Stepan Bandera

Ukrainian anti-communist

Stepan Andriyovych Bandera (Ukrainian: ?????´? ?????´????? ?????´??, romanized: Stepán Andríyovych Bandéra, IPA: [ste'p?n ?n'd???r???ijo??t?? b?n'd?r?];

Polish: Stepan Andrijowycz Bandera; 1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical, terrorist wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists named OUN-B.

Bandera was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Galicia, into the family of a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Involved in nationalist organizations from a young age, Bandera was sentenced to death for his involvement in the 1934 assassination of Poland's Minister of the Interior Bronislaw Pieracki, commuted to life imprisonment.

Freed from prison in 1939 following the invasion of Poland, Bandera prepared the 30 June 1941 Proclamation of Ukrainian statehood in Lviv, pledging to work with Germany after Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.

The Germans disaproved the proclamation and for his refusal to rescind the decree, Bandera was arrested by the Gestapo. After the war, Bandera settled with his family in West Germany, where he remained the leader of the OUN-B and worked with several anti-communist organizations such as the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations as well as with the US and British intelligence agencies.

Fourteen years after the end of the war, Bandera was assassinated in 1959 by KGB agents in Munich, West Germany. Bandera remains a highly controversial figure in Ukraine, with many Ukrainians hailing him as a role model hero, martyred liberation fighter, while other Ukrainians, particularly in the south and east, condemn him as a fascist Nazi collaborator who was, together with his followers, responsible for the massacres of Polish and Jewish civilians.

On 22 January 2010, the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, awarded Bandera the posthumous title of Hero of Ukraine. The European Parliament condemned the award, as did Russia, Poland and Jewish politicians and organizations.

President Viktor Yanukovych declared the award illegal, since Bandera was never a citizen of Ukraine, a stipulation necessary for getting the award.

This announcement was confirmed by a court decision in April 2010. In January 2011, the award was officially annulled. A proposal to confer the award on Bandera was rejected by the Ukrainian parliament in August 2019.