Greenlighting the 'Pantheon of Heroes'

 or: How USAID learned to stop worrying and love the Banderites

Several weeks ago, the New York Times made waves with the headline, “Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History.” Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera (1909-59), perhaps the thorniest of all, went unnamed in the article. Whereas neo-Nazis are well known to have penetrated the Ukrainian military since 2014, the OUN-B, or Bandera’s faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which irrefutably still exists, has quietly been at the forefront of the far-right hijacking of the memory politics of Ukraine.

Readers may already know what is arguably the most important part of this story. It may sound like an unhinged conspiracy theory cooked up in the Kremlin, but after the so-called “Revolution of Dignity” in 2014, the OUN-B and likeminded nationalists seized control of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory (UINM) and the archives of the Security Service of Ukraine. OUN-B member Volodymyr Viatrovych led the state UINM from 2014-19 and was the chief architect of Ukraine’s “decommunization” in that period. As of 2023, Banderites still loom large in the institution, and he is “satisfied with the Banderization of Ukraine.”

For years, Ukrainian nationalists have wanted a sacred “Pantheon of Heroes” at the historical Askold’s Grave park in Kyiv, hoping to make this the final resting place for a number of Ukrainians buried abroad, especially Stepan Bandera in Munich. On June 27, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky expressed support for its creation, and “the reburial of all our heroes.”  (more...)

Greenlighting the 'Pantheon of Heroes'