Who is Stepan Bandera and his atrocities. Stepan Bandera - biography, photo, personal life of the Ukrainian nationalist

Stepan Andreevich Bandera is an ideologist of Ukrainian nationalism, one of the main initiators of the creation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in 1942, whose goal was the declared struggle for the independence of Ukraine. He was born on January 1, 1909 in the village of Stary Ugryniv, Kalush district (now Ivano-Frankivsk region) in the family of a Greek Catholic priest. After graduation civil war this part of Ukraine became part of Poland.

In 1922, Stepan Bandera joined the Union of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth. In 1928 he entered the agronomy department of the Lvov Higher Polytechnic School, which he never graduated from.

In the summer of 1941, after the arrival of the Nazis, Bandera called on “the Ukrainian people to help everywhere German army smash Moscow and Bolshevism."

On the same day, Stepan Bandera, without any coordination with the German command, solemnly proclaimed the restoration of the great Ukrainian power. The “Act of Revival of the Ukrainian State” was read out, an order on the formation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the creation of a national government.

The declaration of independence of Ukraine was not part of Germany's plans, so Bandera was arrested, and fifteen leaders of Ukrainian nationalists were shot.

Ukrainian Legion, in whose ranks after the arrest political leaders fermentation began, he was soon recalled from the front and subsequently performed police functions in the occupied territories.

Stepan Bandera spent a year and a half in prison, after which he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was kept together with other Ukrainian nationalists in privileged conditions. Bandera's members were allowed to meet with each other, and they also received food and money from relatives and the OUN. They often left the camp in order to contact the “conspiracy” OUN, as well as the Friedenthal castle (200 meters from the Zelenbau bunker), which housed a school for OUN agent and sabotage personnel.

Stepan Bandera was one of the main initiators of the creation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) on October 14, 1942. The goal of the UPA was declared to be the struggle for the independence of Ukraine. In 1943, an agreement was reached between representatives of the German authorities and the OUN that the UPA would protect railways and bridges from Soviet partisans, to support the activities of the German occupation authorities. In return, Germany promised to supply UPA units with weapons and ammunition, and in the event of a Nazi victory over the USSR, to allow the creation of a Ukrainian state under German protectorate. UPA fighters actively participated in the punitive operations of Hitler’s troops, including destroying civilians who sympathized with the Soviet army.

In September 1944, Bandera was released. Until the end of the war, he collaborated with the Abwehr intelligence department in preparing OUN sabotage groups.

After the war, Bandera continued his activities in the OUN, whose centralized control was located in West Germany. In 1947, at the next meeting of the OUN, Bandera was appointed its leader and was re-elected to this position twice in 1953 and 1955. Led terrorist activities OUN and UPA on the territory of the USSR. During cold war Ukrainian nationalists were actively used by the intelligence services of Western countries in the fight against the Soviet Union.

It is alleged that Bandera was poisoned by an agent of the USSR KGB on October 15, 1959 in Munich. He was buried on October 20, 1959 at the Munich Waldfriedhof cemetery.

In 1992, Ukraine celebrated the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) for the first time, and attempts began to give its participants the status of war veterans. And in 1997-2000, a special government commission (with a permanent working group) was created with the aim of developing an official position regarding the OUN-UPA. The result of her work was the removal from the OUN of responsibility for cooperation with Nazi Germany and the recognition of the UPA as a “third force” and a national liberation movement that fought for the “true” independence of Ukraine.

On January 22, 2010, President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko announced the posthumous award to Stepan Bandera.

On January 29, 2010, Yushchenko, by his decree, recognized members of the UPA as fighters for the independence of Ukraine.

Monuments to the leader of Ukrainian nationalists Stepan Bandera were erected in the Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Streets in cities and villages of Western Ukraine are named in his honor.

The glorification of UPA leader Stepan Bandera causes criticism from many Great Patriotic War veterans and politicians who accuse Bandera’s supporters of collaborating with the Nazis. At the same time, part of Ukrainian society, living mainly in the west of the country, considers Bandera and Shukhevych national heroes.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Stepan Bandera (1/1/1909, village of Stary Ugryniv, near Stanislavov, Austria-Hungary - 10/15/1959), one of the leaders of Ukrainian nationalists.

The son of a Uniate priest, who in 1917-20 commanded various combat anti-communist detachments (he was later shot, and the two Bandera sisters were exiled to Siberia). After the end of the civil war, this part of Ukraine became part of Poland. In 1922 he joined the Union of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth. In 1928 he entered the agronomic department of the Lviv Higher Polytechnic School. In 1929 he completed a course of study at an Italian intelligence school. In 1929 he joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) created by E. Konovalets and soon headed the most radical “youth” group. From the beginning of 1929 a member, from 1932-33 - deputy head of the regional executive (leadership) of the OUN. He organized robberies of postal trains and post offices, as well as the murder of opponents. At the beginning of 1933, he headed the regional support of the OUN in Galicia, where he organized the fight against the policies of the Polish authorities. Organizer of the murder of Polish Interior Minister Bronislaw Peracki (1934). At a trial in Warsaw at the beginning of 1936, he was sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment. In the summer of 1936, another trial took place - in Lvov - over the leadership of the OUN, where Bandera was given a similar sentence. After the occupation of Poland by German troops, he was released and collaborated with the Abwehr. After the murder by NKVD agents, Konovalets (1938) came into conflict with A. Melnik, who was claiming leadership in the OUN. In Feb. 1940 The OUN convened a conference in Krakow, at which a tribunal was created that handed down death sentences to Melnik's supporters. In 1940, the confrontation with the Melnikites took the form of armed struggle. In April 1941 OUN split into OUN-M (Melnik's supporters) and OUN-B (Bander's supporters), which was also called OUN-R (OUN-revolutionaries), and Bandera was elected head of the main line. Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, 3 marching groups (about 40 thousand people) were formed, which were supposed to form the Ukrainian administration in the occupied territories. With the help of these groups, Bandera tried to proclaim the independence of Ukraine, presenting Germany with a fait accompli. On June 30, 1941, on his behalf, Y. Stetsko proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian state. At the same time, Bandera’s supporters staged a pogrom in Lviv, during which approx. 3 thousand people On July 5 he was arrested in Krakow by the Gestapo. Bandera was demanded to renounce the Act of June 30, 1941, B. gave his consent and called on “the Ukrainian people to help the German army everywhere to defeat Moscow and Bolshevism.” On Sept. arrested again and placed in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was kept in good conditions. One of the main initiators of the creation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) on October 14, 1942, succeeded in replacing its main commander D. Klyachkivsky with his protege R. Shukhevych. The goal of the UPA was declared to be the struggle for the independence of Ukraine against both the Bolsheviks and the Germans. Nevertheless, the OUN leadership did not recommend “resorting to battles with large by German forces" At the beginning of August 1943, a meeting of representatives of the German authorities and the OUN took place in Sarny, Rivne region, to agree on joint actions against the partisans, then the negotiations were moved to Berlin. An agreement was reached that the UPA would protect railways and bridges from Soviet partisans and support the activities of the German occupation authorities. In return, Germany promised to supply UPA units with weapons and ammunition, and in the event of a Nazi victory over the USSR, to allow the creation of a Ukrainian state under German protectorate. On Sept. 1944 the position of the German authorities changed (according to G. Himmler, “the new stage cooperation") and Bandera was released. As part of the 202nd Abwehr team in Krakow, he trained OUN sabotage detachments. From Feb. 1945 and until his death served as leader (guide) of the OUN. In the summer of 1945, he issued a secret decree, which, in particular, spoke of the need to “immediately and most secretly... the above-mentioned elements of the OUN and UPA (those who can surrender to the authorities) in two ways: a) send large and small UPA detachments to battle with the Bolsheviks and create situations for them to be destroyed by the Soviets at posts and deadbolts

dah." After the end of the war, he lived in Munich and collaborated with British intelligence services. At the OUN conference in 1947, he was elected head of the entire OUN (which actually meant the unification of the OUN-B and OUN-M). Killed (poisoned) by an agent of the KGB of the USSR - a converted member of the OUN, Bandera Strashinsky. Later, Strashinsky surrendered to the authorities and testified that the order to eliminate Bander was given personally by the Chairman of the KGB of the USSR A.N. Shelepin. After the collapse of the USSR and the declaration of independence of Ukraine, B. became a symbol of independence for all radical Ukrainian nationalists. In 2000, right-wing parties in the Ivano-Frankivsk region made a call to transfer B.’s ashes to their homeland and open a historical memorial complex.

Book material used: Zalessky K.A. Who was who in the Second World War. Allies of Germany. Moscow, 2003

Stepan Bandera is one of the most controversial figures in modern history. His entire life and work are filled with contradictory facts.

Some consider him national hero and a fighter for justice, others - a fascist and a traitor, capable of atrocities. Information about his nationality is also ambiguous. So who was Stepan Bandera by origin?

Born in Austria-Hungary

Stepan Bandera was born in the Galician village of Stary Ugrinov, located on the territory of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a Greek Catholic clergyman. Mother came from the family of a Greek Catholic priest.
The head of the family was a staunch Ukrainian nationalist and raised his children in the same spirit. Bandera’s house often had guests - relatives and acquaintances who received active participation in the Ukrainian national life of Galicia.
As Stepan Bandera later wrote in his autobiography, he spent his childhood “in the house of his parents and grandfathers, grew up in an atmosphere of Ukrainian patriotism and living national-cultural, political and social interests. There was a large library at home, and active participants in the Ukrainian national life of Galicia often came together.”

True patriot of Ukraine

Starting his active work, Bandera positioned himself as true patriot Ukraine. The Ukrainians who joined him, who shared his views on the political future of their country, were confident that they were acting under the leadership of a compatriot. For the people, Stepan Bandera was Ukrainian by origin. Hence the famous slogans, imbued with undisguised Nazism: “Ukraine is only for Ukrainians!”, “Equality only for Ukrainians!”
The nationalist Bandera sought to seize power as soon as possible and become the head of the Ukrainian state. His goal was to demonstrate his importance to the population. For this purpose, on June 30, 1941, the “Act of Revival of the Ukrainian State” was created. The document reflected the desire for independence from the Moscow occupation, cooperation with the allied German army and the fight for the freedom and well-being of true Ukrainians: “Let the Ukrainian sovereign conciliar power live! Let the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists live! (an organization banned in the Russian Federation) Let the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists live and Ukrainian people Stepan Bandera! Glory to Ukraine!”

German citizenship

This fact is not widely known, but Stepan (Stefan) Bandera lived his entire life with a German passport. He had no territorial relationship to Ukraine - neither to Petliura nor to pre-war Soviet Ukraine - for the liberation of which he supposedly fought fiercely.
An interesting fact is that German citizenship played a decisive role in the life of the leader of the Ukrainian Nazis. It was because of him that in 2011, President Viktor Yushchenko’s decision to award Badner the title of Hero of Ukraine was declared invalid. In accordance with Ukrainian legislation, the title of Hero can only be given to a citizen of Ukraine, and Stefan Bandera was a “European” from birth and died before the appearance of modern Ukraine, whose leadership could well issue him a passport.

Purebred Jew

No matter how paradoxical it may sound, the ideologist of Ukrainian nationalism was a purebred Jew by origin. Research by the Dutch historian Borbala Obrushanski, who studied the biography of Bandera for three years, says that Stefan Bandera is a baptized Jew, a Uniate.
He came from a family of Jews baptized into the Uniate faith (converts). Father Adrian Bandera is a Greek Catholic from the middle-class family of Moishe and Rosalia (nee Beletskaya, Polish Jewish by nationality) Bander. The mother of the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists, Miroslava Glodzinskaya, is also a Polish Jew.
The meaning of the surname Bandera is explained quite simply. Modern Ukrainian nationalists translate it as “banner,” but in Yiddish it means “den.” It has nothing to do with Slavic or Ukrainian surnames. This is a tramp nickname for a woman who owned a brothel. Such women were called “banders” in Ukraine.
Stepan Bandera’s Jewish origin is also indicated by his physical characteristics: short stature, Western Asian facial features, raised wings of the nose, a strongly recessed lower jaw, a triangular skull shape, and a roller-shaped lower eyelid.
Bandera himself carefully hid his Jewish nationality all his life, including with the help of bestial, fierce anti-Semitism. This denial of his origins cost his fellow tribesmen dearly. According to researchers, Stepan Bandera and his devoted Nazis killed from 850 thousand to a million innocent Jews.

Story character

COLORS OF STEPAN BANDERA BANNER

A new look at the leader of Ukrainian nationalists

There are still fierce disputes surrounding the name of the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) Stepan Bandera - some consider him an accomplice of the Nazis and an accomplice in Nazi crimes, others call him a patriot and fighter for the independence of Ukraine.
We assume one of the versions of the activities of Stepan Bandera and his associates, based on previously unknown documents from Ukrainian archives.

Victor MARCHENKO

Stepan Andreevich Bandera ( "Bandera" - translated into modern language means "banner") was born on January 1, 1909 in the village of Ugryniv Stary Kalushsky district of Galicia (now Ivano-Frankivsk region), which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time, in the family of a priest of the Greek Catholic rite. He was the second child in the family. In addition to him, three brothers and three sisters grew up in the family.
My father had a university education - he graduated from the theological faculty of Lviv University. My father had a large library; frequent guests in the house were business people, public figures, intelligentsia. Among them, for example, is the member of the Austro-Hungarian parliament J. Veselovsky, the sculptor M. Gavrilko, and the businessman P. Glodzinsky.
S. Bandera wrote in his autobiography that he grew up in a house in which an atmosphere of Ukrainian patriotism and living national-cultural, political and social interests reigned. Stepan's father took an active part in the revival of the Ukrainian State in 1918-1920, he was elected as a deputy of the Western Ukrainian Parliament People's Republic. In the fall of 1919, Stepan passed entrance exams to the Ukrainian classical gymnasium in the city of Striy.
In 1920, Western Ukraine was occupied by Poland. In the spring of 1921, Miroslav Bander's mother died of tuberculosis. Stepan himself suffered from rheumatism of the joints since childhood and long time was in the hospital. Starting from the fourth grade, Bandera gave lessons, earning money for his own expenses. Education at the gymnasium took place under the supervision of the Polish authorities. But some teachers were able to incorporate Ukrainian national content into the compulsory curriculum.
However, gymnasium students received their main national-patriotic education in school youth organizations. Along with legal organizations, there were illegal circles involved in raising funds to support Ukrainian periodicals and boycotting events of the Polish authorities. Starting from the fourth grade, Bandera was part of an illegal organization at the gymnasium.
In 1927, Bandera successfully passed the matriculation exams and the next year he entered the Lviv Polytechnic School in the agronomy department. By 1934 he had passed full course with a specialty as an agronomist engineer. However, he did not have time to defend his diploma because he was arrested.
On the territory of Galicia in different times Various legal, semi-legal and illegal organizations operated with the goal of protecting Ukrainian national interests. In 1920, in Prague, a group of officers founded the “Ukrainian Military Organization” (UVO), which set the goal of fighting the Polish occupation. Soon, the former commander of the Sich Riflemen, an experienced organizer and authoritative politician, Evgen Konovalets, became the head of the UVO. The most famous action of the UVO is the failed attempt on the life of the head of the Polish state, Józef Pilsudski, in 1921.
Patriotic youth organizations were under the patronage of the UVO. Stepan Bandera became a member of the UVO in 1928. In 1929, in Vienna, Ukrainian youth organizations, with the participation of the Ukrainian Military District, held a unification congress, at which the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was established, which included Bandera. Later in 1932, the OUN and UVO merged.
Although Poland occupied Galicia, the legitimacy of its rule over Western Ukrainian lands remained problematic from the point of view of the Entente countries. This issue was the subject of complaints against Poland from the Western powers, especially England and France.
The Ukrainian majority of Eastern Galicia refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Polish authorities over them. The 1921 census and elections to the Polish Sejm in 1922 were boycotted. By 1930 the situation had worsened. In response to acts of disobedience by the Ukrainian population, the Polish government launched large-scale operations to “pacify” the population, in current terminology – “cleaning up” the territory of Eastern Galicia. In 1934, a concentration camp was established in Bereza Kartuzskaya, in which there were about 2 thousand political prisoners, mostly Ukrainians. A year later, Poland abandoned its commitment to the League of Nations to respect the rights of national minorities. Mutual attempts were made from time to time to find a compromise, but they did not lead to tangible results.
In 1934, members of the OUN made an attempt on the life of Polish Interior Minister Bronislaw Peratsky, as a result of which he died. S. Bandera took part in the terrorist attack. For his participation in the preparation of the assassination attempt on Peracki, he was arrested and at the beginning of 1936, along with eleven other defendants, he was convicted by the Warsaw District Court. S. Bandera was sentenced to death. According to the amnesty announced earlier by the Polish Sejm, the death penalty was replaced by life imprisonment.
Stepan was kept in prison in conditions of strict isolation. After the German attack on Poland, the town in which the prison was located was bombed. On September 13, 1939, when the situation of the Polish troops became critical, the prison guards fled. S. Bandera was released from solitary confinement by released Ukrainian prisoners.
The OUN, with about 20 thousand members, had a great influence on the Ukrainian population. There were internal conflicts in the organization: between young, impatient and more experienced and sensible people who had gone through war and revolution, between the OUN leadership, living in comfortable conditions of emigration, and the bulk of OUN members, working in conditions of underground and police persecution.
OUN leader Yevgen Konovalets, using his diplomatic and organizational talent, knew how to extinguish contradictions, uniting the organization. Death of Konovalets at the hands of Soviet agent Pavel Sudoplatov in 1938 in Rotterdam was a heavy loss for the Ukrainian nationalist movement. His successor was his closest ally, Colonel Andrei Melnik - good educated person, reserved and tolerant. The faction of his supporters, taking advantage of the fact that most of their opponents were in prison, in August 1939, at a conference in Rome, announced Colonel Melnik as the head of the OUN. Further events took a dramatic turn for the Ukrainian national liberation movement.
Once free, Stepan Bandera arrived in Lviv. A few days before, Lvov was occupied by the Red Army. At first it was relatively safe to be there. Soon, through a courier, he received an invitation to come to Krakow to coordinate the further plans of the OUN. Urgent treatment was also required for a joint disease that had worsened in prison. I had to illegally cross the Soviet-German demarcation line.
After meetings in Krakow and Vienna, Bandera was delegated to Rome for negotiations with Melnik. Events were developing rapidly, and the central leadership was slow. The list of disagreements - organizational and political - that needed to be resolved in negotiations with Melnik was quite long. The dissatisfaction of underground OUN members with the OUN leadership was approaching a critical point. In addition, there was suspicion of betrayal by Melnik’s inner circle, since mass arrests in Galicia and Volyn affected mainly Bandera supporters.
The main difference was in the strategy of conducting the national liberation struggle. Bandera and his like-minded people considered it necessary to maintain OUN contacts both with the countries of the German coalition and with the Western allied countries, without getting closer to any group. It is necessary to count on own strength, since no one was interested in the independence of Ukraine. The Melnik faction believed that relying on one’s own forces was untenable. In the independence of Ukraine Western countries not interested. This was already demonstrated by them back in the 20s. Germany then recognized the independence of Ukraine. Therefore, it is necessary to rely on Germany. The Melnikovites believed that it was impossible to create an armed underground, since this would irritate the German authorities and cause repression on their part, which would not bring either political or military dividends.
Unable to reach a compromise as a result of negotiations, both groups proclaimed themselves the only legitimate leadership of the OUN.
In February 1940, in Krakow, the Bandera faction, which included mainly youth and constituted the numerical majority of the OUN, held a conference at which it rejected the decisions of the Rome conference and chose Stepan Bandera as its leader. Thus, a split of the OUN took shape into the Banderaites - OUN-B or OUN-R (revolutionary) and into the Melnikites - OUN-M. Subsequently, the antagonism between the factions reached such intensity that they often fought against each other with the same ferocity with which they fought against the enemies of independent Ukraine.
The attitude of the German leadership towards the OUN was contradictory: the service of Canaris (Abwehr - military intelligence) considered it necessary to cooperate with Ukrainian nationalists, the Nazi party leadership led by Bormann did not consider the OUN to be a serious political factor, and therefore rejected any cooperation with it. Taking advantage of these contradictions, the OUN managed to form a Ukrainian military unit The "Legion of Ukrainian Nationalists" numbered about 600 people, consisting of two battalions - "Nachtigall" and "Roland", staffed by Ukrainians of predominantly pro-Banderist orientation. The Germans planned to use them for subversive purposes, and Bandera hoped that they would become the core of the future Ukrainian army.
At the same time, mass repressions unfolded on the territory of Western Ukraine, which was ceded to the Soviet Union under the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. Leaders and activists were arrested political parties And public organizations, many of them were executed. Four mass deportations of the Ukrainian population from occupied territories were carried out. New prisons were opened, housing tens of thousands of prisoners.
Father Andrei Bandera and his two daughters Marta and Oksana were arrested at three in the morning on May 23, 1941. In the interrogation protocols, in response to the investigator’s question about political views Father Andrey replied: “Behind my convictions, I am a Ukrainian nationalist, but not a chauvinist. The only correct thing is state structure for Ukrainians, I consider a united conciliar and independent Ukraine." On the evening of July 8 in Kyiv, at a closed meeting of the military tribunal of the Kyiv Military District, A. Bandera was sentenced to death. The verdict stated that it could be appealed within five days from the moment the copy was handed over verdict. But Andrei Bandera was shot on July 10.
Marta and Oksana were sent to prison without trial Krasnoyarsk region to eternal settlement, where they were moved from place to place every 2 - 3 months until 1953. The third sister, Vladimir, did not escape the bitter cup either. She, a mother of five children, was arrested along with her husband Teodor Davidyuk in 1946. She was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor. She worked in the camps of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kazakhstan, including the Spassky death camp. She survived, having served her full sentence, they added a settlement in Karaganda, and then she was allowed to return to her children in Ukraine.
The hasty retreat of the Red Army after the outbreak of war had tragic consequences for tens of thousands of those arrested. Unable to take everyone to the east, the NKVD decided to urgently liquidate the prisoners, regardless of the sentences. Often, basements filled with prisoners were simply bombarded with grenades. In Galicia, 10 thousand people were killed, in Volyn - 5 thousand. Relatives of the prisoners, looking for their loved ones, witnessed this hasty, senseless and inhumane reprisal. The Germans then demonstrated all this to the International Red Cross.
Using the support of the Nachtigal battalion, on June 30, 1941 in Lvov, at a rally of thousands in the presence of several German generals, Bandera proclaimed the “Act of Revival of the Ukrainian State.” A Ukrainian government was also formed, consisting of 15 ministers, headed by Yaroslav Stetsko, S. Bandera’s closest ally. In addition, following the front, which was quickly moving to the east, OUN detachments of 7-12 people were sent, about 2,000 people in total, who, seizing the initiative from the German occupation authorities, formed Ukrainian local governments.
The reaction of the German authorities to the action of Bandera’s supporters in Lviv followed quickly: on July 5, S. Bandera was arrested in Krakow. and on the 9th - in Lvov Y. Stetsko. In Berlin, where they were taken for trial, S. Bandera was explained that the Germans came to Ukraine not as liberators, but as conquerors, and demanded the public repeal of the Act of Revival. Without obtaining consent, Bandera was thrown into prison, and a year and a half later - into the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was kept until August 27 (according to other sources - until December) 1944. Brothers Stepan Andrei and Vasily were beaten to death in Auschwitz in 1942.
In the fall of 1941, Melnikites in Kyiv also tried to form a Ukrainian government. But this attempt was also brutally suppressed. More than 40 leading figures of the OUN-M were arrested and shot at Babi Yar at the beginning of 1942, including the famous Ukrainian poetess 35-year-old Elena Teliga, who headed the Writers' Union of Ukraine.
By the fall of 1941, the scattered Ukrainian armed detachments of Polesie united into partisan unit"Polesskaya Sich". As mass Nazi terror unfolded in Ukraine, partisan detachments grew. In the fall of 1942, on the initiative of the OUN-B, a unification took place partisan detachments Banderaites, Melnikists and the Polesie Sich into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) led by one of the organizers of the OUN, the highest officer of the recently disbanded Nachtigal battalion Roman Shukhevych (General Taras Chuprinka). In 1943-44, the number of UPA reached 100 thousand fighters and it controlled Volyn, Polesie and Galicia. It included detachments of other nationalities - Azerbaijanis, Georgians, Kazakhs and other nations, a total of 15 such detachments.
The UPA waged an armed struggle not only with Nazi and Soviet troops, there was a constant war with the Red partisans, and in the territory of Volyn, Polesie and Kholm region, exceptionally brutal battles took place with the Polish Home Army. This armed conflict had a long history and was accompanied by ethnic cleansing in the most savage form on both sides.
At the end of 1942, the OUN-UPA approached the Soviet partisans with a proposal to coordinate military operations against the Germans, but no agreement was reached. Hostile relations turned into armed clashes. And already in October and November 1943, for example, the UPA fought 47 battles with German troops and 54 with Soviet partisans.
Until the spring of 1944, the command Soviet Army and the NKVD tried to feign sympathy towards the Ukrainian nationalist movement. However, after the expulsion of German troops from the territory of Ukraine, Soviet propaganda began to identify the OUN members with the Nazis. From this time on, the second stage of the struggle began for the OUN-UPA - the struggle against the Soviet Army. This war lasted almost 10 years - until the mid-50s.
They fought against the UPA fighting regular troops of the Soviet Army. So, in 1946, about 2 thousand battles and armed skirmishes took place, in 1948 - about 1.5 thousand. Several training bases were organized near Moscow to combat partisan movement in Western Ukraine. During these years, every second of the Gulag prisoners was Ukrainian. And only after the death of UPA commander Roman Shukhevych on March 5, 1950, organized resistance in Western Ukraine began to decline, although individual detachments and remnants of the underground operated until the mid-50s.
After leaving the Nazi concentration camp, Stepan Bandera was no longer able to get into Ukraine. He took up the affairs of the OUN. After the end of the war, the central organs of the organization were located in West Germany. At a meeting of the OUN leadership council, Bandera was elected to the leadership bureau, in which he oversaw the foreign parts of the OUN.
At a conference in 1947, Stepan Bandera was elected head of the entire Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. By this time, opposition to Bandera had arisen in the foreign units, reproaching him for dictatorial ambitions, and the OUN for turning into a neo-communist organization. After lengthy discussions, Bandera decides to resign and go to Ukraine. However, the resignation was not accepted. OUN conferences in 1953 and 1955, with the participation of delegates from Ukraine, again elected Bandera as head of the leadership.
After the war, S. Bandera’s family found themselves in the zone of Soviet occupation. Under fictitious names, the relatives of the OUN leader were forced to hide from the Soviet occupation authorities and KGB agents. For some time, the family lived in the forest in a secluded house, in a small room without electricity, in cramped conditions. Six-year-old Natalya had to walk six kilometers through the forest to school. The family was malnourished, the children grew sickly.
In 1948-1950, they lived in a refugee camp under an assumed name. Meetings with their father were so rare that the children even forgot him. Since the early 50s, the mother and children settled in the small village of Breitbrunn. Stepan could be here more often, almost every day. Despite his busy schedule, the father spent time working with the children. Ukrainian language. Brother and sister at the age of 4-5 already knew how to read and write in Ukrainian. With Natalka Bandera he studied history, geography and literature. In 1954, the family moved to Munich, where Stepan already lived.
On October 15, 1959, Stepan Bandera released the guards and entered the entrance of the house in which he lived with his family. On the stairs he was met by a man whom Bandera had already seen earlier in the church. From special pistol he shot a stream of potassium cyanide solution into Stepan Bandera’s face. Bandera fell, shopping bags rolled down the stairs.
The killer turned out to be a KGB agent, 30-year-old Ukrainian Bogdan Stashinsky. Soon, KGB Chairman Shelepin personally presented him with the Order of the Red Banner of Battle in Moscow. In addition, Stashinsky received permission to marry a German woman from East Berlin. A month after the wedding, which took place in Berlin, Stashinsky was sent with his wife to Moscow to continue his studies. Listening to conversations at home with his wife gave his superiors reason to suspect Stashinsky of insufficient loyalty to the Soviet regime. He was expelled from school and forbidden to leave Moscow.
In connection with the upcoming birth, Stashinsky’s wife was allowed to travel to East Berlin in the spring of 1961. At the beginning of 1962, news arrived of the unexpected death of a child. For the funeral of his son, Stashinsky was allowed a short trip to East Berlin. Intensified measures were taken to monitor him. However, the day before the funeral (just before the construction of the Berlin Wall), Stashinsky and his wife managed to break away from the escort, which was traveling in three cars, and escape to West Berlin. There he turned to the American mission, where he confessed to the murder of Stepan Bandera, as well as to the murder of OUN activist Professor L. Rebet two years earlier. An international scandal erupted, since at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956, the USSR officially proclaimed its renunciation of the policy of international terrorism.
At the trial, Stashinsky testified that he acted on the instructions of the USSR leadership. On October 19, 1962, the court of the city of Karlsruhe sentenced him to 8 years of maximum security imprisonment.
Stepan’s daughter Natalya Bandera ended her speech at the trial with the words:
“My unforgettable father raised us in love for God and Ukraine. He was a deeply religious Christian and died for God and an independent, free Ukraine.” .

Stepan Andreevich Bandera born on January 1, 1909 in the village of Stary Ugryniv (now Kalushsky district, Ivano-Frankivsk region). His father was a Greek Catholic priest, and his mother was the daughter of a priest, so Stepan was raised in conditions of national-cultural patriotism.

Since childhood, he became a repeated witness to the war, since the fronts of the First World War swept through his native village four times (1914-1917) and the territory of Galicia constantly passed from one occupier to another. It was during those turbulent years that dramatic attempts to restore the Ukrainian independent state.

Stepan's father, Andrey, had a large library and took an active part in the social and political life of Galicia during the formation of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (1918-1919). He was the ambassador from Kalushchyna to the parliament of the republic - the Ukrainian National Council. During the Ukrainian-Polish War (1919) he was a military chaplain in the Ukrainian Galician Army. Also in the Dnieper region he fought with the White Guards and Bolsheviks. Andrei Bandera returned home in 1920.

According to S. Bandera himself, in those years, “he experienced the exciting events of the revival and construction of the Ukrainian state.”

In 1919, Stepan entered the Stryi gymnasium, where he took an active part in Plastun organizations and student circles of resistance to the Polish government, operating under the auspices of the UVO (Ukrainian Military Organization - an illegal military revolutionary political formation led by Yevgeny Konovalets).

In 1929, he became an active member of the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), where he successfully engaged in illegal propaganda of the revolutionary liberation struggle, the goal of which was the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state. And already in 1931, Stepan led all OUN propaganda in Western Ukraine.

The main principle goal of the OUN, like other national-patriotic organizations of that time, was complete independence Ukraine from any invaders.

In 1933, Bandera rose to the rank of regional guide and, under his leadership, a number of punitive measures took place against the Polish occupation administration. In particular, on June 16, 1934, the murder of the odious Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Bronislaw Peracki, who became famous for his bloody acts of terror against Ukrainians, took place. Peratsky was the author and immediate leader of the plan “in the impoverished Rus',” the goal of which was to pacify the inhabitants of Western Ukraine.

The day before the murder, Bandera was arrested, and on January 13, 1936, after a long investigation and litigation, he and two of his associates were sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment.

In 1939, after the capture of Poland, Stepan was released from prison by the Germans. And it is from this moment in the biography of our hero that an ambiguous and contradictory interpretation of his role in Ukrainian and world history begins. Some historians and politicians prove his heroic patriotism and huge positive role in establishing Ukrainian statehood, others prove collaboration and crimes against his own people.

Immediately after his release, in September 1939, he headed the revolutionary OUN Provod and immediately negotiated with the military leadership of Nazi Germany about a joint fight against the Russian-Bolshevik occupiers, who, at that time, according to the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, occupied the West -Ukrainian lands. Bandera's main goal, in collaboration with the Germans, was to create an independent Ukrainian state.

Taking advantage of the contradictions within the Hitlerite administration, the northern Ukrainian legion “Nachtigall”, commander Roman Shukhevych, and the southern “Roland” are created. These military formations, according to the OUN, were to become the basis of the Ukrainian army after the declaration of independence. Since the beginning of the war, they were not officially part of the German army, had a different uniform, wore a trident and went into battle under a blue and yellow flag.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany, violating the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, attacked Soviet Union. And already on June 30, 1941, the Nachtigal legion, led by Roman Shukhevych, entered Lviv, captured strategic objects of the city, and on the same day the Act of Restoration of Ukrainian Statehood was proclaimed. And the Chairman of the National Assembly, Yaroslav Stetsko, was tasked with organizing the Ukrainian authorities.

The German authorities first responded to such actions of Ukrainian nationalists with an ultimatum to immediately cancel the Act, and when they refused to fulfill the Nazis’ conditions, mass terror was used against them. Hundreds of participants in the so-called “Bandera sabotage” were arrested and thrown into prison. The same fate befell Stepan Bandera; he was arrested in Krakow. His two brothers Vasily and Alexei were tortured to death in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Both Ukrainian legions "Nachtigall" and "Roland", after refusing to obey the Germans, were disbanded and disarmed. But, despite this, it was the soldiers of these units that would later become the core of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army).

Due to the unfavorable course of the war, the Germans released Stepan from custody in December 1944 and began negotiations on joint action against the Bolsheviks. Bandera's main demands remained recognition of the Act of Renewal of Ukrainian Statehood, and the possibility of creating an independent Ukrainian army. But these goals were not realized because Soviet troops soon captured Western Ukraine, and on May 7, 1945, Nazi Germany signed the Instrument of Surrender.

The further struggle for independence unfolded on the territory of Western and Greater Ukraine against the Soviet occupation power and actively continued until 1955. Bandera led the anti-Soviet resistance from abroad.

On October 15, 1959, Stepan Bandera was killed in Munich. As German investigators would later establish, the murder was committed by a KGB agent. Ukrainian origin Bogdan Stashinsky, shooting him in the face with a solution of potassium cyanide.

In the format of the Soviet historical concept, Bandera is viewed as a collaborator, a criminal and a traitor to his own people, and his supporters are equated with the fascists with whom the Soviet state heroically fought.

But, with the collapse of the USSR and the restoration of Ukraine as an independent state in 1991, a radically opposite Soviet, Ukrainian point of view on the figure of Stepan Bandera emerged. Moreover, the history of the liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people in the 20th century is inextricably linked with his name.

However, complex debates on this topic continue in Ukrainian society to this day. They became especially aggravated after the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko awarded Stepan Bandera the title of Hero of Ukraine in 2004, which was subsequently canceled in 2010 by the Donetsk District Administrative Court.

The fact that in the interactive project of the Inter TV channel “Great Ukrainians” Bandera took an honorable 3rd place, after Yaroslav the Wise and Nikolai Amosov, speaks of his high authority among Ukrainians.

In the context of a new wave of Ukraine’s struggle for independence from the encroachments of Muscovy in 2013-2014, the ideas of our hero acquire extremely relevant significance. Only one thing is certain: every independent nation has the right to its heroes, despite the fact that they are not always positively perceived by representatives of other nations.