Monday, March 8, 2010

Blitz: Europe against Ukraine. Stepan Bandera is a national hero

Europe opposed to the Ukrainian "hero" Stepan Bandera. European Parliament in Brussels, spoke in a negative vein about of the canonization of the Ukrainian nationalist movement’s leader, which fought against the Russians, resorting to even collaboration with the Germans. European Parliament appealed to the newly elected president Viktor Yanukovich to rescind this decision, wrote Italian edition Blitzquotidiano.

The intervention of the European Parliament could be justified by all sorts of pressure, but it is easy to suspect that this is a manifestation of weakness before the new Ukrainian president, presumed to be pro-Russian politician, and by the Russia as a whole. In Russia, Bandera is one of the most notorious historical figures, whose murder at the time was organized by the KGB. Apparently, Tsar of Russia "Putin”, a former KGB officer who tries to revive the glory of the great Russia, did not approve of such a decision by the neighboring state, which was a part of the USSR.

Everything indicates that Western Europeans have shown weakness. Perhaps they did not want to particularly irritate Mr. Putin and his Ukrainian allies. For most of the gas, which warms Western Europe comes from Russia through Ukraine, primarily through the part where the Russian population lives. (Stalin did not like the Ukrainians. He caused twelve million people starved to death and several million more were deported. They were replaced by the Russians, who settled mainly in the more industrialized eastern part of the country).
In western Ukraine, near Lviv, where anti-Russian sentiments are very persistent, most of the population voted for Yushchenko. Stepan Bandera comes also from Lviv region. He began his political career by taking part in the murder of the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs. Lviv and Galicia has long been the Austrian territory. They became the home of many great German-speaking writers of the twentieth century. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, these regions came under Polish protectorate. Hated Polish neighbors, who did not distinguish for tolerance, and who are known for their anti-Semitic views, were the first target of attacks by Ukrainian nationalists.

During the assassination attempt on the Polish Minister Bandera was sentenced to death, but later the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment. In 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed the agreement on the division of Poland and Galicia went to the Soviet Union. Bandera, who was at that time in jail on Polish territory, was released by the Germans and began to work for them. With bases in Krakow, he lead the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. After a few years he has taken action against the Germans, for which he was sent to a German concentration camp. After the war he remained in Germany, and that time collaborating with the Americans, resided in Munich and lead the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which operated on Ukrainian territory. In 1959 he was assassinated on the orders of Khrushchev. The executor was Stashinsky Bogdan, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison. A German court then formally declared that the customer of the murder was located in Moscow, in particular at the Kremlin.
Bandera was awarded the title "Hero of Ukraine" in January 2010. The corresponding decree signed by the former President Viktor Yushchenko, who is to underscore the independence of Ukraine from Russia, has decided to show the public the national heroes of the insurgents, such as Bandera, Mazepa and Roman Shukhevych.

During his term as the president Yushchenko, convinced opponent of Russia's influence in Ukraine, was engaged in the recovery of the bins of history actors struggle of Ukrainians against the Soviet Union during the Second World War. On this struggle for over half a century, spoke very little.

Assigning high rank to Bandera angered the Jewish community in Ukraine. The leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement is accused for the deaths of thousands of the Jews. He is considered to be the absolute criminal who on the one hand fought against the Nazis, and from the other cooperated with them against Moscow. Immediately after the nationalist act Yushchenko, Ukraine's Chief Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman of Kyiv decided to return to protest some of the awards, which he recently received from the Ukrainian authorities.
The Jewish community has seen a real threat in such a decision by the Government despite the fact that the government had always tried to fight anti-Semitism of many modern nationalists. In particular, they closed 26 branches of the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, which is responsible for 80 percent of all publications against the Jews in Ukraine.

Mayer Brenner, head of the Jewish community in Uzhgorod, a small town with 120 thousand population: "All that we want - is order and justice. Years of the Orange Revolution there were not easy, but there is a possibility that the situation will change for the better."

The position taken by Brussels, didn’t like to the Ukrainian nationalists. Speaking on their behalf deputy Andrei Paruby asked the EU to reconsider its recent statements against the recognition of Bandera as the hero of Ukraine. "Everyone who knows history, knows full well that Bandera was in a German concentration camp during the Second World War and that his brothers were killed by the Nazis. Ukrainians were the first who offered armed resistance to the Nazis. During the Nuremberg trials nobody stated that members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army supported Hitler".

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