Lviv, Ukraine: a monument to Stepan Bandera. Image courtesy of the author.The international discussion about Ukraine’s history politics usually centres on the same questions, same arguments and the same actors, who often (but, fortunately, not always) aim to monopolise the debate. Participating in this debate, especially when you aim to contextualise rather than make sharp moral claims, provokes accusations from both sides — you’re either “not patriotic enough” or you’re “secretly rehabilitating nationalism”.
I decided to write this text not to claim my own moral or intellectual superiority, or to make recommendations for either Ukrainian or international politics. Instead, I have tried to be as precise and clear as possible in presenting my own views on a complex issue that still requires comprehensive interdisciplinary research and the willingness of a sizeable portion of Ukrainians to admit to ideological apathy.
The mythologising of Stepan Bandera
On 25 July, 1934 the radical wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), headed by a 25-year-old Stepan Bandera killed (in their terms, “executed”) Ivan Babii, the director of Lviv Academic Gymnasium. A former officer of the Ukrainian Galician Army and supporter of Ukrainian-Polish peaceful coexistence, Babii was accused by young radicals of “active collaboration with the Polish police”. Today, the street in Lviv where the Academic Gymnasium building stands bears the name of Stepan Bandera [1].
