#5 From Nazi History to Civil War
How can we fight Nazism without saying 'Nazi'?
Are there Nazis in Ukraine? Does banning the term ‘Nazi’ make them irrelevant? How can we answer these questions and more without confronting them?
Faina Savenkova is a 13-year-old writer living in the Donbas. She is known, via limited media, for being targeted by the infamous and inappropriately named Ukrainian website, Mirotvorets (known in English as Peacekeeper). It’s allegedly an operation by the SBU (Secret Service of Ukraine) and is hosted in Belgium.
The personal details of Faina and her family were published when she was 12, labelling her an enemy of Ukraine, effectively intimidating a child.
Hundreds of journalists who entered the Donbas, trying to report the other side, are on it. The home addresses of journalists in Russia were uploaded. Roger Waters, the anti-war activist of Pink Floyd fame, was listed too.
Whereas Henry Kissinger and the presidents of Hungary and Croatia can scoff at their addition, the threat is visceral to Ukrainians as some have been assassinated. The Peacekeeper website records them as “LIQUIDATED”.
Savenkova complained to the United Nations. Russia has too, claiming 327 minors have been targeted.
I introduce Savenkova not for her bravery but for her definition of Nazism. In an interview, she was asked, “Americans don’t believe that there are Nazis in Ukraine. What would you say to them?”
She replied:
“Unfortunately, in America not many people know much about what happened in our country. Even the fact that we have had a war going on. Americans only learned about it in 2022, when the Russian operation in Ukraine began. The American media said that evil Putin attacked poor Ukraine. Of course, many believed it. True, the media forgot to mention that Ukraine has been killing civilians in Donbas for eight years. I don’t know what Nazism means to Americans. To me, it’s lack of freedom, prohibition to speak your mind, the worship of Bandera and Hitler, the shelling of peaceful cities, the killing of children. That’s Nazism. But I would probably suggest that these people come to Donetsk and Makeyevka and live there under the bombardment.”
Conspiracy Theorists Give Journalists and Activists a Bad Reputation
Uncovering conspiracies and propaganda is truth-seeking meant to protect our lives. Unfortunately, that gets muddy when journalists are sometimes publicists, and the reaction to them sometimes involves conspiracy theorists.
Before we get into the history of extremism in Ukraine, I want readers to compare the current news climate to the past, taking note that yesterday’s villains can be marketed as today’s heroes. War is suddenly babyish, reduced to Good versus Evil. Those who question the suddenly sainted can be labelled as conspiracy theorists, a dismissal that works well for those suffering from cognitive dissonance.
Google the following pre-invasion articles by major Western media and think-tanks.
Those articles, with self-explanatory titles, are:
Newsweek – ‘Ukraine Makes Birthday of Nazi Collaborator a National Holiday’
NBC – ‘U.S. cozies up to Kiev Government, including far right’
Huffingtonpost – ‘The Neo-Nazi question in Ukraine’
The Nation – ‘America’s collusion with Neo-Nazis’
Newsnight: ‘The Neo-Nazi Threat in New Ukraine’
Channel 4 – ‘Far-right group at heart of Ukraine protests meet US senator’
Channel 4 – ‘How the far-right took top posts in Ukraine’s power vacuum’
The Guardian – ‘Azov fighters are Ukraine's greatest weapon and may be its greatest threat’
Foreign Policy – ‘Yes, there are bad guys in the Ukrainian Government’
Atlantic Council – ‘Ukraine’s got a real problem with far-right violence (and no, RT didn’t write this headline)’
Introducing the Nazis
They're called ultra-conservatives, ultra-nationalists, the far right and neo-Nazis. The term most used during Russia's invasion is “Nazi”, so I'll just use that.
The General Public consider the issue to be propaganda, but facts are cloudier than expedient belief. It's an awful topic, made worse as cities become ruins and people are shot, crushed and exploded. But it's necessary because war should not be redefined into simplicity. War is evil, for the invaded and the invader’s citizens.
Nazis have a glaring position in Ukraine’s history. And Maidan, in 2014, gave them clout. Since then, their power has seemed to diminish, and their public policies have moderated, but I find it difficult to believe that the heart of a beast can change in only 8 years, especially during war which breeds hate.
However, does it matter in the fog of war? If I were under attack, would I moralise who was fighting alongside me, or holding the guns protecting me? But I’m here to present facts, not philosophise.
I’m not clambering into Putin's motives yet. He’ll get his own essay. For now, the broad strokes are his aim to protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians, strengthen Russia’s border, re-affirm Russia as a superpower, and damage globalisation. His use of the "Nazi" description is a tool, irrespective of truth, because it's emotive.
This chapter is not about the tool, only the truth.
Whilst the West forgets history except to recast it in their favour, it's stubborn for many Europeans. Rambo-type movies may pay no attention but Russians care about their almost 27 million comrades and family members who died in World War 2. They care about the Nazism that killed them. Contrary to appearances, Israel doesn’t have a monopoly.
Additionally, there are many groups interested in antisemitism, but Putin has failed to gain their support. Instead, they’re supporting those he claims to be Nazis. It’s a confusing situation.
Unlike patriotic or fearful Russian Media, Western Media is ambiguous. It's doing its best to whitewash Ukraine's Nazi links, beating Russian propaganda with their own. But their internet history isn't easily erased so I'll begin there before addressing the current war.
Jews Are Buried in Ukraine
“Anyone who is found will be thrust through, and anyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted, and their wives violated." (Isaiah 13 verses 15-16)
Ukraine has a thousand-year history of Jews being killed on its land. An example is the 33,771 that were massacred over 2 days in 1941, at the Babi Yar ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv, the capital. The Germans did the shooting which was enabled by Ukrainian collaborators.
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) went on to support the SS in the slaughter of 200,000 Jews in the province of Volhynia which currently borders Poland and Belarus. The OUN may have played a smaller role at that stage but what they learned would be applied to ethnic cleansing of Poles, 1943-1945.
One of the greatest World War 2 movies, as disturbing as '120 Days of Sodom', is 'Hatred'. The Polish title is 'Wolyn', and the Ukrainian is 'Volhynia'. It was released in 2016, praised for being historically accurate yet illiberally banned by the Ukrainian government which seeks to be part of a liberal Europe.
The only Ukrainian politician that supported its release was Nadiya Savchenko who had, not long before, being released as a Russian prisoner-of-war. Interestingly, she supported neither the pro-West nor pro-Putin political forces in her country. She intended running for President in 2019 (which was when Lukashenko won). Instead, she was arrested as a terrorist, possibly victim of a secret service plot, and then released without prosecution once her political career had been shredded.
It's possible that unlike Germany's admirable addressing of its past atrocities, which included many great movies, Ukraine wouldn't do so because of the far-right's power in their country. I'll return to that topic after more about the movie and that oxymoronic term 'ethnic cleansing'.
'Hatred' relates the Ukrainian torture and slaughter of Jewish and Catholic Poles. That included beheading, disembowelment, dismemberment, crucifixion, gang rape, and the burning alive of mostly children, women and old men. As described on wiki, "babies were impaled on bayonets and pitchforks, or bashed against trees." An estimated 40,000 to 60,000 died. It was very Old Testament, very Hebrew Bible, but in reverse.
I’m not tarring all Ukrainians. Many were killed for trying to save their Polish friends, or for not sharing the fervent nationalism of the killers, the OUN, and its paramilitary wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
Any argument along the lines that WW2 was a long time ago and that times have reformed is diluted in relation to Ukraine because it has never stood on its feet. Failed states fail to escape their history. My South Africa is the same - corruption and assassination is in our DNA.
OUN and the CIA
From 1944, the leadership of OUN, which included Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko, had a relationship with British, German and US intelligence forces. I'm going to profusely extract from a brilliant article by Evan Reif that appeared in Covert Action Magazine. I recommend you click the link because there’s much more in the full article.
"Spirited away to Munich, their Western patrons provided them luxury apartments and SS bodyguards. In the immediate aftermath of Nazi Germany’s defeat, many of OUN’s soldiers worked as hitmen in the vast network of 'displaced persons' camps under the command of MI6.
It was the British and Germans who were the primary patrons of the old OUN at this moment. Notorious Nazi spymaster Reinhard Gehlen was not just the handler for Stetsko and Bandera, but also their friend. They met while the OUN was fighting for the Nazis and remained friends for the rest of their lives...
The CIA covertly provided arms, training and support for operations within the USSR itself where many nationalist forces continued to fight against the Red Army as partisans.
The nationalist forces in Ukraine were an amalgamation of SS remnants, OUN/UPA forces, criminals, and various other collaborator militias. Confined mostly to the forests of western Ukraine, they operated as bandits, raiding collective farms, ambushing soldiers, and assassinating Soviet officials. Jews and CPSU members were particularly coveted targets...
Fighting continued until the mid-1950s, with the last stragglers killed or arrested in 1960. The death toll for these operations is unclear, with estimates ranging from 20-50,000. The vast majority of these were civilians, often killed with axes and hammers - which was the OUN’s trademark. The OUN claims that it was NKVD infiltrators in OUN uniforms who killed the civilians. Declassified KGB documents, however, have proven that was not the case..."
The KGB eventually assassinated Bandera.
Stetsko, who also believed in the ethnic cleansing of Jews and Russians from Ukraine, would have a much longer relationship with the CIA. He even met President Reagan and then Vice-President George W. Bush.
After Stetsko died in 1986, his wife, Slava Stetsko, continued in his footsteps, eventually starting the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (CUN) which won seats in the Ukrainian government.
The Modern Far-Right
The Media would have us believe that Putin is a liar about Nazis because President Zelensky is a Jew. But Zelensky’s Jewishness was doubted when he took office and only became a feature when Russia invaded.
Zelensky is a handicapped President who made promises he couldn't keep because Ukraine is cavernously corrupt and the far right, although a minority, is more powerful than him.
Dimitri Lascaris, a Greek journalist and lawyer, correctly points out that Ukraine is a right-wing government. What should’ve been obvious has been whitewashed by Washington’s repeated justification for their military spending, their continuing ‘immaculate’ defence of global democracy.
It's well documented that the far-right has gained popularity the past decade, in Europe and the U.S. Europe’s most racist and xenophobic countries are in its eastern and south-eastern regions. It has a special place in Ukraine's politics and on the Eastern battle front with Russia.
Quoting from the wiki page for OUN:
"A number of contemporary far-right Ukrainian political organizations claim to be inheritors of the OUN's political traditions, including Svoboda, Right Sector, the Ukrainian National Assembly, Ukrainian National Self Defence, and the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists."
Erected in 2007, the Bandera monument is a controversial feature in Ukraine’s capital. President Zelensky won’t denounce Bandera. In an interview, he skirted the issue:
“There are indisputable heroes. Stepan Bandera is a hero for a certain part of Ukrainians, and this is a normal and cool thing. He was one of those who defended the freedom of Ukraine. But I think that when we name so many streets, bridges by the same name, this is not quite right."
In 2010, Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko posthumously awarded Stepan Bandera the title of Hero of Ukraine. After an international outcry, the award was annulled the following year on the technicality of Bandera having been born in Hungary. However, the right-wing still considers Bandera to be a hero, and foreign pressure isn't the same as local choice.
However, foreign pressure isn't the same as local choice. In 2018, Ukraine commemorated Bandera by declaring January 1 a Public holiday. In Western Ukraine, the leadership of the Lviv region unanimously pronounced 2019 to be the year of Bandera and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
Andriy Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, 2014-2022, is an admirer of Bandera. A video interview with Melnyk was a mini-PR disaster for Ukraine.
In 2019, Spanish soccer fans called Roman Zolzulya, a Ukrainian forward, a Nazi. Zolzulya had, in a photo, compared his likeness to Bandera and shown social media support for right-wings Azov Battalion and White Boys. President Zelensky defended Zolzulya, calling him a “true patriot”.
The same year, the few surviving OUN soldiers were granted the status of veterans which arrived with state benefits. The main petitioner was the Veterans Movement of Ukraine, an organisation co-founded by the Azov Battalion.
What is Azoz? I’m getting to that.
The Civil War in Donbas Began in 2014
Ukraine and Russia share a long and turbulent history. The Orange Revolution of 2004/05 saw the defeat of the pro-Russian candidate, Viktor Yanukovich. He in turn won the next election in 2010, only to be driven from power in the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013/14. That began after he refused to sign a closer cooperation agreement with the EU. He fled to Russia, which refused to recognise the new Ukrainian government. To understand what caused and happened during Maidan, you must watch two polar opposite documentaries, excellent in their own right.
The first, ‘Winter on Fire, Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom’ (2015), is in my top 20, and I’ve watched thousands. It was nominated for an Oscar and distributed by Netflix. Its major fault is not showing how Ukrainian citizens were manipulated into revolution, serving corruption against another corruption rather than for themselves. That’s argument for propaganda but is overshadowed by the emotional on-the-ground footage showing extraordinary bravery of those same citizens. I fell in love with them. Their determination propelled my interest in their country.
Its counterpart, ‘Ukraine on Fire’, was released the following year. With some protestors labelled as Nazis, it was unsurprisingly less distributed. Nevertheless, with Oliver Stone as the narrator and interviewer, it’s an underground cornerstone. It clearly proves manipulation and includes footage of U.S. politicians addressing the Maidan crowd. The Media brainwashed the West into thinking that was normal, but it wasn’t remotely. Just imagine if Russian politicians had stood with the American crowd that attacked their Capitol in 2021. Then consider how many U.S. and European politicians have been visiting Ukraine during the current war. It’s not fucking normal. Sometimes all it takes is one good whataboutism for perspective and fairness to change bias.
‘Ukraine on Fire’ explains the role of foreign funding in Maidan, and the likely false flag, neo-Nazi operation that turned a peaceful protest into a ‘revolution’.
Not all locals were duped. Journalists noted the presence of the Nazi’s, particularly the homophobic, anti-Semitic, Right Sector men of Dmitro Yarosh who had been trained by NATO earlier that year. It was clear to all when several men considered to be Nazis were elected to the Ukrainian government. This included Yarosh as well as Andriy Biletsky and Oleh Petrenko, former leaders of the Azov Battalion.
Yarosh was prophetic when interviewed by Newsweek who cited him as a major reason for Euromaidan’s success.
“I am sure that if Russians bombed Kiev - and we believe there is 50/50 chance that will happen - NATO will not come to fight for Ukraine. Europe has betrayed Ukraine many times. We are not counting on them. We can only count on our own forces and our ingenuity.”
A big reason for Zelensky’s election as president in 2019 was because he promised to be a peacemaker. Did he, instead, become a version of weak Symon Petliura?
The ‘strong’ and terrible version of Symon Petliura is that he was a Ukrainian nationalist whose troops murdered 50,000-200,000 Jews after the end of World War 1. Ukraine illiberally banned ‘Book of Thieves’, the massive bestseller, for detailing Petliura’s actions.
The weak (and still terrible) version of Petliura is that he was too afraid to punish the extremists, thus emboldening them. If true, history smells in repeat. This time, it’s Zelensky whose too afraid to pursue peace. He may not be antisemitic but he’s failed to stand up for his persecuted countrymen. That includes the 15,000 dead during the civil war, 2014-2022, and the 100,000 or more dead in 2022.
Azov allegedly created the 'No Capitulation' movement and recorded his face-to-face humiliation on the front line of the civil war - Zelensky was threatened and slandered by parliamentarians and on social media. Zelensky swapped his promise for a U-turn.
In 2021, Yarosh was appointed by Zelensky as advisor to the Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Yarosh reorganized the Nazi-tarred forces and launched a large attack on the Donbas in early 2022.
Few Media gave credit to that battle and the unending conflict being a major reason why Putin invaded earlier this year. Nor that Putin was familiar with Yarosh who was accused of organising Islamist and European radicals into units fighting the “jihad” in Chechnya against Russia.
Ultra-Nationalism Led to War
Ultra-nationalism, supported by Nazi groups, is partly responsible for the Russian occupation of Crimea, the civil war that began in 2014, and the current Russian/Ukrainian War.
After the Maidan Revolution, the new Ukrainian government began eradicating minority language rights, in effect, mostly Russian language rights. That despite a poll, 2 years earlier, finding that 29% of Ukrainians identified Russian as their main language, and 20% identified both Russian and Ukrainian as their native languages.
Millions were affected but there was no outrage nor action from the West.
But Putin responded to Maidan, occupying Crimea on 27 February 2014. A referendum was held, with the majority Russian ethnic population overwhelmingly voting to re-join Russia as a federal state. That union was fulfilled on 16 March.
Former U.S. Senator, Bill Bradley, stated that:
"The U.S. actions in Kosovo - carving out an independent state based on ethnicity from within a sovereign nation - provided the precedent for Russia to carve Crimea out of Ukraine."
The following month, in the Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine region of Donbas, Donetsk and Luhansk announced that they would be holding referendums to determine their future. Preceding polls found that most wanted to be a federal state of Ukraine and not independent. But right-wing violence against Russian-speaking people in Odessa and Mariupol overwhelmingly moved them towards separation.
The Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic declared independence, to protect their language and as objection to Nazi’s in government. A war of insurgency began, and then battle lines were drawn. It became a civil war.
Suspiciously, the West wasn’t interested in peace. It never enforced the Minsk I and II treaties that were signed in 2014 and 2015. Those treaties were designed to protect the autonomy of Russian-speaking dissidents in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine was allowed to dishonour them.
In 2017, new Ukrainian laws banned books imported from Russia (the majority of the market) and made Ukrainian a 75% quota for television content. Ukrainian became the main language for University study, notably a few European languages, but not Russian, were made exceptions for a few subjects.
The Washington Times described the worsening situation:
“Since 2017, new laws on education and the state language severely restrict ethnic minorities in using and studying in their native language.
As of July 1, 2021, a new law limits the definition of ‘indigenous’ minorities. The law not only contravenes common sense but is also highly discriminatory. While certain indigenous peoples are recognized, the Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians and Poles - and of course, the Russians – are not recognized, and nor are their language rights.
The current draft Law on National Communities, too, is built upon vague concepts that limit rather than protect existing rights. Instead of ‘minorities,’ it talks about ‘communities’ – an apparent bid to evade Ukraine’s existing commitments to internationally recognized minority rights instruments.”
Jacques Baud, a former Policy Chief for UN Peace Operations, likened Ukraine’s actions to the Swiss deciding that Italian and French were no longer official languages. He’s backed by a 2018 Atlantic Council article stating that whilst “68 percent of Ukrainians consider Ukrainian their mother tongue, only 50 percent speak it at home, and only 39 percent use it at work” and that television content is “mostly in Russian.”
One week before, Putin recognised the breakaway republics. Russian separatists had controlled one-third of the Donbas. By June 2022, most was captured. That’s the awful consequence of Donbas’ human rights and its 15,000 civil war dead being ignored.
It's this eight-year-old conflict in the Donbas that Putin alleges Nazi-like treatment of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. More than the others, he blames the Azov Battalion which cannot be detailed before introducing Andriy Biletsky.
I do that in ‘Nazi’s are Convenient’, essay #6 in the series ‘ Putin Isn’t the Only Monster in Ukraine’. I dig deeper into hate in Ukraine and its Western supporters.