Ukrainian nationalism
Postcard published by the Ukrainian Brigade, “United Ukrainians fighting both Polish and Russian forces”, 1920.Ukrainian nationalism refers to
the Ukrainian version of nationalism. Although the current
Ukrainian state emerged fairly recently, some historians, such as
Mykhailo Hrushevskyi,
Orest Subtelny and
Paul Magosci have cited the medieval state of
Kievan Rus' as an early precedents of specifically
Ukrainian statehood. The origins of
modern Ukrainian nationalism have also been traced to
the 17th-century Ruthenian uprising against
the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by
Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.
Mykhailo Hrushevskyi
Orest Subtelny
Paul Robert MagocsiUkrainian IrredentismIrredentism (from Italian irredento for "
unredeemed") is any political or popular movement intended to reclaim and reoccupy a lost homeland. As such
Ukrainan irredentism tries to justify its territorial claims on Moldovan, Slovakian, Polish, Belarusian, Romanian and Russian land on the basis of (real or imagined) historic and/or ethnic affiliations. It is advocated by Ukrainian nationalist and pan (slav)-nationalist movements and has been a feature of identity politics, cultural and political geography.
At certain periods,
Ukrainians made up a majority of the population in regions of Russia such as the historical
Kuban Oblast. Some
Ukrainians believe in the incorporation of lands once controlled by
Ukraine: including: Kuban, Transnistria, and the Presov region of Slovakia as ideal for a stronger
Ukrainian State.
Greater Ukraine or
United Ukraine refers to an irredentist concept of the territory claimed by some
Ukrainian nationalist groups outside
the Republic of Ukraine which are considered part of national homeland by
Ukrainians, based on the present-day or historical presence of
Ukrainian populations in those areas.
The 10 commandments of
the Ukrainian People's Party (1902-1907) were developed by the
Ukrainian nationalist, the leader of UPP
Mykola Mikhnovsky in 1904. These commandments were kind of
honor code for the party. They called for a one, united, indivisible,
from the Carpathians to the Caucasus, independent,
free,
democratic Ukraine - a republic of working people.
Claimed regionsSince
Mikhnovsky the idea of ‘
Ukrainian Independent United State’ has been a key nationalist slogan, but many would argue that the ‘
unification’ ('
sobornist’) of
Ukrainian lands was partially completed in 1939-45.
Today’s would-be Ukraina irredenta is mainly in the east, on the territory that is now part of
the Russian Federation:
- Starodub region north of Chenrihiv
- the south-eastern parts of Voronezh
- Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov oblasts
- Kuban region
In the west, some
radical nationalists would also covet the following territories:
- left bank of river Dniester in Moldova ( Transnistria (de facto) / western Moldova (de jure))
- north-eastern Slovakia: Prešov region
- south-eastern Poland: Zakerzonia (Chełm and Przemyśl)
- south-western Belarus: Brest region
- northern Romania: southern Bukovina and the area around Maramureș
The possibility of Ukraine making serious territorial pretensions against its neighbors can be discounted (irredentist movements have become more prevalent within Ukraine itself, supporting unification of predominantly Russian-speaking regions with the Russian Federation, see 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine). Nevertheless, more radical Ukrainian nationalists may well attempt to take advantage of Russian difficulties in troubled regions such as the north Caucasus, and perhaps even further afield, particularly if any serious conflict should develop between Russia and Ukraine.
Cossack nationalismThe Cossacks played a role in re-awakening a Ukrainian sense of identity within the steppe region. A dominant figure within the Cossack movement and in Ukrainian nationalist history, Bohdan Khmelnytsky (c. 1595 – 1657), commanded the Zaporozhian Cossacks and led
the Khmelnytsky Uprising against Polish rule in the mid-17th century.
Khmelnytsky also succeeded in legitimizing a form of democracy which had been practiced by cossacks since the 14th century. This sense of democracy played a key part of the sense of ethnic identity.
Bohdan Khmelnytsky spoke of the liberation of the "
entire Ruthenian people" and recent research has confirmed that the concept of a Ruthenian nation as a religious and cultural community had existed before his revolution. Modern Ukrainians still remember and glorify Khmelnytsky's role in the history of Ukraine.
Oppressed by the Polish magnates, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising
the Ukrainians took their wrath out on
the Poles' Jewish traders, who also often operated their estates. This Cossack rebellion in Ukraine between the years
1648–1657 turned into
a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland. Under the command of
Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Zaporozhian Cossacks allied with
the Crimean Tatars, and
the local peasantry, fought several battles against the armies and paramilitary forces of
the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The result was
the end of Polish szlachta control and of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction for the Latin Rite Catholics and arendators over the region.
The Uprising started as
the rebellion of the Cossacks, but as other
Orthodox Christian classes (peasants, burghers, petty nobility) of
the Ukrainian palatinates joined them, the ultimate aim became a creation of Ukrainian autonomous state. The Szlachta was on the run from its peasants, their palaces and estates in flames. All the while, Khmelnystky's army marched westward. The Uprising succeeded in ending the Polish influence over those Cossack lands that were eventually taken by the Tsardom of Russia.
Within a few months almost all Polish nobles, officials and priests had been wiped out or driven from the lands of present-day Ukraine.
The Commonwealth population losses in the uprising were over one million. In addition, Jews had substantial losses because they were the most numerous and accessible representatives of the szlachta regime. In general one can say that the Khmelnytsky forces murdered Polish and Jewish citizens indiscriminately. So
both Polish Roman-Catholics and Polish jews suffered a great deal under the the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Population losses of the entire Commonwealth population in the years 1648–1667 (a period which includes the Uprising, but also the Polish-Russian War and the Swedish invasion) are estimated at
4 million (roughly a decrease from
11–12 million to
7–8 million).
Another prominent figure in Cossack nationalism, Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1639-1709), made large financial contributions focused on the restoration of Ukrainian culture and history during the early 18th century. He financed major reconstructions of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, and the elevation the Kyiv Mohyla Collegium to the status of Kyiv Mohyla Academy in 1694.
MassacresBefore
the Khmelnytsky uprising magnates had sold and leased certain privileges to arendators, many of whom were Jewish, for a percentage of an estate's revenue. By not supervising their estates themselves directly, they left it to the leaseholders and collectors to become objects of hatred to the oppressed and long-suffering peasants.
Khmelnytsky told the people that the Poles had sold them as slaves "
into the hands of the accursed Jews." With this as their battle cry,
Cossacks and the peasantry massacred a large number of Jewish and Polish-Lithuanian townsfolk, as well as
szlachta during the years
1648–1649. The contemporary 17th-century Eyewitness Chronicle (
Yeven Mezulah) by
Nathan ben Moses Hannover states:
Wherever they found the szlachta, royal officials or Jews, they [Cossacks] killed them all, sparing neither women nor children. They pillaged the estates of the Jews and nobles, burned churches and killed their priests, leaving nothing whole. It was a rare individual in those days who had not soaked his hands in blood ...World War IWith the collapse of the Russian Empire a political entity which encompassed political, community, cultural, and professional organizations was established in
Kiev from the initiative from
the Association of the Ukrainian Progressionists (abbr. TUP). This entity was called the "
Tsentralna Rada" (
Central Council) and was headed by the historian,
Mykhailo Hrushevskyi. On January 22, 1918,
the Tsentralna Rada declared
Ukraine an independent country. This independence was recognized by
the Russian government headed by
Lenin, as well as
the Central Powers and
other states. However, this government did not survive very long because of pressures not only from
Denikin's Russian White Guard, but also
the Red Army,
German and
Entente intervention, and
local anarchists such as
Nestor Makhno and
the Green Army of
Otaman Zeleny.
Interwar period in modern-day Western UkraineThe
Ukrainian Military Organization (Ukrainian: Українська Військова Організація,
UVO) was a Ukrainian resistance and sabotage movement active in Poland's
Eastern Lesser Poland during the years between the world wars, the Interbellum years (1919-1939). Initially headed by
Yevhen Konovalets, it promoted the idea of armed struggle for the independence of Ukraine.
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Yevhen Konovalets (Ukrainian:Євген Олексійович Коновалець) (June 14, 1891 – May 23, 1938) was a military commander of the UNR army and political leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. He is best known as the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists between 1929 and 1938.Created by former members of
the Sich Riflemen in August 1920 in
Prague,
the UVO was
a secret military and political movement. Initially operating in
all countries with Ukrainian minorities (that is
Poland,
Czechoslovakia,
Bolshevik Russia and
Romania), with time
it concentrated on actions in Poland only. It was also active among the
Ukrainian diaspora abroad, most notably in
Germany,
Lithuania,
Austria and
the Free City of Danzig.
Apart from
military education of the Ukrainian youth, the
UVO tried
to prevent cooperation between Ukrainians and Polish authorities.
The UVO was involved in
a bitter struggle with the Poles during the 1920s. The group was treated harshly and
retaliated with violence. It was, however, rather a military protective group rather than a terrorist underground. It organized a number of
assassination attempts on some of the most renowned
Polish and Ukrainian politicians, some of which were successful. Among such attempts were a failed assault on
Józef Piłsudski and
Voivod of
Lwów Kazimierz Grabowski on
September 25, 1921, the successful murder of Ukrainian poet
Sydir Tverdohlib and assassinations of Ukrainian activists
Wasyl Pihulak and
Iwan Bachmaszczuk in
1922, as well as a failed attack on Poland's president
Stanisław Wojciechowski in
1924. It organized three bomb attacks on
the Eastern Trade Fair in
Lwów in
1929,
bombings of train stations,
railway tracks,
pumping stations,
burnt and blown up police buildings (e.g. in
Jaworowo,
Gródek,
Uhnów,
Lubaczów) and
Polish households; it was also active in
destruction of telegraph,
telephone poles and
committed a number of expropriation attacks - amongst them -
the robbery of 100,000 złoty (then the equivalent of 20,000 dollars) from
a Lviv Post Office in
1925.
The terrorist actions of the UVO became one of the reasons for creation of
the Polish Border Defence Corps.
Ukrainian poet Sydir Tverdohlib (
www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CT%5CV%5CTverdokhlibSydir.htm )
In
May 1923,
Yevhen Konovalets and
Friedrich Gempp - the chief of
the Reichswehrministerium Abwehr-Abteilung signed an agreement according to which
the UVO would conduct
espionage work against Poland (providing
Berlin with
political,
military and
economic information), while
the German side was to provide
financial aid and
military equipment for "
revolutionary activity". By
1927,
the Ukrainian Military Organization acquired
9,000 Reichmark from
the German intelligence service.
The Germans supported
military training of
Ukrainian Nationalists in
Eastern Prussia, whereas
the Free City Danzig (
Gdańsk) became an important
transit place for money,
arms and
ammunition.
Originally under the nominal authority of the exiled government of
the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, in
1925 following a power struggle all the supporters of
the Western Ukrainian People's Republic's exiled president
Yevhen Petrushevych were expelled.
Although formally
UVO existed until
World War II, between
1929 and
1934 it became part of the newly formed
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (
OUN). Apart from Yevhen Konovalets, notable leaders of the
UVO included
Andrii Melnyk and
Y. Indyshevskyi.
In
1925, the Ukrainian
Roman-Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych joined
the Ukrainian Military Organization (
UVO). In
1926,
Shukhevych was ordered to assassinate the
Lviv school superintendent,
Stanisław Sobiński, accused of "
Polonizing"
the Ukrainian education system. The assassination was carried out by
Roman Shukhevych and
Bohdan Pidhainy on
October 19,
1926. In
February 1929, the
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (
OUN) was founded in Vienna.
Shukhevych under the name "
Dzvin" (
Bell) became
a representative of the Ukrainian Executive.
Stanisław Sobiński (ur. 12 czerwca 1872 w Złoczowie, zamordowany 19 października 1926 we Lwowie), Polish pedagogue, social worker, and school district superintendent in the years 1921-1926 Lviv. (
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Sobi%C5%84ski )
After
World War I, lands of what is today
Western Ukraine were incorporated into newly restored
Poland. Deputy chairman of
the Nonpartisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government (
BBWR)
Tadeusz Hołówko, a Polish promoter of Ukrainian/Polish compromise, died in Truskawiec (Truskavets) on August 29, 1931, one of the first victims of an assassination campaign carried out by militants of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Some time later, the Polish police commissioner in charge of investigating Hołówko's death,
Emilian Czechowski, himself became an OUN assassination victim.
Tadeusz Hołówko (Polish pronunciation: [taˈdɛuʂ xɔˈwufkɔ]; Semey, now Kazakhstan, September 17, 1889 – August 29, 1931, Truskavets, Poland, now Ukraine), codename Kirgiz, was an interwar Polish politician, diplomat and author of many articles and books.
Hołówko was most notable for his moderate stance on the "Ukrainian problem" faced by the Polish government, which due to its nationalist policies in Poland's largely Ukrainian- and Belarusian-populated eastern territories, faced increasing tensions there. Despite, or perhaps because of, being a relative moderate in policies toward the Ukrainian population, and a supporter of peaceful cooperation, he was assassinated in 1931 by two members of the radical Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.On 15 June 1934,
Bronisław Pieracki, the Polish minister of internal affairs, was assassinated by a Ukrainian nationalist from
the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. His death gave the Sanacja government an excuse to the creation of
the Bereza Kartuska Detention Camp, which was established only two days after
Pieracki's assassination.
As Polish persecution of Ukrainians during the interwar period increased, many Ukrainians (particularly the youth, many of whom felt they had no future) lost faith in traditional legal approaches, in their elders, and in the western democracies who were seen as turning their backs on Ukraine. This period of disillusionment coincided with the increase in support for the
OUN (the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists). By the beginning of the Second World War, the
OUN was estimated to have
20,000 active members and many times that number in sympathizers. Many bright students, such as the talented young poets
Bohdan Kravtsiv and
Olena Teliha (executed by the Nazis at
Babi Yar) were attracted to the
OUN's revolutionary message.
The Ukrainian political activist and leader of
the Ukrainian nationalist and
independence movement Stepan Bandera, the Ukrainian political activist, Ukrainian nationalist, and guerrilla fighter
Mykola Lebed and Ukrainian politician, military leader, and later general of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
Roman Shukhevych were also sentenced to death for the assassination. Their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment but
Lebed escaped when the Germans invaded
Poland in
1939.
Stepan Bandera
Mykola Lebed
Roman ShukhevychInterwar period in Soviet UkraineAs Bolshevik rule took hold in Ukraine,
the early Soviet government had its own reasons to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire.
Until the early-1930s, Ukrainian culture enjoyed a widespread revival due to Bolshevik concessions known as the policy of
Korenization ("
indigenization"). In these years
an impressive Ukrainization program was implemented throughout the republic. In such conditions,
the Ukrainian national idea initially continued to develop and even spread to a large territory with traditionally mixed population in the east and south that became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
At the same time, despite the ongoing Soviet-wide anti-religious campaign,
the Ukrainian national Orthodox Church was created,
the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. The church was initially seen by the Bolshevik government as
a tool in their goal to suppress the Russian Orthodox Church, always viewed with great suspicion by the regime for its being the cornerstone of the defunct Russian Empire and the initially strong opposition it took towards the regime change. Therefore,
the government tolerated the new Ukrainian national church for some time and
the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church gained
a wide following among the Ukrainian peasantry.
These events greatly raised the national consciousness among the Ukrainians and brought about the development of a new generation of Ukrainian cultural and political elite. This in turn raised the concerns of
Joseph Stalin, who saw
danger in the Ukrainians' loyalty towards their nation competing with their loyalty to the Soviet State and in early 1930s the "
Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism" was declared to be
the primary problem in Ukraine.
The Ukrainization policies were abruptly and bloodily reversed,
most of the Ukrainian cultural and political elite was arrested and executed, and
the nation was decimated with the famine called the Holodomor.
Euromaidan activists wave the flags of the UPA, March 2014During the Second World War Ukrainians supported and collaborated with several sides. There was wide spread support and collaboration with Nazi invaders, who initially were welcomed as liberators by some Ukrainians (who had suffered greatly under Stalin's rule). There was
Ukrainian Nazi police, Ukrainians joined the
Waffen-SS and some of the worst concentration camp guards and
Kapo's were Ukrainians.
Ukrainians took part in the Holocaust. Other
Ukrainians were part of the
Red Army and the
NKVD, some of them oppressed Poles during the Sovjet occupation of Eastern-Poland from 1939 until 1941 together with Russian Sovjets. There were also Ukrainian Sovjet partisans.
Many of the fighters who had originally looked to the Nazis as liberators, quickly became disillusioned and formed the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) (Ukrainian: Українська Повстанська Армія - У.П.А.), which waged military campaign against Germans and later Soviet forces. The primary goal of
OUN was “the rebirth, of setting everything in order, the defense and the expansion of the Independent Council of Ukrainian National State”. OUN also revived the sentiment that “Ukraine is for Ukrainians”.
On June 30, 1941, the OUN, led by
Stepan Bandera, declared an independent Ukrainian state. This was immediately acted upon by the Nazi army, and
Bandera was arrested and imprisoned from 1941 to 1944.
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian: Українська Повстанська Армія, УПА,
Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya,
UPA) was a military group that took up arms first against
the Nazis and later against
the Soviets. During
World War II, the
UPA fought against
the Polish (Armia Krajowa),
German (Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS) and
Soviet forces (Red Army, NKVD and Sovjet Partians). After the Second World War,
UPA took actions directed
against Soviet rule within Ukraine. Many members of the
UPA saw themselves as the armed wing of
the OUN in its struggle for
Ukrainian independence.
There has been much debate as to the legitimacy of
UPA as a political group.
UPA maintains a prominent and symbolic role in
Ukrainian history and
the quest for Ukrainian independence.[14] At the same time it was deemed an
insurgent or
terrorist group by Soviet historiography.
Ukrainian Canadian historian
Serhiy Yekelchyk writes that during
1943 and
1944 an estimated
35,000 Polish civilians and an
unknown number of Ukrainian civilians in
the Volhynia and Chelm regions fell victim to mutual ethnic cleansing by the
UPA and Polish insurgents (Armia Krajowa). Niall Ferguson writes that around 80,000 Poles were murdered then by Ukrainian nationalists.[16] Norman Davies in his book No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945 puts the number of murdered Polish civilians at between 200,000 and 500,000, while Timothy Snyder writes that Ukrainian nationalists killed "
between forty to sixty thousand Polish civilians in Volhynia in 1943".
Back to today. We knew that after the Ukrainian independence, the Declaration of state sovereignty in 1991, Ukrainian nationalism became an influencial force again especially in Western-Ukraine. Moderate nationalists and Ultra-Nationalists played a major role in the Maidan protests next to liberal, conservative, democratic and socialist Ukrainians who protested against the Ancien Régime of Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych of The Party of Regions (a Russophone political party of Ukraine) there. These Nationalist forces have roots in an a connection with the
UVO,
OUN and
UPA, and they cherish and also find roots, foundations or connections with the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) (German: 14. Waffen Grenadier Division der SS (galizische Nr.1), a World War II German military formation initially made up of volunteers from the region of Galicia with
a Ukrainian ethnic background but later also incorporated Slovaks, Czechs and Dutch volunteers and officers.
Phantom, 23, a fighter in the Azov battalion, outside its HQ in the Ukrainian seaside town of Urzuf
The Azov battalion uses the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel (Wolf''s Hook) symbol on its banner 
Azov's Neo-Nazi troops, a surreal picture in 21st century
