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Tarnished Heroes : The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in the Memory Politics of Post-Soviet Ukraine

Rudling, Per A. LU (2024) In Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 207.
Abstract
Following the 2004-5 Orange Revolution, President Viktor Yushchenko embarked on an ambitious project to rehabilitate the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its armed wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Following the Euromaidan Revolution and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, a more systematic effort was made to affirm these groups as a center of a new historical canonical canon. This endeavor necessitated a highly selective rendering of these organizations’ history, not least in regard to their role in the Holocaust and their systematic massacres of the Polish minority in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943–44. The attempts to rehabilitate some of the OUN’s most prominent leaders – Mykola Lebed’, Roman Shukhevych,... (More)
Following the 2004-5 Orange Revolution, President Viktor Yushchenko embarked on an ambitious project to rehabilitate the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its armed wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Following the Euromaidan Revolution and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, a more systematic effort was made to affirm these groups as a center of a new historical canonical canon. This endeavor necessitated a highly selective rendering of these organizations’ history, not least in regard to their role in the Holocaust and their systematic massacres of the Polish minority in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943–44. The attempts to rehabilitate some of the OUN’s most prominent leaders – Mykola Lebed’, Roman Shukhevych, Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stets’ko, and others – all faced significant obstacles as newly available archival materials undermined key tenants of the state-sanctioned memory.

The book’s introduction to the intellectual history of Ukrainian nationalism and particular conditions of nation building of a stateless nation is followed by an investigation of post-Soviet memory management. The study engages the contentious issue of the taxonomy of the OUN’s ideology before concluding with a chapter on how Ukraine’s rehabilitation of this organization has been weaponized by the Russian Federation to justify its criminal war of aggression. In this war, Ukrainians defend not only their territory; their stubborn resistance is a defense of a rules-based order, democracy, fundamental human rights, and the right to self-determination. As a by-product of this is, it may also offer a way out of a memory impasse, beyond Bandera and the OUN. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Book/Report
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Ukraine, Ukrainian Nationalism, Fascism, Politics of Memory, Memory Laws, Holocaust revisionism, Soviet history, Soviet Union
in
Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society
volume
207
pages
478 pages
publisher
Ibidem-Verlag
ISSN
1614-3515
ISBN
9783838269993
9783838209999
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Andreas Umland, editor of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society
id
dab3331c-f19b-41e2-8d68-8cc2293f28b5
date added to LUP
2016-11-21 11:45:38
date last changed
2024-09-16 09:23:16
@book{dab3331c-f19b-41e2-8d68-8cc2293f28b5,
  abstract     = {{Following the 2004-5 Orange Revolution, President Viktor Yushchenko embarked on an ambitious project to rehabilitate the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its armed wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Following the Euromaidan Revolution and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, a more systematic effort was made to affirm these groups as a center of a new historical canonical canon. This endeavor necessitated a highly selective rendering of these organizations’ history, not least in regard to their role in the Holocaust and their systematic massacres of the Polish minority in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943–44. The attempts to rehabilitate some of the OUN’s most prominent leaders – Mykola Lebed’, Roman Shukhevych, Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stets’ko, and others – all faced significant obstacles as newly available archival materials undermined key tenants of the state-sanctioned memory.<br/><br/>The book’s introduction to the intellectual history of Ukrainian nationalism and particular conditions of nation building of a stateless nation is followed by an investigation of post-Soviet memory management. The study engages the contentious issue of the taxonomy of the OUN’s ideology before concluding with a chapter on how Ukraine’s rehabilitation of this organization has been weaponized by the Russian Federation to justify its criminal war of aggression. In this war, Ukrainians defend not only their territory; their stubborn resistance is a defense of a rules-based order, democracy, fundamental human rights, and the right to self-determination. As a by-product of this is, it may also offer a way out of a memory impasse, beyond Bandera and the OUN.}},
  author       = {{Rudling, Per A.}},
  isbn         = {{9783838269993}},
  issn         = {{1614-3515}},
  keywords     = {{Ukraine; Ukrainian Nationalism; Fascism; Politics of Memory; Memory Laws; Holocaust revisionism; Soviet history; Soviet Union}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Ibidem-Verlag}},
  series       = {{Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society}},
  title        = {{Tarnished Heroes : The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in the Memory Politics of Post-Soviet Ukraine}},
  volume       = {{207}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}