21

Ukraine: Fascism’s toe-hold in Europe

by Frank

Oleh Tyahnybok: not a Nazi salute, just waving to a friend in the crowd.

Oleh Tyahnybok: not a Nazi salute, just waving to a friend in the crowd.

The tacit support given by the centre-left to the installation of the regime in Kiev should give them cause for concern.

Politics in the Ukraine can only be understood by reference to its history and ethnic and cultural make-up – a make-up criss-crossed by lasting and entrenched ethnic, cultural and political differences. The country has long been split into the northern and western Ukraine, where Ukrainian is the official and everyday lingua franca, and the more industrialised regions of the east and south where a mixture of Russian speaking Ukrainians and ethnic Russians reside. Additionally, there has long been Hungarian and Romanian settlement in the west of the country, and a particularly important Polish presence, whose unofficial capital, Lviv, was once the Polish city of Lwow. The Russian Orthodox Church is the predominant form of Christianity in the East, whilst in the west the Christian tradition tends towards Roman Catholicism.
Politically the Eastern and Southern Oblasts (Regions) which includes the cities and centres of heavy industry, Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhe, Nikolayev, Kherson, Simferopol and Odessa, have tended to tilt towards Russia whilst the western regions have had a more western orientation. This has traditionally been reflected in the electoral division of the country. There is no party which can be considered ‘national’ in this respect, except ironically, the old Communist party, which of course is now banned. The major regional parties have been the Fatherland party of Yulia Tymoshenko (since renamed) and the former head of government, Arseniy Yatsenyuk as well as the ultra-nationalists predominantly in the west of the country, and the deposed Victor Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions in the East (now defunct) along with its junior partner in the coalition, the Ukrainian Communist Party.
However, what is new since the coup in February 2014 there has been the emergence from the shadows of ultra-nationalist (fascist) parties and movements, with both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary (i.e.,military) wings. In the main ‘Svoboda’ or Freedom Party, and the paramilitaries of ‘Right Sector’ (Fuhrer: Dimitry Yarosh) who spearheaded the coup in Kiev; these have been joined or changed their names to inter alia the Radical Party, and Patriots of the Ukraine; this in addition to the punitive right-wing militias, such as the Azov Regiment responsible for numerous atrocities in the Donbas.
Suffice it to say, however, that these political movements and parties did not emerge from nowhere.
This far-right tradition has been historically very strong in the western Ukraine. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was first established in 1929 and brought together, war veterans, student fraternities, far-right groups and various other disoriented socially and political flotsam and jetsam under its banner. The OUN took its ideological position from the writings of one, Dymtro Dontsov, who, like Mussolini had been a socialist, and who was instrumental in creating an indigenous Ukrainian fascism based upon the usual mish-mash of writings and theories including Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Sorel, and Charles Maurras. Dontsov also translated the works of Hitler and Mussolini into Ukrainian.
The OUN was committed to ethnic purity, and relied on violence, assassination and terrorism, not least against other Ukrainians, to achieve its goal of a totalitarian and homogeneous nation-state. Assorted enemies and impediments to this goal were Communists, Russians, Poles, and of course – Jews. Strongly oriented toward the Axis powers OUN founder Evhen Konovalets (1891-1938) stated that his movement was ‘’waging war against mixed marriages’’, with Poles, Russians and Jews, the latter which he described as ‘’foes of our national rebirth’’. Indeed, rabid anti-Semitism has been a leitmotif in the history of Ukrainian fascism, which we will return to below.
Konovelts himself was assassinated by a KGB hit-man in 1938 after which the movement split into two wings: (OUN-m) under Andrii Melnyk and, more importantly for our purposes (OUN-b) under Stepan Bandera. Both wings committed to a new fascist Europe. Upon the German invasion in June 1941, the OUN-b attempted to establish a Ukrainian satellite state loyal to Nazi Germany. Stepan Lenkavs’kyi the then chief propagandist of the OUN-b ‘government’ advocated the physical destruction of Ukrainian Jewry. OUN-b’s ‘Prime Minister’ Yaroslav Stets’ko, and deputy to Bandera supported, ‘’the destruction of the Jews and the expedience of bringing German methods of exterminating Jewry to Ukraine, barring their assimilation and the like.’’
During the early days of the rapid German advance into the Soviet Union there were some 140 pogroms in the western Ukraine claiming the lives of between 13000-35000 people (Untermensch, in fascist terminology). In 1943-1944 OUN-b and its armed wing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska povstanska armia – UPA) carried out large scale ethnic cleansing resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands; this was a particularly gruesome affair in Volhynia where some 90000 Poles and thousands of Jews were murdered. The campaign of the UPA continued well into the 1950s until it was virtually wiped out by the Soviet forces.
It should be said that during this early period Bandera himself had been incarcerated by the German authorities up until his release in 1944, since unlike Bandera they were not enamoured of an independent Ukrainian state but wanted total control. Bandera was only released at this late date since the German high command was endeavouring to build up a pro-German Ukrainian quisling military force to hold up the remorseless advance of the Red Army. Also pursuant to this it is also worth noting that during this period the 14th Galizian Waffen SS Division, a military Ukrainian collaborationist formation established by Heinrich Himmler, was formed to fight the Soviet forces, and yet another being the Nachtingal brigade; (1) this unit was integrated into the 14th Galizian in due course. It is also interesting to note, that every year, and up to 2014 commemoration ceremony including veterans of this unit takes place with a march through Lviv in an evening torchlight parade – genuine Nazi pastiche. The flag of this unit is not dissimilar to the Peugeot logo, the standing lion, and can be seen at ultra-nationalist rallies as well as football matches involving Lviv Karparti FC.

statue of Stepan Bandera in Lviv

statue of Stepan Bandera in Lviv


There are also numerous statues of Bandera across Ukraine, and since the 2014 coup even street names bearing the same name. Significantly the UPA have now received political rehabilitation from the Kiev Junta, with Bandera declared a hero of the Ukraine and the UPA rebranded as ‘freedom fighters.’ One particularly splendid statue of Bandera stands proudly in Lviv and is usually adorned with flowers.
Other novel attractions the capital of Banderestan include ‘Jewish themed restaurants’ one such is Kryivka (Hideout or Lurking Hole) where guests have a choice of dishes and whose dinning walls are decorated with larger than life portraits of Bandera, the toilet with Russian and Jewish anecdotes. At another Jewish themed restaurant guests are offered black hats of the sort worn by Hasidim. The menu lists no prices for the dishes; instead, one is required to haggle over highly inflated prices ‘’in the Jewish fashion’’. Yes, it’s all good clean fun in Lviv. Anti-Semitism also sells. Out of 19 book vendors on the streets of central Lviv, 16 were openly selling anti-Semitic literature. About 70% of the anti-Semitic publications in Ukraine are being published by and educational institution called MUAP (The Inter-Regional Academy of Personnel Management). MAUP is a large, well-connected and increasingly powerful organization funded from outside anti-Semite sources, and also connected to White Supremacist groups in the USA and to the David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
(It is one of the ironies of history that if the Zionists in AIPAC and the Washington neo-con think tanks, and the Labour Party Friends of Israel, were so concerned about anti-Semitism, they might try looking for it in Lviv. They wouldn’t have to search very far.)
Present day neo-Nazi groupings in Ukraine – Svoboda (Freedom) party and Right Sector – have been the direct descendants from the prior ideological cesspool. Heading Svoboda is Oleh Tyahnybok. Although these are separate organizations Tyahnybok’s deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda’s official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector. The Social-Nationalist party as it was formerly known chose as its logo an amended version of the Wolfsangel, a symbol used by many SS divisions on the Eastern front during the war who in 2004 a celebration of the OUN-UPA, stated in 2004, that ‘’they fought against the Muscovite, Germans, Jews and other scum who wanted to take away our Ukrainian state.’’ And further that ‘’Ukraine was ruled by a Muscovite-Jewish mafia.’’ Tyahnybok came under pressure from the then President, Yuschenko, to retract his inflammatory statements, which he did, but he then retracted the retraction!
Arseniy Yatsenyuk [center],  former PM of Ukraine, also NOT performing a Nazi slaute.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk [center], former PM of Ukraine, also NOT performing a Nazi slaute.


Given the fact that Svoboda was, apart from its stamping grounds in the west, making little national electoral headway, it was essential to clean up its image and deny its Nazi past. But this was always going to be difficult since the members of such groups cannot help the unscripted outbursts and faux pas which they tend to make and which reveals their true colours. For example, following the conviction and sentencing of John Demjanjuk to five years in jail for his role as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp, Tyahnybok travelled to Germany and met up with Demjanjuk’s lawyer, presenting the death camp guard as a hero, a victim of persecution ‘’who is fighting for truth’’.
And so it goes on. We can therefore infer that this organization is inveterate fascist. More disturbing Svoboda has links with the so-called Alliance of National European Movements, which includes: Nationaldemokraterna of Sweden, Front Nationale of France, Fiamma Tricolore in Italy, the Hungarian Jobbik and the Belgian National Front. More importantly Svoboda held several ministerial portfolios in the Kiev administration, and Right Sector swaggers around Kiev streets with impunity, and/or are being drafted into a National Guard to deal with the separatist movements in the east, or to beat down anyone who doesn’t conform to their Ayran racial and political ideals.
One would have thought that this mutating revolution in the Ukraine would have drawn attention of the centre-left to the fact that fascism had gained a vital beachhead in Europe, and that the danger signals should be flashing. But not a bit of it; a perusal of the Guardian newspaper quickly reveals that their chief concern has been with a non-existent ‘Russian threat’. One of their reporters – or old friend, Luke Harding -described Right Sector as an ‘’eccentric group of people with unpleasant right-wing views.’’ Priceless! This must rank as the political understatement of the century. In fact, the Guardian was simply reiterating the US-imposed neo-conservative foreign policy. But naturally, this is par for the course.
(1)The Nachtingal brigade, which was later incorporated into the SS Galizien, took part in a three-day massacre of the Jewish population of Lvov (now Lviv) from 30 June 1941. Roman Shukhevych was the commander of the Nachtingal and later, in 1943, became commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the “Banderivtsy”, or UPA/UIA[5] ), armed henchmen of the fascist Stepan Bandera, who after the war pretended that they had fought both Nazis and Communists. Members of the division are also accused of having murdered some 800 residents of the village of Huta Pieniacka and 44 civilians in the village of Chłaniów.


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Arrby
Arrby
Nov 6, 2016 7:29 PM

“It is one of the ironies of history that if the Zionists in AIPAC and the Washington neo-con think tanks, and the Labour Party Friends of Israel, were so concerned about anti-Semitism, they might try looking for it in Lviv.” It’s hard to miss this. It’s a fascinating and horrifying facet of the rise of fascism globally. (Even ‘rise’ is problematic. There’s historic fascism and then the simple, common sense definition of fascism, which obtains when the political and capitalist classes rule jointly, cutting out the people while lying to them that they are not cut out and pointing to the [captured] electoral system as proof.) The interesting thing about this rise of fascism globally (which is more like an intensification than a rise, depending on how far back you go) is it’s craziness – from any standpoint. Here is the global 1%, and assorted ruling classes, happily residing over the sidelining and oppression ‘and’ corruption of peoples globally, resulting in all these racist, anti-other national groupings. At the same time as elites are gaining centralized control of the world whose religion and God is neoliberal capitalism – corporatocracy – they are responsible for the potentially explosive situation that is a division of the world into racially pure peoples who, if they were forced together, theoretically, would all start to kill each other. So how would that be good for business and the rule of the owners and rulers of the world? Idiots!
Yes, perverted, macho, unprincipled elites can be expected to use destabilization and chaos to keep the people sidelined and themselves in power and that’s what we see them doing – in spades. But aren’t they taking it to an extreme? Ruling classes and their media allies in respective fascist countries had better keep tight rein, lest the people themselves see how they’ve been played and they see how the freedom they have is not really freedom, unless they plan to never deal with, or visit the lands of, others.
It’s laughable and terrifying the way rhetoric of fascists about being pure and ready to rumble with anyone who would deprive them of freedom ramps up while those who have deprived them of freedom and light rule over them with their consent. I’d love to grab a group of Golden Dawn nuts, Israeli fascist thugs, Indonesian fascists, Indian Hindu fascists, American fascists, Urainian neo-nazis and fascists from other countries and toss them all together in a huge arena and tell them that they can never leave and must learn to live with each other and see what happens. I’d rather they cared, but if their choice is not to…

Jen
Jen
Nov 6, 2016 10:26 PM
Reply to  Arrby

“… I’d love to grab a group of Golden Dawn nuts, Israeli fascist thugs, Indonesian fascists, Indian Hindu fascists, American fascists, Urainian neo-nazis and fascists from other countries and toss them all together in a huge arena and tell them that they can never leave and must learn to live with each other and see what happens. I’d rather they cared, but if their choice is not to…”
If you lower your sights to European fascist / nationalist nut-bags, you can anticipate Eurovision 2017 which will be held in Kiev … if Ukraine has the money to host the song contest then.

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Nov 6, 2016 5:12 PM

The facts pointed out in this article are true, yet it also side-steps something very odd and important: the radical neo-nazi volunteer battalions fighting the rebels in Donbass are being financed mostly by Ukraine’s leading Jewligarchs, such as Ihor Kolomoisky. Could that explain why most of the major Jewish/Zionist organizations in the west are turning a blind-eye to the judeophobia displayed by many of these neo-nazi groups in Ukraine? Are these neo-nazis just another bunch of Zionist dupes, like ISIS in the middle east?
“More disturbing Svoboda has links with the so-called Alliance of National European Movements, which includes: Nationaldemokraterna of Sweden, Front Nationale of France, Fiamma Tricolore in Italy, the Hungarian Jobbik and the Belgian National Front.”
As far as the Front national is concerned, how is it that they can be pro-Svoboda in Ukraine while being pro-Russian overall?

writerroddis
writerroddis
Nov 5, 2016 11:15 AM

Useful piece, thanks. As with Syria and South China Sea, western liberals and centre-leftists are at best clueless and at worst backing the bad guys – as in baddest of the bad. Worse, such falures of understanding stem from a blindness to the bigger picture that leaves them unable to see how easily any of the three might trigger WW3.

writerroddis
writerroddis
Nov 5, 2016 4:02 PM
Reply to  writerroddis

That said, zeig-heiling Oleh Tyahnybok (header image) has taste when it comes to shirts. Let’s keep a sense of priority here.

Jen
Jen
Nov 6, 2016 1:48 AM
Reply to  writerroddis

He’s wearing what’s called vyshyvanka: clothes made in the style of Ukrainian folk costumes, usually with geometric embroidered or embroidery-like patterns on and / or around the collar and down the front where the collar and the first two buttons would be. The cuffs usually have the same patterns as well. The rest of the shirt is blank.
Would you believe that since 2014, vyshyvanka has become a high fashion trend in the West?

writerroddis
writerroddis
Nov 6, 2016 9:24 AM
Reply to  Jen

Thanks Jen. It’s the cut I like, rather than the pattern

tutisicecream
tutisicecream
Nov 5, 2016 11:46 AM

Good to have a true reminder of the political degeneration of the USA’s Eastern Frontier. Bearing this in mind we can more clearly see the depravity of US foreign policy and the WMSM for formulating such propaganda pieces as handed down from Washington. Lickspittles such as Harding should be constantly challenged for their outright lies which are enabling the resurgence of fascism in Europe while claiming the opposite.

susannapanevin
susannapanevin
Nov 5, 2016 9:17 AM

Reblogged this on Susanna Panevin.

MrG
MrG
Nov 5, 2016 9:14 AM

Who cares how high the price is – if it’s someone else (the 99%) who will pay it.Radical Groups (Taliban, ISIS, Nazis) are USED as a COVER for military and secret service operations – mostly involving killing people or overthrowing governments.
This is nothing new – but NOBODY was ever held accountable for that.

MrG
MrG
Nov 5, 2016 8:40 AM

I keep repeating: as long as the US allies with radical groups (Taliban, Nazis) those things will ALWAYS BACKFIRE BADLY.
But it is “cheap” exploiting “idiots”.
The only true way for Ukraine is REAL INDEPENDENCE from EAST and WEST (also FAR-WEST (US)).
But just look at Syria… it does not look like the industrial-military-banking-complex with it’s tight grip on the “democracy” that Washington once was has any intention of “letting go” of their GeoPolitical aims.
After all if there is unemployment this risks their power (20% unemployment would be enough to overthrow the government) and therefore WAR = JOBS = MONEY = STAY IN POWER but of course makes everyone “equal dead”.
Guys… i do not hate the 99% American people that occupy wall street (PLANT POTATOES! REALLY!) that do not know how to grow their own food and create new alternative cooperation systems (money that works for the 99% of the people – not the 1% corrupt power addicted elite) – but if NATO ever goes large on Russia (for whatever fake reason…) – i just hope you guys overthrow your government and randomly pick a president from the crowd to fix these things.
Was there ever any bombs dropped over USA? no.
The neocons feel pretty safe.

louisproyect
louisproyect
Nov 5, 2016 4:38 AM

Golden Dawn welcomes the Leader of Russia Mr. Vladimir Putin to Greece
http://www.xryshaygh.com/en/view/golden-dawn-welcomes-the-leader-of-russia-mr.-vladimir-putin-to-greece

writerroddis
writerroddis
Nov 5, 2016 11:44 AM
Reply to  louisproyect

You link to a page on Golden Dawn’s site that contains just three short paragraphs:
“Golden Dawn fights for a strong Greek – Russian alliance and the cooperation between the two Orthodox people on the sectos of energy, trade and national security.
Unfortunately, our traitorous government of Mr. Tsipras and Mr. Kammenos denies to our people a truthful Greek – Russian approach, and instead is organizing cheap colorful events without any real meaning.
A Greek-Russian alliance will offer enormous geostrategic advantages for both of our countries. It will provide the opportunity for Greece to declare the Greek EEZ, to exploit our rich energy resources to the benefit of the Greek people in order to make Greece a force to be reckoned in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
So. Neofascist party in Greece sees advantage in cooperation with Russia. In this it finds common ground with all thinking Greeks outraged and fearful over their country’s EU shafting. The only elements it adds are a tired sideswipe at the centre left and an appeal, targeted at small-c conservative Greeks, to Orthodox Christian sentiment.
Your point, louisproject?

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Nov 6, 2016 5:03 PM
Reply to  writerroddis

Proyect is an anti-Syrian, anti-Russian troll. Feel free to ignore him as the rest of us do.

Vaska
Vaska
Nov 6, 2016 7:15 PM
Reply to  Seamus Padraig

It’s also good to call out such vicious propagandists on the facts of what they’re trying to push.

writerroddis
writerroddis
Nov 6, 2016 8:51 PM
Reply to  Vaska

I think so too.

Jen
Jen
Nov 5, 2016 7:40 PM
Reply to  louisproyect

Odd that when forced to face unadulterated Nazism and anti-Jewish prejudice at its crudest in an article on life in Ukraine, Louis Proyect can only grasp at “what-about?” straws that don’t stand scrutiny at all.
Come on, Louis, surely you can do better: at least query the writer of the article on the sources of his information, how did he find out about the themed restaurants in Lviv, prove that Svoboda and Pravy Sektor really are integrated into the mainstream of Ukrainian political life, aren’t those photos of Oleh Tyahnybok and Arseny Yatsenyuk Photoshopped, tell us that Yatsenyuk isn’t a politician in Ukraine any more and has retired to a free and easy life in the US, and so on and so forth. Demand that Frank hasn’t been paid by Moscow to produce this article. Yell out that Frank is a Trump supporter!

Frank
Frank
Nov 6, 2016 12:14 PM
Reply to  Jen

Herewith Source material on Ukrainian fascism.
”Anti-semitism in contemporary Ukraine: Structure, Influence and ideology. by Per Anders Rudling.
Canadian Slavonic Papers Vol 48 No1/2 March/June 2006”
Also be Rudling:
”The Return of the Ukrainian Far Right. The Case of VO Svoboda” 2011. On the themed Jewish resturants in Lviv.
The OUN-UPA themed restaurant Kryivka (Hideout or Lurking Hole) has its dining room walls decorated with larger than life portraits of Bandera, the toilet with Russian and Jewish anecdotes … the same Lviv entrepreneur also runs another Jewish theme restaurant in Lviv (where else?) Pid Zolotoiu Roz Oui (Beneath The Golden Rose) where guests are offered black hats of the sort worn by Hasidim, along with payot. The menu lists no prices for the dishes, one is invited to haggle over inflated prices ”in the Jewish manner…” Not everyone finds these theme restaurants equally pleasant. Efram Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal centre, describes these restaurants as ‘only the tip of a racist and anti-semitic iceberg in Lvivi.”’
”The Creeping Resurgence of the Ukrainian radical right: The Case of the Freedom Party.” (Svoboda)” – Anton Shekhovtsov, University of Northampton 14 March 2011
Europe-Asia Studies
I hope this clears up any of the issues dealing with sources.
Frank

Jen
Jen
Nov 6, 2016 10:35 PM
Reply to  Frank

Thank you very much for the information.
Ha! – Anton Shekhovtsov usually froths at the mouth over Russia’s “illegal annexation of Crimea”, evidence of far-right activity in Russia or supposed Russian / pro-Russian defamation of the Maidan 2014 protests that brought down the Yanukovych government.
http://anton-shekhovtsov.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/pro-russian-network-behind-anti.html

archie1954
archie1954
Nov 5, 2016 3:19 AM

It is beyond disgusting that the US supports these brutal Nazi style organizations! I’m telling you that my father who fought in WWII would roll over in his grave if he saw what Mme. Clinton and her very foolish and hypocritical former staff members did to Ukraine. Supporting Nazis is tantamount to betraying civilization and all of those who lost their lives protecting it from Hitler. What putrid scum run the US!

Samuel Simpson
Samuel Simpson
Nov 7, 2016 3:28 PM
Reply to  archie1954

Yats contended that his Nazi salute was him spotting a mate in the crowd, Tyahnybok makes no excuses.