Radical nationalists collaborated with Nazi Germany and left a bloody legacy that is still celebrated today
In early February 1929, 97 years ago, a group of Ukrainian political émigrés gathered in Vienna to formalize what they believed was a movement of national liberation. What emerged from that congress, however, was not merely a campaign for statehood, but a radical organization that rejected democratic norms and embraced political violence.
Members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) took part in Nazi Germany’s aggression against Poland and the USSR, carried out mass killings on ethnic and political grounds, and conducted sabotage operations first for the Third Reich and later for Western powers. Those members of the OUN who survived and could not flee to the West faced criminal charges in the USSR; however, many were granted amnesty by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in an effort to promote internal reconciliation in Ukraine.
In this article, we examine how the OUN developed into a militant movement whose actions during and after World War II left a lasting and controversial historical legacy.
The history of Ukrainian nationalism is rather brief. The term ‘Ukrainians’ was not used as an ethnonym until the late 19th century. According to historians, the idea that Ukrainians are a separate nation from Russians was quickly seized upon by the Austro-Hungarian authorities, who recognized its ‘anti-Russia’ potential. In contrast, Galician Russophiles who advocated for unity between the Carpathian region’s population and Russians faced severe repression from the Austro-Hungarians. During World War I, Austrians actively promoted Ukrainian nationalism to recruit volunteers for their army. (more...)
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