A man like what? Has somebody been listening to Russian propaganda?
Bandera is our José Martí or Simón Bolívar. He fought for national independence. It’s normal for people to celebrate their national heroes. Every nation-state has theirs and celebrates them. I’m not sure what specifically bothers you about this very normal behavior.
“listening to Russian propaganda?”
It has been very successful… even with people who like to imagine they’re immune to propaganda. In Poland, the name Bandera is now more or less synonymous with the Volhynia massacres and any positive mention of his name is taken as support for those. Of course he had no part in planning or carrying those campaigns out (since he was cooling his heels as a prisoner in a German concentration camp at the time) but believers want to believe and I’ve heard some baroque theories about his time being a prisoner being a diversion etc etc
One of my go to questions when people start throwing the word Banderite about is to ask what government did he make policy for? I also ask who killed more Polish people, him or Stalin, whom russians openly…. worship (is that the right word?).
The little I know of his ideas are not… appealing – he was a product of his time which was very, very brutal. I do get that he was a pioneer in spreading the idea of an independent Ukraine and it’s worth remembering that lots of countries have domestic heroes who are foreign villains and I’m pretty sure Ukrainians don’t much like Piłsudski or Dmowski…
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I sincerely wish the person who asked the question participated in the discussion and explained their objections to Bandera. I don’t consume Russian propaganda, so I don’t know what they associate with him.
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“ussian propaganda, so I don’t know what they associate with him”
I think the international message is more “Banderite” = nazi = doubleplus bad and asking questions is met with “what? are you a nazi too?”
More than once it seems the (usually USA) person has no clue who he was but RT or one of its shills informed him he was bad and that was enough…
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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