On Ukrainian Nazism, or Why a New Nuremberg is Necessary – Part 1

The famous Ukrainian political, leader of the party «Platform of Opposition: for Life» in a long article makes a comparative analysis between Zelensky´s government today in Ukraine and Hitler´s regime. Here we offer a shortened 3 parts series.

By Viktor Medvedchuk

Since the “collapse” of the USSR and the emergence of an independent Ukraine, Western politicians, and special services in Ukraine began to revive Nazism through the introduction of nationalist ideology in the consciousness of Ukrainians. According to Western plans, a Nazified Ukraine was to become a “weapon” against Russia.

One of the ideologues of Ukrainian nationalism is Dmitry Dontsov. His doctrine of integral nationalism in his book “Nationalism,” became the basic ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and later the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)

The ideas and methods of Nazism, widely spread in Ukraine, were inherited from the OUN-UPA.

In April 1941, at the II Great Gathering of Ukrainian Nationalists in Krakow (in Germany at that time), the “Bandera” branch proclaimed itself as the “only true” OUN. Stepan Bandera was declared its leader. The official greeting of the OUN was “raising the straightened right arm to the right obliquely above the head with the words “Glory to Ukraine” – “Glory to the Heroes”, the greeting was copied from the ideologists of Hitler’s Germany, as well as the colors of the flag: red and black.

During the Great Patriotic War, the OUN-UPA tainted itself with cooperation with Nazi Germany and participation in the mass extermination of civilians.

In August 1941, the Banderites sent the OUN Memorandum to Berlin for cooperation with Hitler. The Memorandum began with the following words: “The Ukrainian Military Organization (UWO) and its successor Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) under the leadership of Eugen Konovalets from the very beginning of its existence set out to cooperate with the German Reich against Poland and Moscow with the aim of patronizing an independent United Ukrainian State by the III Reich.

After the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, many OUN-UPA activists ended up in Western countries, mostly in Canada and the United States, including the ideological inspirers of today’s Kiev Bandera members.

The CIA has been planning how to use Ukraine against Russia since the 1950s. Recently U.S. intelligence declassified some of its archives, and copies of secret documents from 1958-59 have appeared in the media. As it follows from the contents of them, the purpose of U.S. intelligence agencies was to use Ukrainian nationalist tendencies for political and psychological warfare against Russia and the USSR.

The U.S. intelligence services claimed that Ukrainian nationalism was much stronger in the western provinces, but it was not limited to Galicia and as long as a nationalist force existed, they would support a mobilization at any time.

Back in the 50’s the CIA identified the Nazi OUN  to provide manpower and operational support for Nazification projects in Ukraine. The target groups were not only the population of Soviet Ukraine, but also the Ukrainian minority in Poland, and Ukrainian emigrants in Western Europe, South America and Australia.

The modern history of Ukraine has shown that these projects of Western intelligence services continue alive through our days.

Thus, the “Orange Revolution” of 2004, initiated by the United States and its European satellites, brought pro-American President Viktor Yushchenko to power in Ukraine. It was during his ruling that open manifestations of nationalism and Nazism revived in post-Soviet Ukraine. Every year on January 1, Stepan Bandera’s birthday, torchlight marches in honor of this Nazi criminal began to be held with the permission of the authorities. Western diplomats ignored these marches, encouraging the revival of Nazism in the center of Europe.

In May 2006, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory was created at Yushchenko’s initiative. With the creation of this institute, the Nazification of the country began to take place at state level.

The institute pursued a policy of falsifying Ukraine’s history and imposing Russophobic and anti-Russian attitudes on the population. In order to achieve its goals, it developed the first blatantly Russophobic bills: “On condemnation of communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and prohibition of propaganda of their symbols”, “On the legal status and memory of fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the XX century”, “On the commemoration of victory over Nazism in World War II 1939-1945” and “On access to archives of repression bodies of the communist totalitarian regime 1917-1991” which were adopted in April 2015.

On the initiative of the Institute, Yushchenko in 2007 awarded posthumously the title “Hero of Ukraine” to Roman Shukhevich, a Nazi criminal, one of the leaders of the OUN and the Nachtigal battalion trained by Hitler’s military intelligence to act in the Ukrainian SSR as part of the subversive unit “Brandenburg 800.”

On January 22, 2010, Yushchenko awarded the title “Hero of Ukraine” to another Nazi: Stepan Bandera.

Under President Yushchenko in 2008 a monument to soldiers of SS Division “Halychyna” was built. Permissions for the installation of the monument were issued by representatives of state power. The state took part in the creation of monuments to war criminals judged by Nuremberg tribunal. The 14th SS Volunteer Infantry Division “Galicia”, a subdivision of SS troops of Nazi Germany, was created personally by the Nazi criminal, head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler.

It is worth noting that, withYushchenko’s support, numerous monuments to Nazis from the SS division “Galicia” and other Nazi accomplices were installed. Memorial marches in honor of Nazis with the use of Nazi symbols and banners of SS division “Galicia” began to be held in Western Ukraine.

Between 2005 and 2014 Nazi ideology sprang up throughout the country. At first, they began to “softly” turn Ukraine into “Anti-Russia” with nationalist and liberal-democratic slogans.

In 2014, Western politicians and special services, with the help of the Ukrainian elite, carried out an unconstitutional pro-Nazi coup d’etat using liberal slogans about the European choice of people as a cover. Legitimately elected, recognized by the entire international community, President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from power by a group of putschists using Nazi groups with the support of Western diplomats and special services.

One of the most important documents of the XX century, the Verdict of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal of October 1, 1946 describes the Nazis’ coming to power in Germany and the further establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in the 1930s. Their followers in Ukraine used the same methods.

From the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal: “During the eight years that followed the publication of Mein Kampf, the NSDAP spread its activities widely throughout Germany, focusing primarily on educating young people in the ideas of National Socialism. The first Nazi youth organization began its existence in 1922, but it was not until 1925 that the “Hitler Youth” was officially recognized by the NSDAP. In 1931, Baldur von Schirach, who had joined the NSDAP in 1925, became the NSDAP’s imperial youth leader.

The party made every effort to win the political support of the German people. It stood for election to both the Reichstag and the Landtags.

The leaders of the NSDAP made no serious attempt to conceal the fact that their roll in the political life of Germany was to eliminate the democratic system of the Weimar Republic and replace it with a Nazi totalitarian regime which would allow them to openly pursue their policies without meeting the opposition …

On January 30, 1933, Hitler succeeded in getting President von Hindenburg to appoint him as Chancellor of the Empire.”

In 2014, the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism was finally transformed into Nazism and became a state ideology. The people in the power also “made no serious attempt to hide the fact” that they seized power to fight against Russia and Russians, immediately designating pro-Russian, leftist political forces as their enemies. Russians and Russian speakers living in Ukraine received derogatory “labels”.

Right after the state coup, they began to get rid of oppositors. In September 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed the law “On Purification of Power”: the so-called “lustration” was carried out when thousands of people, mostly from southeastern Russian-speaking regions, were dismissed from state authorities without any grounds. People from western Ukrainian regions, often without any experience or education, were massively sent to take their places. Such a “lustration” was widely practiced by Hitler’s regime.

From the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal: “Having thus attained power, the NSDAP began to take over all areas of German life… The law of April 7 provided for the resignation of officials of “non-Aryan origin”; it also stipulated that “officials who, on account of their past political activities, cannot be confidently regarded as people who would give themselves unconditionally to the service of the Nazi state should be dismissed from office. The law of April 11, 1933, provided for the dismissal of “all civil servants belonging to the Communist Party”.

In seizing power, the participants in the 2014 coup d’état relied primarily on the population of western regions as the most nationalist-minded. The symbolism and ideology of the “new” Ukraine was the symbolism and ideology of nationalism in the era of cooperation with German Nazism. The flag of the coup, the so-called “Maidan,” was a black and red Banderist flag, and the salute was a Banderist one.

The leaders after the coup d’état were Alexander Turchinov, as Acting President; Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Prime Minister; Andrey Parubiy, head of the National Security and Defense Council; Arsen Avakov, Minister of Inner Affairs. From the beginning, they started implementing a policy of ethnocide against Russians and the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine. After some time, the genocide began on the territory of Ukraine against people who did not accept the official Bandera ideology.

Viktor Medvedchuk is a Ukrainian lawyer, businessman, and politician. Before the war, Medvedchuk was the leading Ukrainian anti-NATO politician and supporter of normalizing relations with Russia. He is chairman of the Opposition Bloc for Life party, banned in Ukraine. He was arrested by Ukrainian intelligence services on April 12, 2022, was imprisoned, and since September 2022 has been living outside his country, after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner-of-war exchange.