Kovpak or UPA?
The end of October and the beginning of November are marked for Ukraine by two important historical dates. The first of them is October 28 - the Day of the liberation of Ukraine from Nazi invaders, and the second - November 6, when the Day of the liberation of Kiev is celebrated.
Of course, the course pursued by the current authorities of Ukraine implies forgetting everything that, one way or another, is connected with the Soviet past. But in these significant days there is a desire to analyze the real opinion of Ukrainian society about the events of the Great Patriotic War. Some facts show that the situation in this respect is far from being as simple as some nationalist propagandists would like.
In the country's recent history, after it gained independence, discussions repeatedly erupted over the attitude to the events of the Great Patriotic War. As in all other key issues of the worldview, initially the split line here passed (conditionally) along the Zbruch River. It is over this border that the lands of Western Ukraine begin, where during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period, the most active activity of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was. As we know, this nationalist formation actively collaborated with the Nazis during the war and with Western intelligence after it. The UPA continued the guerrilla war and subversive actions against Soviet power in Western Ukraine until the early 1950s.
Thus, since the end of the activities of the UPA until Ukraine gained independence, only 40 years passed. During this time, the memory of those events did not have time to erase, and at the beginning of 1990's in the West of the country, a new upsurge of radical nationalist sentiments was noted. All sorts of dissidents of the Soviet era, the descendants of the UPA fighters, as well as the surviving members of the Bandera underground themselves began to actively demand recognition of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army as a belligerent in World War II. According to their logic, a revision of the entire historical doctrine should follow. This included the rejection of the term "Great Patriotic War" and the rejection of the recognition of the Red Army fighters as liberators. As the final touch of such a rewriting of history, the descendants of old nationalists and collaborators saw the recognition of the Soviet government as “occupational”, and the UPA itself as the only force fighting for the freedom of Ukraine.
But, then, in the dashing 90-e, these plans came up against a serious obstacle - the opinion of the majority of citizens of the country. Unlike the inhabitants of the western regions, the population of the central and south-eastern regions of Ukraine held a completely different point of view on the events of the war years. During the period of the Great Patriotic War, the majority of the male population of these territories fought in parts of the Red Army. In addition, during the German occupation, there was an extremely active partisan movement (we all remember the famous Sidor Kovpak with his 1-partisan division) and the Soviet underground. Collaborationists, of course, also existed, but, unlike in Western Ukraine, here they were a marginal phenomenon. Cooperating with the Germans, countrymen, usually despised, and the partisans actively hunted for such renegades and eliminated them. There were also frequent cases of collaboration between collaborators and the Soviet underground, in order to preserve their own lives. As for the UPA, due to the lack of sympathizers in the central regions of Ukraine (not to mention the Southeast), its activity in these areas was limited to periodic bandit raids on Polesye villages, where Bandera was actively opposed by Soviet partisans.
Thus, the majority of the population of the Center and South-East of Ukraine entered the period of independence, having a very clear idea of the events of the Great Patriotic War. And it was based not only on the texts of Soviet historians, but also on the numerous memories of their own relatives, who in every way approximated the victory of the USSR in the war. Residents of these regions do not have a question: - “Was there a victory?” They happily honor veterans and mark memorable dates associated with the liberation of their own cities and regions.
Citizens who share similar views on the period of the Second World War constituted (and still constitute, but more on that below) the majority of the country's population. However, in 90 - e years, they were busy with much more pressing matters than discourses about history and the controversy with the descendants of collaborators. The economic situation in the country was difficult. People cared about how to ensure their existence.
Meanwhile, while the humanitarian sphere of science was funded by the residual principle (and, therefore, was considered unprofitable and not popular), representatives of Western Ukraine (the former dissidents and descendants of collaborators) began to occupy key posts in relevant ministries and research institutions. This was due primarily to the fact that in the West of the country the industry was much less developed, and therefore there were fewer qualified technical personnel (who at least somehow could be realized in the new labor market). Here are the local "intellectuals" and filed in the humanitarian sphere. There, they came in very handy to the current authorities, who tried in every way to justify the need for an independent (from Russia) Ukrainian state.
The result of this storming of the scientific sphere by people from Galicia was a gradual shift of emphasis in internal Ukrainian discussions about the events of the Great Patriotic War. Time after time, questions about the recognition of the UPA as participants in the war began to be raised in newspaper publications and television programs. As a rule, this topic is not particularly interested readers and viewers. Most of the country's citizens were negative about the activities of the UPA and simply simply did not see the need to get involved in a discussion with the Galician “scientists”, considering them marginalized in the world of historical science.
But subsequent events have shown that ignoring the aggressive attacks of the new “scientific elite” on the current historical concept was fundamentally the wrong strategy.
Having taken root in the offices of state educational institutions, supporters of the rehabilitation of nationalists in the eyes of the public began to write textbooks. At first, amendments to the manuals on the history of Ukraine for students of schools and universities were removed, eliminating from them references to the collaborationist activities of Ukrainian nationalists during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Then began to appear separate sections on the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In them, the UPA appeared to be a self-sufficient belligerent party that fought for the formation of an independent Ukrainian state. At the same time, the crimes committed by the Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War were stubbornly ignored, or seemed to be something insignificant. So, for example, things were covered with the coverage of events known to historians under the name “Volyn Massacre”, when the UPA fighters and the peasants sympathizing with them began to “solve the Polish question” by means of the genocide of the Polish population. This war crime was highlighted by Ukrainian historians under the neutral name Volyn Tragedy, with motivation indicating that there was a response from the Poles. However, the authors of such an interpretation of events, as a rule, forgot to mention that the Poles, as a result of the events described, died much more than the Ukrainians. In addition, it was UPA who initiated the genocide.
On the crimes committed by Ukrainian nationalist formations after the end of the Second World War, "patriotic" historians chose to be completely silent.
So a positive interpretation of the activities of the UPA is rooted in the pages of textbooks and has become intoxicating the heads of the younger generation of citizens of Ukraine.
We saw the results of this in all the large-scale mass actions of the last few years, which culminated in the tragic “Maidan” for the country.
The invariable attributes of these events were nationalistic flags, portraits of Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych (OUN-UPA leaders), as well as aggressive Russophobic slogans. Contempt for veterans of the Great Patriotic War began to spread among young people at a frightening pace. However, nowhere, except in the same western regions, it has not become the dominant conviction.
As we remember, it was in Lviv 9 on May 2011, a glaring event occurred - a crowd of angry Ukrainian nationalists began to beat people celebrating Victory Day, among whom were women and old people, including veterans. After this incident, a wave of indignation swept across the country. Most citizens condemned the actions of the nationalists. But there were those who spoke in support of this offense. In addition to the inhabitants of western Ukraine, some young residents of the center of the country expressed similar moods. Having formed their own idea of history using new textbooks, they themselves did not notice how they broke away from their roots (after all, their ancestors fought against the Ukrainian nationalists) and became followers of the UPA ideas.
Now many of these people can be seen in the ranks of the "volunteer" nationalist battalions fighting in the east of the country. Some evidence suggests that in cruelty they are not inferior to their ideological predecessors.
But, nevertheless, even in the present conditions, when the heat of Russophobic propaganda is monstrously large, such people do not make up the majority even in the ranks of the warring security forces.
Looking through interviews with the Ukrainian military, one can quite often hear from their mouths the mention of the Great Patriotic War. Moreover, it is not in the Bandera interpretation of its events. Paradoxically, but fighting against people whose symbol is the Ribbon of St. George (symbol of victory in the Great Patriotic War), many of them, nevertheless, consider themselves the heirs of the glory and military traditions of the Red Army.
Probably, this state of affairs is explained by the fact that now in the Armed Forces of Ukraine there are a lot of people, aged for 30 (and even for 40), called up from the reserve. They learned history from Soviet books. In addition, this generation remembers veterans of the Second World War at a relatively young age much better and learned their stories very well. Personnel officers of the Ukrainian army were also brought up in Soviet military customs, and therefore, they hold (for the most part) the traditional view of the history of the Great Patriotic War.
It is obvious that all these people are fighting without much enthusiasm. All sorts of initiatives of the ruling regime, aimed at further promoting the glorification of the UPA and blackening the memory of the Red Army fighters, do not add to their morale. And given that the majority of such people in the army, official propaganda has to produce materials aimed specifically at them.
So there are reports of Ukrainian television, in which Vladimir Putin is compared with Hitler, and the militia of the DPR and the LPR - with the fascists. For all the absurdity of such comparisons, on the audience, fairly processed by propaganda, they act almost without fail.
In addition to the media, appealing to the theme of the Second World War, politicians are not shy in their speeches. So, Petro Poroshenko repeatedly in public speeches compared security officials fighting in the Donbass, with the soldiers of the Red Army who liberated Ukraine from the Nazis.
The goal of this propaganda, as we have said, is very clear - to bring to the cause of civil war the masses of the population, brought up on the example of veterans of the Great Patriotic War. So far, she has achieved this goal with varying success.
Why would not appeal the authorities, the majority of the country's male population openly ignores the "wave" of mobilization, one after another. Mostly illiterate and poor rural residents, who simply have nowhere to go from the subpoenas, get into the army. But even they gradually begin to resist “shaving into the soldiers” (we all remember the rallies against mobilization and the burned piles of mobilization prescriptions).
Despite the fact that the current authorities, in interpreting the history of the Second World War, took the position of “sitting on two chairs,” their actions, nevertheless, give a clear understanding of what will be staked in the future. In this respect, the celebration (if you can call it that) on May 9th in Kiev this spring was exemplary. Then, we recall, the Ukrainian authorities canceled all festive events, except for the laying of wreaths at the Eternal Flame. But they turned this event into some kind of farce. Along the entire route of those wishing to lay flowers to citizens, cordons of fighters of the National Guard were displayed. Then it was just formed, and many nationalists from the “Maidan” became its part. This created the impression that those wishing to honor the memory of Soviet soldiers are being escorted by Bandera followers.
The ruling regime adheres to the same line with regard to the celebration of current memorable dates. Shortly before October 28 (Liberation Day of Ukraine, as we remember), the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance turned to the leadership of the local media not to mention the phrase “the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi invaders” in their reports. This term was suggested by the management of the institution to be replaced by another - “the expulsion of the Nazi invaders from Ukraine”. And everything would be fine (after all, the meaning, it seems, is preserved), but ... Employees of the Institute of National Remembrance argued their request with the fact that, with the expulsion of the Nazis, Ukraine was not liberated, but only fell under another occupation. The real liberation of Ukraine occurred, in their opinion, in 1991, the year when it gained independence.
As it is not difficult to notice, this appeal of INPU to the mass media fully reflects the line on continuing to blacken the memory of the victory in the Great Patriotic War.
By the way, I ignored it, the editors of only one channel. This is the Inter channel. In its broadcast the holiday was called as before. Once upon a time, Inter had the glory of a pro-Russian television channel. Probably, his leadership decided, therefore, to improve the ratings, returning part of the previous audience.
On the eve of the Day of the liberation of Kiev, Ukrainian propagandists developed and launched a new video on television. His actions take place at the airport (as in one of the previous social advertisements). The plot is as follows: in the airport terminal, a fighter in the form of a “volunteer” battalion “Kiev-1” awaits registration (close-up patch), having seen him, one of the passengers sitting in the waiting room (elderly man) gets up from his seat and gives the soldier a military salute. The video is accompanied by a voice-over reading the text, like this: “Descendants thank you for defending our land then. We will not shame your memory. ” At the same time, in view of the fact that the old man stands in ordinary civilian clothes and without awards, it is completely incomprehensible who is meant by this image: whether the Soviet veteran, or the surviving fighter of the UPA.
And such doubleness in Ukraine is everywhere. The speeches of politicians and officials about the events of the war years can differ dramatically, depending on what audience they are designed for and on what day they are spoken. In the heads of ordinary citizens this causes confusion. There is a persistent feeling that some citizens will soon stop altogether distinguishing between the belligerents during the Second World War period.
Without a doubt, historical science cannot exist in isolation from social and political realities. But, when the official concept of the story, broadcast to the masses, changes, almost every day for the sake of propaganda needs, it surely leads the people into the arms of schizophrenia.
Summing up the article, I would like to draw a few conclusions.
Firstly: despite the systematic efforts to knock out the memory of the heroic feat of ancestors from the consciousness of Ukrainian citizens, they, for the most part, continue to honor the victory in the Great Patriotic War and give it tremendous importance in their picture of the world.
Secondly: seeing the fortress of memory of the events of the Great Patriotic War in the popular consciousness, the current ruling regime is trying in every possible way to use it for its own purposes. For this stamped various promotional products. Combining it with other Ukrainian propaganda motifs (aimed at the glorification of the UPA), ordinary people form in their minds a bizarre symbiosis of two incompatible ideas. Sooner or later, it will begin to affect their mental health.
And finally, thirdly: the saddest thing that follows from the foregoing is that as a result of the coup d'état in Ukraine and the wave of propaganda that followed, some descendants of the Nazi winners are harassed to kill other descendants of the Nazi winners. At the same time, the majority of the soldiers of the Ukrainian army simply do not give themselves an account of the fact that the real (neo) Nazis stand behind them and force them to go to senseless death. Real Nazis, through the lobby in the government, turned their children into their own kind. And they, alas, are not going to stop.
In these memorable days for Ukraine and its capital, I would like to wish the citizens of the unfortunate country to come to their senses from the propaganda fog and finally draw conclusions from history. Otherwise, it is doomed to repeat itself again and again.
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