Taras Hunczak “OUN — Between Collaboration and Confrontation with Nazi Germany” “Shukhevych and the Nachtigall Battalion: Moscow Fabrications about the Ukrainian Resistance Movement”

August 14, 2009


Taras Hunczak

OUN — Between Collaboration and Confrontation with Nazi Germany

In a way of introduction to the topic of nationalism I would like to state that nationalism, which has been characterized by some as source of evil justifying criminal behavior, for others as a source of salvation, is in fact an ideology perceived differently by different people depending what role it plays in their national life. For some it serves as a vehicle of oppression while for others it became a clarion call for liberation, even at the cost of one’s own life. Stated briefly one can say that nationalism is the product of historical development of society which, after the period of Enlightenment in the 18th century and the Era of Romanticism established nationalism as the dominant ideology of the Western World incorporating into its program such elements as common language, culture, tradition, a cult of ancestors and a common economic, political and sometimes religious experiences. Ultimately it became a dominant ideology of the world. Ukrainian nationalism is but a variation of it.


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Taras Hunczak

Shukhevych and the Nachtigall Battalion:
Moscow Fabrications about the Ukrainian Resistance Movement

In this article I will not be responding to the numerous fabricated stories that are still being published in newspapers and books in Russia and elsewhere, which portray the freedom fighters of the Ukrainian resistance movement —the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) — as “fascists.” Even in Ukraine today there are still significant numbers of people who maliciously defame those who sacrificed their lives for their country’s freedom and independence. Clearly, certain individuals find it easier to make their “scholarly” careers by issuing groundless accusations. Where some of these accusers are concerned, this type of allegation is an unmistakable holdover from the Soviet propaganda era.


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