him one of the greatest enemies of our nation (it is enough to mention, for example, the massacre in Volhynia). It is viewed in a similar way in Russia - it became a synonym of nationalist orthodoxy and fascist tendencies already in the times of the USSR.
  • Artur Górski, Polish politician
  • „Focus Historia” No.10, p. 3. (October 2014)

• Of course, Poles have the right to their opinion on Ukrainian history. Just like us on the subject of Polish history. But the Ukrainian side has never had any comments to commemorate the Polish heroes whose role in the history of Ukraine is absolutely negative. Besides, Stepan Bandera has nothing to do with the Polish-Ukrainian conflict. At that time, he was in a concentration camp.
  • Volodymyr Viatrovych, Ukrainian historian, civic activist and politician
  • "Московський проспект перейменували на Степана Бандери" (12 July 2016)