Roman Shukhevych | |
|---|---|
 Shukhevych in 1944 | |
| Nicknames | Tur, Taras Chuprynka |
| Born | (1907-06-30)30 June 1907 Lemberg, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 5 March 1950(1950-03-05) (aged 42) |
| Cause of death | Suicide by gunshot |
| Allegiance |
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| Branch |
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| Years of service | 1928–1950 |
| Rank | General |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards |
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Roman-Taras Osypovych Shukhevych (Ukrainian:Роман-Тарас Осипович Шухевич, also known by hispseudonym,Tur andTaras Chuprynka; 30 June 1907 – 5 March 1950) was aUkrainian nationalist and a military leader of the nationalistUkrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which during theSecond World War fought against theSoviet Union and to a lesser extent againstNazi Germany for Ukrainian independence.[1] Hecollaborated with the Nazis from February 1941 to December 1942 as commanding officer of theNachtigall Battalion in early 1941, and as aHauptmann of the GermanSchutzmannschaft 201 auxiliary police battalion in late 1941 and 1942.[2][3]
Shukhevych led some of theGalicia-Volhynia massacres, where tens of thousands of Polish civilians were killed. It is unclear to what extent Shukhevych was responsible for the massacres of Poles in Volhynia, but he condoned them afterwards, and directed the murders of Poles in Eastern Galicia.[4] HistorianPer Anders Rudling has accused theUkrainian diaspora and Ukrainian academics of "ignoring, glossing over, oroutright denying"OUN's role in the massacres.[3]
Shukhevych was born in the city of Lemberg (nowLviv),[5] in theGalicia region ofAustria-Hungary (some sources[which?] claim his place of birth asKrakovets). He studied at theLviv Academic Gymnasium,[6] living with his grandfather,Volodymyr Shukhevych, an ethnographer. His political formation was influenced byYevhen Konovalets, the commander of theUkrainian Military Organization, who rented a room in Yevhen Konovalets's father's house from 1921 to 1922.[7]
In October 1926, Shukhevych entered theLviv Polytechnic Institute (thenPolitechnika Lwowska – when the city of Lwów was part of theSecond Polish Republic) to study civil engineering.[8] In July 1934 he completed his studies with an engineering degree in road-bridge speciality.[5] He was also an accomplished musician and with his brother Yuriy completed studies in piano and voice at the Lysenko Music Institute. During his studies, Shukhevych became an active member of the UkrainianScouting organizationPlast. He was a member ofLisovi Chorty. He organized Plast groups and founded the "Chornomortsi" (Black Sea Cossacks) kurin in 1927.[9]
From 1928 to 1929, Shukhevych did his military service in the Polish army. As a tertiary student, he was automatically sent for officer training. However, he was deemed unreliable, and instead completed his military service as a private in the artillery inVolhynia.[citation needed]
In 1925 Shukhevych joined theUkrainian Military Organization (UVO).[5] In 1926 the regional team of UVO ordered Shukhevych to assassinate the Lwów school superintendent,Stanisław Sobiński [uk],[5] accused of "Polonizing" the Ukrainian education system. Roman Shukhevych andBohdan Pidhainy carried out the assassination on 19 October 1926.[10][verify] In 1928–29 Shukhevych served his military service in thePolish Army in the artillery.[5]
In February 1929 theOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was founded inVienna. Shukhevych, under the name "Dzvin" (Bell), became a representative of the Ukrainian Executive.[citation needed]
Shukhevych was aleader of a wave of attacks against Polish property and homes in Galicia in 1930, intended to provoke Polish authorities into retaliation and to radicalize Ukrainian society.[11][12]
Shukhevych planned and also participated in terrorist activities and assassinations, including but not limited to:
Shukhevych, withStepan Bandera,Stepan Lenkavskyi,Yaroslav Stetsko,Yaroslav Starukh, and others developed a concept of "permanent revolution". According to their manifesto, the Ukrainian people, exploited by an occupier, could only obtain freedom through continued assault on the enemy. As a result, theOUN took on the task of preparing for an all-Ukrainian revolt.[citation needed]
Shukhevych took an active part in developing a concept regarding the formation of a Ukrainian army. At that time two diametrically opposed arguments existed. The first proposed forming a Ukrainian army of Ukrainian emigrants; the second advocated recruiting a national army in Western Ukraine organized by Ukrainians.[16]
After the15 June 1934 OUN assassination of Polish Internal Affairs MinisterBronisław Pieracki, Shukhevych was arrested on 18 July and was sent to theBereza Kartuska Prison.[17][better source needed] In December 1935 he was acquitted and released due to lack of incriminating evidence.[18]
From 19 January 1935, Shukhevych was confined to theBrygitki prison in Lwów.[19] He was incarcerated for his membership in the Regional executive of the OUN. The lawyer in the trial was his uncleStepan Shukhevych. Shukhevych was sentenced to three years in jail; however, because of the 1935 amnesty he was released from jail after spending half a year in the Bereza Kartuska[20] and two years in another prison.[21]
During the Warsaw trial against the OUN (18 November 1935 – 13 January 1936), Shukhevych was called as a witness. Shukhevych stood by his right to speak in Ukrainian for which he was fined 200złoty. After greeting the court with the call "Glory to Ukraine", he was immediately sentenced to one day in jail.[22]
During the Lwów trial against the OUN (25 May – 27 June 1936), Shukhevych was accused of treason, belonging to anti-government organization of OUN and sentenced to three years imprisonment.[5] He was released in an amnesty on 27 January 1937.[5]
After being released in 1937, Shukhevych set up an advertising cooperative called "Fama", which became a front for the activities of the OUN. Soon outlets were set up throughout Galicia,Volhynia, and within the rest ofPolish territory. The workers of the company were members of the OUN, often recently released political prisoners. The company was very successful and had sections working with the press and film, publishing booklets, printing posters, selling mineral water, and compiling address listings. It also opened its own transportation section.[23]
In November 1938,Carpathian Ruthenia gained autonomy within theCzechoslovak state. Shukhevych organized financial aid for the government of the fledgling republic and sent OUN members to set up theCarpathian Sich.In December 1938, he illegally crossed the border from Poland intoCzechoslovakia, traveling to the Ruthenian city ofKhust.[24] There, with the aid of local OUN members andGerman intelligence,[25][verify] he set up the general headquarters for the fight against the Czechoslovak central government.
Moreover, in January 1939 the OUN decided to throw off the autonomous government, which seemed too pro-Czechoslovak to them. Thecoup d'état attempt occurred on the night of 13–14 March, in relation to the proclamation of Slovak independence, managed by Germany. With help of sympathizers among the police, the insurgents led by Shukhevych obtained the weapons of thegendarmerie, but their assaults ongarrisons of the Czechoslovak army failed. Just inKhust 11 OUN fighters were killed and 51 captured.[26] However, after the creation of theSlovak Republic on 14 March and theNazis' seizure of Czech lands on 15 March, Carpathian Ruthenia was immediately invaded and annexed byHungary. Shukhevych took an active part in the short-term armed conflict with Hungarian forces and was almost killed in one of the actions.[citation needed]
After the occupation ofCarpathian Ruthenia by Hungary ended, Shukhevych traveled through Romania and Yugoslavia to Austria, where he consulted with OUN commanders and was given new orders and sent toDanzig to carry outsubversive activities.[27]
The Nazis and Soviets signed theMolotov–Ribbentrop pact in August 1939, and in SeptemberGermany and theUSSR invaded Poland, startingWorld War II and creating new challenges and opportunities for the Ukrainian nationalist movement. In autumn 1939 Shukhevych moved toKraków with his family where he acted as the contact for the Ukrainian Nationalist Command directed byAndriy Melnyk. He organized the illegal transportation of documents and materials across the Soviet-German border and collected information about OUN activities in Ukraine.[citation needed]
The leadership of the Ukrainian nationalists could not come to a unified agreement regarding tactics. As a result, on 10 February 1940, the organization in Kraków split into two factions - one led byStepan Bandera and the other byAndriy Melnyk, known as OUN-B and OUN-M respectively. Shukhevych became a member the Revolutionary Command of the OUN-B headed by Bandera, taking charge of the section dealing with territories claimed by the Ukrainians, which after the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact had been seized by Germany (Pidliashshia,Kholm, Nadsiania andLemkivshchyna).[5]
A powerful web was formed for the preparation of underground activities in Ukraine. Paramilitary training courses were set up. Military cadres were prepared that were to command a future Ukrainian army. Shukhevych prepared the Second Great Congress of the OUN which took place in April 1941.[28]
Prior toOperation Barbarossa in late June 1941, the OUN actively cooperated with Nazi Germany. According to theNational Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and other sources, OUN-B leaderStepan Bandera held meetings with the heads of Germany's intelligence, regarding the formation of the "Nachtigall" and "Roland" Battalions. On 25 February 1941, the head of theAbwehr,Wilhelm Franz Canaris, sanctioned the creation of the "Ukrainian Legion" under German command. The unit would have had 800 persons. Shukhevych became a commander of the Legion from the OUN-B side. OUN expected that the unit would become the core of the future Ukrainian army. In the spring the OUN received 2.5 million marks for subversive activities against the USSR.[29][better source needed][30]
In spring 1941 the legion was reorganized into three units. One of the units became known asNachtigall Battalion, a second became theRoland Battalion, and a third was immediately dispatched into the Soviet Union to sabotage the Red Army's rear.[30] After intensive training the battalion traveled toRiashiv on 18 June, and one company entered Lviv on 29 June.[31] The company's march to Lviv took them throughRadymno. On arrival in Lviv, Shukhevych reportedly found the body of his brother among the victims of theNKVD prisoner massacres.[32]
In Lviv, in the evening of 30 June, theAct for establishment of the Ukrainian Statehood was proclaimed. The German administration however did not support this act. The firstcompany of the unit remained in Lviv for only seven days, while the remainder of the unit joined later during their eastward march towardsZolochiv,Ternopil andVinnytsia.[30]
It is estimated that in June–July 1941 over 4,000 Jews were murdered inpogroms inLviv and other cities in Western Ukraine.There is controversy regarding the extent and scope of the participation of the Nachtigall Battalion and Roman Shukhevych in these atrocities, as well as in theMassacre of Lviv professors. The Polish historical consensus is that the battalion, as a unit, participated directly in the pogrom, giving and receiving assistance from the Nazis.[33][34][35][3][36]
The German refusal to accept the OUN(b)’s proclamation of Ukrainian independence led to a conflict with the leadership of the Nachtigall battalion. On August 13, 1941, it was disarmed and ordered to return from Vinnytsia to Neuhammer in Silesia, from which its members were transported to Frankfurt an der Oder.[3]
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In November 1941, the Ukrainian personnel of the Nachtigall and Roland Battalions were reorganized intoSchutzmannschaft Battalion 201. It numbered 650 persons who were given individual contracts that required the combatants to serve for one additional year.[37]
Shukhevych's titles were that ofHauptmann of the first company and deputy commander of the battalion, which was commanded byYevhen Pobihushchyi.[3]
On 19 March 1942, the battalion arrived inBelarus where it served in the triangle betweenMogilev,Vitebsk, andLepel.[30] With the expiration of the one-year contract, all the Ukrainian soldiers refused to renew their services. On the beginning of January 1943, the battalion was sent to Lviv and there it was disbanded. Many of its former members formed the core of the OUN (B) security service. Others joined the Schutzmannschaft Battalion 57, returned to Belarus and continued to fight against the partisans and civilians. Shukhevych decided to join OUN (B) and quickly gained a leading role in the organization.[3]
Polish-German historian and Holocaust expertFrank Golczewski [de;pl] from theUniversity of Hamburg[38] describes the activities of the 201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion in Belarus as "fighting partisans and killing Jews".[3][39]John Paul Himka, a specialist in Ukrainian history during World War II, notes that although units such as the 201st Battalion were routinely used to fight partisans and kill Jews, no one has studied the specific activities of the 201st Battalion from this perspective, and this ought to be a subject for further study.[40] It is alleged that more than 2,000 Soviet partisans were killed by the battalion during its operation in Belarus.[29][37]
On 1 December 1942 after the expiration of their contracts, the members of the battalion refused to promulgate it.[5] As a result, the 201st Battalion personnel was taken into detention and relocated toLviv.[5] The German command suggested to all those who had been in the battalion to gather inLublin to form a new unit, however, none of the Ukrainians signed up, and very few reported to Lublin. Some were arrested and placed in the jail on Lonsky street, while Shukhevych escaped, and went into hiding.[30]
After escaping from German custody in late 1942 Shukhevych once again headed the military section of the OUN. In May he became a member of the leadership of the OUN and in time the head. In August 1943 at the Third Special Congress of the OUN, he was elected head of the Direction of the OUN and Supreme Commander of theUkrainian Insurgent Army known as UPA.[5]
Under Shukhevych's leadership the evolution of the program for which the OUN fought was further refined. Its core tenets were:
According to Ukrainian historian and former UPA soldier Lev Shankovsky, immediately upon assuming the position of commander of UPA Shukhevych issued an order banning participation in anti-Jewish activities. No written record of this order, however, has been found.[42]
The UPA was joined by various people from the Caucasus and Central Asia who had fought in German formations. The rise of non-Ukrainians in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army gave stimulus to the special conference for Captive Nations of Europe and Asia which took place 21–22 November 1943 inBuderazh [uk], not far fromRivne. The agenda included the formation of a unified plan for the attack against occupational forces.[43]
During the period of German occupation Shukhevych spent most of his time fighting in the forests, and from August 1944, following Ukraine's annexation by the Soviet Army, he lived in various villages in Western Ukraine. In order to unite all Ukrainian national forces to fight for Ukrainian independence, Shukhevych organized a meeting between all the Ukrainian political parties. As a result, theUkrainian Supreme Liberation Council (UHVR) was formed.
In spring 1943, theOUN-B'sUPA launched a campaign of murder and expulsion against the Polish population ofVolhynia, and in early 1944 against the Poles inEastern Galicia. This was done as a preemptive strike in expectation of a largerPolish-Ukrainian conflict over disputed territories,[44] which were annexed and internationally recognized as part of Poland in 1923.[45]
ThePolish government in exile wanted to restore easternPolish borders beyond theCurzon Line, an aim that was also supported by promises from theWestern Allies.[46] The OUN regarded Galicia and Volhynia as ethnic Ukrainian territory that should be included in a future restoredUkrainian republic.[44]
It is estimated that up to 100,000 Poles were killed by the Ukrainian nationalists during the conflict and another 300,000 made refugees as a result of theethnic cleansing.[47] Conversely, killings of Ukrainians by Poles resulted in between 10,000 and 12,000 deaths in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia and present-day Polish territory.[48]University of Alberta historianPer Anders Rudling has stated that Shukhevych commanded the UPA since the summer of 1943, when tens of thousands of Poles were massacred.[3]
Rudling has argued that since the early1950s, theUkrainian diaspora and Ukrainian academics have been manufacturing awhitewashed version of Shukhevych's life, in which his role in the massacres of Poles and other war crimes is "ignored, glossed over, or outright denied."[3]
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Shukhеvych died in an armed fight with agents of the MGB (Ministry of State Security) that attacked his hiding place (kryivka) in the village ofBilohorshcha [uk] (today part of the city ofLviv) on 5 March 1950,[5] when he was 42. His residence was surrounded by some 700 soldiers of Internal Troops. In a firefight, Major Rovenko perished with Shukhevych.[citation needed] Shukhevych was succeeded as leader of UPA byVasyl Kuk.
After identification, the body of Shukhevych was cremated and its remnants secretly buried.[5] According toNKVD officers' memoirs, Roman Shukhevych's body was transported out of the western part of Ukraine, burned, and the ashes scattered. This was done on the left bank of theZbruch River.[49] The unburned remains were thrown into the Zbruch, where a commemorative stone cross was erected in 2003.[citation needed]
Soviet authorities applied the rationale ofcollective guilt and persecuted all the members of the Shukhevych family. Roman's brother Yuri was murdered atLviv'sBryhidka Prison, just before the German occupation of Lviv as part of an "unloading" policy.[50] His mother Yevhenia and his wife, Nataliya Berezynska, were exiled toSiberia. His father, Joseph-Zinovy Vladimirovich Shukhevych (1879—1948) by that time disabled, was also repressed and exiled. He died soon after arriving at prison.
His sonYuri Shukhevych and daughter Mariyka were placed in anorphanage. In September 1972, Yuri was sentenced to ten years' camp imprisonment and another five years' exile after already having spent 20 years in Soviet camps.[51] During that time he lost his vision.
While agreeing that Shukhevych was a radical nationalist fighting for Ukraine's independence, historians consider Shukhevych's legacy to be marred by his collaboration with the Nazis, and role in massacring Poles.
AsPer Anders Rudling writes, "Shukhevych’s critics portray him as a war criminal; his admirers either overlook this episode or regard his collaboration with Nazi Germany as unproblematic"; "A freedom fighter and martyr for Ukraine to some, a Nazi collaborator to others". As Rudling notes, a historian should question the glorification of Shukhevych without "legitimizing the ideology of the organizations" Shukhevych led. Historians point out ‘the nationalism of the victim’, where Ukrainians were the victims, but also the collaborators with the totalitarian regimes others and themselves were the victims of. Rudling characterizes the glorification of Shukhevych as Ukrainian nationalist propaganda usingSoviet propaganda techniques.[52] In his bookTarnished Heroes, Rudling elaborates further on these justifications, describing nationalists as using a "moral alibi" for these crimes, re-framing them as defensive.[53]
In 2015, the Ukrainian government criminalized "denying the legitimacy" of theOUN/UPA, declaring any public disrespect towards the nationalist narrative of the organization unlawful.[54] Many scholars from inside and outside Ukraine criticized this law in an open letter as a form of academic censorship and government-backed historical revisionism.[55] Georgiy Kasianov, a scholar at the Institute of the History of Ukraine atHarvard, notes that the Ukrainian government has engaged in many (often successful) attempts at whitewashing the history of Nazi collaboration within the OUN, and Shukhevych specifically. In 2018 the Ukrainian parliament successfully passed a law that - under the guise of expanding veterans benefits - actually worked to "whitewash the image of organizations whose collaboration with the Nazis and role in the Holocaust and other ethnic cleansings" by equalizing the veteran status of UPA fighters and those in the "anti-Nazi coalition."[56]
Ivan Katchanovski, a political scientist in the School of Political Studies & Conflict Studies & Human Rights Program at the University of Ottawa, described a campaign of political rehabilitation and glorification of OUN/UPA members. In 2007, as part of this campaign, then-PresidentYushchenko denied Shukhevych's involvement in "anti-Jewish actions."[57] Historian Sergey Zhuk criticizes Katchanovski for his, according to Zhuk,post-2013 anti-Ukrainian position.[58]
A number of nationalistUkrainian diaspora groups, academics, and politicians, or in various instances the Ukrainian government, have minimized, justified, oroutright denied Shukhevych's andUPA/OUN's role in the massacres.[3][59][56][53][54]
On 23 October 2001, theLviv Historical Museum converted the house in which Shukhevych was killed into a memorial museum.[60] He was portrayed byUkrainian-Canadian actorHryhoriy Hladiy in the Ukrainian filmNeskorenyi (The Undefeated).
In June 2017,Kyiv City Council renamed the city's General Vatutin Avenue into Roman Shukhevych Avenue.[61][62]Nikolai Vatutin was aSoviet military commander duringWorld War II who was killed by the UPA in an ambush.[63] Also in June 2017,Lviv held a festival in Shukhevych's honour called "Shukhevychfest"; Eduard Dolinsky, the director of theUkrainian Jewish Committee, condemned the event whileVolodymyr Viatrovych, the director ofUkrainian Institute of National Memory, described Shukhevych as an "eminent personality" and defended the display of the symbols of theGalician SS division.[64][65]
On 5 March 2021, theTernopil City Council named the largest stadium in the city ofTernopil after Roman Shukhevych as theRoman Shukhevych Ternopil city stadium.[66] On 16 March 2021, theLviv Oblast Council likewise approved the renaming of their largest stadium after Shukhevych andStepan Bandera, the former leader of the OUN.[66]
On 1 January 2024, on what would have been Bandera's 115th birthday, the museum in Lviv dedicated to Shukhevych was bombed by Russian forces and burned down. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi characterized the strike on the museum as symbolic and vowed that the museum would be restored.[67]
Roman Shukhevych wasposthumously conferred the title ofHero of Ukraine byPresidentViktor Yushchenko on 12 October 2007.[68][69] On 12 February 2009, an administrativeDonetsk region court ruled the Presidential decree awarding the title to be legal after a lawyer had claimed that his rights as a citizen were violated because Shukhevych was never acitizen of Ukraine.[70]
PresidentViktor Yanukovych stated on 5 March 2010 he would make a decision to repeal the decrees to honor the title asHeroes of Ukraine to Shukhevych and fellow nationalistStepan Bandera before the nextVictory Day (in August 2011 he stated "if we look at our past history and build our future based on this history, which had numerous contradictions, we will rob our future, which is wrong"[71]).[72] Although the Hero of Ukraine decrees do not stipulate the possibility that a decree on awarding this title can be annulled,[73] on 21 April 2010, the Donetsk Administrative Court of Appeals declared Yushchenko's 2007 decree awarding Shukhevych theHero of Ukraine to have been unlawful. The court ruled that the formerPresident had had no right to confer this title to Shukhevych, because Shukhevych had died in 1950 and therefore he had not lived on the territory of independentUkraine (after 1991). Consequently, Shukhevych was not aUkrainiancitizen, and this title could not be awarded to him.[74] On 12 August 2010 the High Administrative Court of Ukraine dismissed suits to declare four decrees by PresidentViktor Yanukovych on awarding the Hero of Ukraine title toSoviet soldiers illegal and cancel them.[75] The filer of these suit stated they were based on the same arguments used by Donetsk Administrative Court of Appeals that on 21 April satisfied an appeal that deprived Roman Shukhevych the Hero of Ukraine title, as Shukhevych was not a citizen of Ukraine.[75] The title however was not rescinded, pending an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine which set aside all previous court decisions on 17 February 2011.[76] TheSupreme Administrative Court of Ukraine ruled Shukhevych's Hero of Ukraine title illegal in August 2011.[77] On 1 September 2011 former President Yuschenko filed an appeal at theSupreme Court of Ukraine with a request that it cancel the ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine.[78]
...on the German side and Roman Shukhevych ('Tur', 'Taras Chuprynka') as head of the Ukrainian staff, wore the uniform of the Wehrmacht.
The OUN-UPA-planned ethnic cleansing continued unabated throughout summer 1943. The crescendo came on the night of July 11–12, 1943 when the UPA planned a highly coordinated attack (known among Poles as the 'Peter and Paul action' for the holiday on which it occurred) against Polish villages in three raions: Kovel', Khorokhiv, and Volodymyr-Volyns'kyi. Over one hundred localities were targeted in this action, and some 4,000 Poles were murdered. Finally, the last wave of attacks came in December 1943 before Shukhevych decided to move the cleansing operations to Galicia where tens of thousands more Galician Poles were murdered. Following the killings in Volhynia, the UPA-North group gave the order to 'destroy all traces of the Poles' by 'destroying all Polish churches and all other Polish places of worship'.
A diarist who was an OUN-B member in the Nachtigall Battalion travelled from L'viv to Vinnytsia, and noted: 'During our march, we saw with our own eyes the victims of the Jewish–Bolshevik terror, which strengthened our hatred of the Jews, and so, after that, we shot all the Jews we encountered in 2 villages'
Both the Polish Home Army and the Ukrainian UPA planned rapid strikes for territorial gains in Galicia and Volhynia. Had there been another Polish-Ukrainian regular war, as in 1918–19, the issue of who began the conflict would be moot. But the preemptive strikes against Poles envisioned by the OUN-Bandera in early 1943 were not military operations but ethnic cleansing." OUN-B was led byMykola Lebed and later by Roman Shukhevych
In Eastern Galicia, the Ukrainians established a short-livedWestern Ukrainian Republic. After more fighting between the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Soviets, Poland annexed all of Eastern Galicia – made up of the provinces of Lwów (L'viv), Stanisławów (Stanyslaviv), and Tarnopol (Ternopil') – as well as the lands of Ukrainian-dominated Volhynia (Wołyń) and Belarusian-dominated Polesie (Western Belarus). These new borders were internationally recognized in 1923
The Polish government in exile and its underground home army ... prosecuted the war in order to restore the Polish Republic within its 1939 frontiers, an aim taken for granted by Polish soldiers and supported by promises from the Western Allies.
Numerous lieux de memoire in the Western Ukraine eternalize OUN and UPA deeds. Moreover, a special law adopted in 2015 enshrines this memory and declares "unlawful" any public disrespect towards it. The nationalist memory narrative has been successfully customized in school textbooks since the 2000s. Not surprisingly, it neglects, ignores, or omits controversial aspects of the history and memory of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. For instance, it avoids discussions about the totalitarian and xenophobic nature of the OUN political program of the interwar period. It emphasizes the evolution of the nationalist movement towards "democracy and inclusion" since 1943 (forgetting that this evolution caused a bitter split within the OUN due to the stance of orthodox nationalists headed by Stepan Bandera, who did not accept this evolution). This narrative relativizes the collaboration of the OUN with Nazis, presenting it as an unavoidable necessity. It refutes the involvement of the OUN members in the extermination of Jews. It silences the killings of civilian Ukrainians by OUN and UPA members or justifies these actions as necessary. Similarly, it minimizes the role of the OUN and UPA in anti-Polish ethnic cleansing in Volhynia, relativizes it as a part of the Polish- Ukrainian war, and even justifies it as a Ukrainian response to the politics of the Polish state in the 1920s and the 1930s.
Presidents Yushchenko and Poroshenko, their parties, far right organizations, and many Ukrainian historians attempted to recast the OUN-B and the UPA as parts of a popular national liberation movement that fought against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and to present the OUN-B and UPA leaders as national heroes. They denied, minimized or justified the involvement of the OUN-B and the UPA leaders and members in the mass murder of Jews, Poles, Russians, and Ukrainians.
