COMPARATIVE APPROACHES TO THE BANDERIVETS PROPAGANDA IN WESTERN UKRAINE AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA AFTER 1945
Abstract
Activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the so called Banderivets, belong to the most controversial topics of modern history dealing with Ukraine and the Soviet Union (Russia). While Soviet (Russian) historiography portrays their struggle for independent Ukraine in very negative terms (bourgeois nationalists, Fascists, Nazis, pogromchiks etc.) many Ukrainians (but not all) perceive them as heroes.
It rises a number of myths and questions concerning their political aims, means of their struggle, causes of their radicalism etc. Interpretation of their aims and activities has been influenced by propaganda, a number of half-truths, emphasizing some deeds and concealing others on both sides.
This study focus on comparison of anti-Soviet propaganda of the OUN/UPA in Western Ukraine and propagandist raids to Czechoslovakia in times of complicated political circumstances of border changes in neighbouring Eastern Poland where Banderivets disposed of important bases. With help of Ukrainian and Czechoslovak archival materials the study discuss how Banderivets portrayed themselves in Western Ukraine and Czechoslovakia.