The article examines how interpretations of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army have changed in the period of Ukraine’s independence. By examining narratives from a wide-ranging selection of Ukrainian media, as well as school textbooks and other writings, the author asks whether scholars’ perspectives on the war years are as distorted as they were in the Soviet period. Has the former Soviet narrative been replaced by a nationalist one, at the expense of historical accuracy? Have the events in question become too politicized and too divisive to deal with?
OUN and UPA refer to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
2.
Peter J. Potichnyj, a professor emeritus of political science at McMaster University in Canada, notes that UPA is often portrayed as the military arm of the OUN. As a result, he maintains, the OUN’s collaboration with the German forces prior to June 1941 is often applied to UPA as well, despite what he perceives as UPA’s very definite anti-German direction.Peter J. Potichnyj, "The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the German Authorities," in German-Ukrainian Relations in Historical Perspective, ed. Hans-Joachim Torke and John-Paul Himka ( Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press , 1994), 168.
3.
Kyiv Post, 13 March 2008. Also see John-Paul Himka, "Be Wary of Faulty Nachtigall Lessons," Kyiv Post, 27 March 2008 .
4.
Omer Bartov, Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine ( Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007).
5.
V. Cherednychenko, Natsionalizm proty natsii (Kiev, Ukraine: Vydavnytstvo politychnoi literatury Ukrainy, 1970).
6.
P. Maksym’yuk and G. Slyvka, "Ispytannym oruzhiyem pravdy," L’vovs’kaya pravda, 20 February 1988, 3.
7.
Myron Sluka , "Palacha k otvetu," L’vovs’kaya pravda, 12 March 1988, 3.
8.
This is not to suggest that such pogroms did not take place. Clearly they did. See, e.g., Frank Golczewski , "Shades of Grey: Reflections on Jewish-Ukrainian and German-Ukrainian Relations in Galicia," in The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization, ed. Ray Brandon and Wendy Lower ( Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2008), 131.
9.
V. Zarechnyi and O. Lastovets, "Banderovshchina," Pravda Ukrainy, 9 August 1989, 3-4; 10 August 1989, 4; 17 August 1989, 3-4; and 19 August 1989, 3.
10.
A. Gorban’, "Krovavyye sledy banderovtsev," Pravda Ukrainy, 11 October 1989, 3.
11.
Visti z Ukrainy 3 (January 1991): 1.
12.
V.I. Maslovs’kyi , "Shchto na ‘oltari svobody’? Dekil’la utochen’ viiny ‘na dva fronty,’ yaku vela UPA, ta skil’koma nevynnymy zhertvamy oplachuvas’ tsey propahdandyts’kyi myf,"Komunist Ukrainy7 (July 1991): 67-68.
13.
Litopys UPA, edited by Peter J. Potichnyj and Yevhen Shtendera, has published over fifty volumes of UPA memoirs. The collection has been criticized, however, for offering a one-sided selection of documents to portray the insurgents in a favorable light. According to one account, UPA did not generally maintain a detailed record of its activities. Also, the surrounded guerrillas destroyed documents rather than allowing the enemy access to them. Many of the documents captured are today held in the archives of the former KGB and inaccessible to scholars. Litopys UPA thus represents a small fraction of the collection, mainly documents from the archives of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council and the UPA central command. See Yurii Kyrychuk, "Heroichnyi litopys," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 11 July 1996, 2. The accusation that the selection of documents was in any way partial was strongly denied by Professor Potichnyj at a symposium on "Ukraine in World War II," held at the University of Alberta on 29 November 2006.
14.
John A. Armstrong, Ukrainian Nationalism, 3rd edition ( Englewood, CO: Ukrainian Academic Press, 1990), 146-52.
15.
Ibid., 153-56.
16.
Viktor Koval ’, "Ukrains’ka Povstans’ka Armiya: Dovidka Instytutu istorii AN URSR dlya Komisii Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy z pytan’ bezpeky vid 1 lypnya 1991 roku," Ukraina i Svit35 (18-24 September 1996): 9-10.
17.
V.P. Troshchyns’kyi , "Proty vyhadok pro tak zvany ‘antyfashysts’kyi rukh oporu’ ukrains’kykh natsionalistiv,"Ukrains’kyi istorychnyi zhurnal5 (1988): 83-84.
18.
Kost’ Bondarenko, "Istoriya, kotoruyu ne znaem, ili ne khotim znat’,"Zerkalo nedeli12 (29 March-5 April 2002).
19.
Wiktor Poliszczuk , Legal and Political Assessment of the OUN and UPA (Toronto, 1997), 32.
20.
M.V. Koval’, Ukraina v Druhii svitovii i Velykii vitchyznyanii viinakh (1939-1945 rr.) (Kiev, Ukraine: Vydavnychyi dim Al’ternatyvy, 1999), 152-53.
21.
Maslovs’kyi, "Shchto na ‘oltari svobody’?" 67-73.
22.
Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, "Trahediya pysana samoyu istoriyeyu," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 14 October 1997, 2.
23.
Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, "Ukrainski natsionalisty v chervono-korechnevii Yevropi (do 70-richchya stvorennya OUN,"Istoriya Ukrainy5 (February 1999 ): 6-7.
24.
See, e.g., Maslii, "V UPA buly heroi," Visti z Ukrainy42 (October 1991): 4.
25.
Ivan Krainii , "Sorok chotyry roky strakhu," Ukraina moloda, 21 January 1992, 7.
26.
Ihor Hulyk , "Petro Poltava i ioho kontseptsiya ukrains’koho derzhavnosti," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 18 July 1992, 2.
Roman Pastukh , "Enkavedysts’kyi heneral u rukakh u nashykh povstantsiv," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 19 July 1997, 2.
29.
Bohdan Zalyps’kyi , "Zberehty sebe, shchob vykhovuvaty nove pokolonia ," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 7 April 2000, 6-7.
30.
Roman Pastukh , "Dmytro Hrytsai-heneral UPA," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 20 March 1991, 2.
31.
Myroslav Horoshko and Volodymyr Dudok, "Lystar ukrains’koho lisu," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 8 September 1992, 3; and 10 September 1992, 3.
32.
Ivan Vashkiv , "I stav vin Lehendoyu," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 31 October 1991, 2.
33.
Nina Romanyuk , "Vony ishly do lyubovi i myloserdya, a pomyraly zradnykamy i vorohamy," Ukraina moloda, 19 May 1995, 7.
34.
Ivan Romanyk , "Banderivs’kyi chervonoarmiets," Ukraina moloda, 12 September 2001, 13.
35.
Nina Romanyuk , "Khoroshyi u vas cholovik. Ot choho vin u tii UPA buv?" Ukraina moloda, 12 October 2002, 4.
36.
Maslovs’kyi, "Shchto na ‘oltari svobody’?" 72.
37.
Panteleimon Vasylevs’kyi, "Bii za ‘banderivs’ku stolytsu,"Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 13 January 1995, 2.
38.
Mykola Vasyl’chuk , "Pobratani z hromom: Nova knyha Mykhaila Andrusyaka pro UPA,"Ukraina moloda, 30 January 2002, 6.
39.
Bohdan Mak , "Polkovnyk Shelest," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 27 April 1996, 2; 30 April 1996, 2; 4 May 1996, 2; 7 May 1996, 2; 14 May 1996, 2.
40.
Fedir Solovei , "Sumni svyata buly v sorok shostomu rotsi," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 19 January 1991, 4.
41.
Ostap Moroz, "Na terenakh Drohobychchyny," Za vil’nu Ukrainu , 24 November 1992, 2.
42.
Ivan Vorobel’ , "Ostannii bunker," Za vil’nu Ukrainu, 17 October 1996, 2-3.
43.
Ivan Krainii , "Ostanni z pidzemnoho bunkera," Ukraina moloda, 15 November 2002, 5.
44.
"Orlan" translates literally as white-tailed eagle.
45.
Based on this review, the book makes no distinction between activities linked to the OUN and those associated with UPA.
46.
Mariya Lytvyn , "Povstanskymy stezhkamy," Literaturna Ukraina, 18 September 2003, 1.
47.
See, e.g., Timothy Snyder, "The Causes of Ukrainian-Polish Ethnic Cleansing," Past and Present179, no. 1 (2003): 197-234.
48.
Financial Times, 13 October 2009.
49.
See, e.g., Nancy Popson, "The Ukrainian History Textbook: Introducing Children to the ‘Ukrainian Nation,’" Nationalities Papers29, no. 2 ( 2001): 325-50.
50.
It is an odd theory for a number of reasons, not least the unexpected way in which Ukraine gained independence in August 1991, that is, a failed putsch in Moscow and the subsequent ban on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on Russian (and then Ukrainian) lands.
