Stepan Bandera
Stepan Bandera | |
|---|---|
Степан Бандера | |
 Bandera, c. 1934 | |
| Leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (Banderite) | |
| In office 10 February 1940 – 15 October 1959 | |
| Preceded by | Position established (Andriy Melnyk as leader of the OUN) |
| Succeeded by | Stepan Lenkavskyi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 January 1909 |
| Died | 15 October 1959 (aged 50) Munich, Bavaria, West Germany |
| Cause of death | Assassination by cyanide gas |
| Resting place | Munich Waldfriedhof |
| Spouse | Yaroslava Bandera |
| Relations |
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| Children | 3 |
| Parents |
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| Education | Lviv Polytechnic |
Awards | Hero of Ukraine (annulled) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Part of a series on |
| Ukrainian nationalism |
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Stepan Andriiovych Bandera (1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical militant faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B.
Bandera was born into the family of a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest in the Austro-Hungarian region of Galicia, which after World War I became part of Poland. Involved in nationalist organisations from a young age, he joined the Ukrainian Military Organisation in 1924. In 1931, he became head of propaganda of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), and later became head of the OUN for Poland in 1932. In 1934, he organised the assassination of the Polish interior minister, Bronisław Pieracki, for which he was sentenced to death for terrorism, subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.
During the invasion of Poland in 1939, Bandera left custody amidst the turmoil, moving on to Kraków. In 1940, the OUN split into two factions with Bandera leading the more radical faction, the OUN-B, in opposition to the OUN-M. Bandera's OUN-B was devoted to the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state, envisioned as a one-party fascist dictatorship free of national minorities. On 22 June 1941, the day that Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Bandera formed the Ukrainian National Committee. Its head, Yaroslav Stetsko, announced the creation of a Ukrainian state on 30 June 1941, in German-captured Lviv. The proclamation pledged to work with Nazi Germany. Germany disapproved of the proclamation and, for his refusal to rescind it, Bandera was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in January 1942. The Germans released him in September 1944, in the hope that he could fight the Soviet advance. In March 1945, Bandera negotiated with the Nazis to create the Ukrainian National Army and the Ukrainian National Committee. After the war, Bandera settled with his family in West Germany, where, in 1959, he was assassinated by Bohdan Stashynsky, a KGB agent in Munich.
Bandera remains a highly controversial figure in the region. Many Ukrainians, particularly in the Western regions that were annexed by the Soviet Union during WW2, hail him as a martyred liberation fighter, or even as a heroic role model, whereas other Ukrainians, particularly in the South and East, condemn him as a fascist, or Nazi collaborator, whose followers, called Banderites, were responsible for massacres of Polish and Jewish civilians during World War II. In the post-war Soviet Union, "Banderite" became a common slur for any Ukrainian nationalist, regardless of their individual attitude to Bandera. This usage persists to this day in neighbouring Russia under Vladimir Putin. On 22 January 2010, Viktor Yushchenko, the president of Ukraine, awarded Bandera the posthumous title of Hero of Ukraine, which was internationally condemned. The award was annulled in 2011 under Yushchenko's successor Yanukovych. Bandera's controversial legacy gained further prominence following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A nationwide opinion poll from April 2022 shows Bandera's popularity to have increased threefold since 2012, with 3 out of 4 Ukrainians (74%) saying they viewed him positively (up from 24% in 2012), an attitude now prevailing in all regions, including among Russian speakers.