STEPAN BANDERA, AN EXAMPLE OF RUSSIAN VICTIM BLAMING

by Cemil Kerimoglu

Yesterday was the birthday of Ukrainian hero Stepan Bandera, the fighter for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union during WWII.

If his name evokes any negative connotations in your mind, this might be because of the manipulative Russian narratives. Russians know very well how to craft narratives and which buttons to push to affect the sensibilities of the western public. They use the hackneyed scare word "Nazi" to demonize the national identities of their victims and their yearning for freedom from Russian rule. In exactly the same way that in contemporary western societies the anti-white Left uses this scare word to cow their opponents into silence and to stigmatize any manifestation of pride and identity in European peoples.

For many decades, since the end of WWII, Russians have used the "Nazi" label to stigmatize the national identities of Estonians, Latvians, Ukrainians and others. All because they chose to fight on the German side against Russian invaders. For most Eastern European nations, Russian invasion and subsequent occupation was orders of magnitude more barbaric, harsh and brutal than German rule. This is a fact. Moreover, a civilized cultured nation like the Germans was obviously closer to them in every imaginable way than the Russians who were coming to kill, plunder, rape and torture them in the most bestial way. Therefore there was nothing morally wrong for Ukrainian, Estonian, and Latvian freedom fighters to ally with Germans against the Russians out of expediency. They didn't know what crimes the Nazis were committing against others, and, this is important to emphasize, had they even known it, they were in no way morally obliged to take that into consideration in their own decision making process.

It's also noteworthy that in the West, the very people who complain about being stigmatized as "Nazis" (i.e., the intellectual movements that can be grouped under the umbrella term "Dissident Right" for lack of a better word) and call out the Left for using this insult indiscriminately, were the first ones to jump onto the Bandera-bashing bandwagon and vilifying Ukrainian patriots as "Nazis". For some reason, with regards to Ukrainians they let go of the moral scruples which they demand be applied to them. At best, this is simply stupid. At worst utterly hypocritical and despicable.

Stepan Bandera was a hero. He strove for independence of the Ukrainian nation. And this is the thing that matters most, by a wide margin, for judging his legacy. It's only natural and laudable that a lot of Ukrainians find inspiration in him. Always remember that Russians, not only kill, rape, torture and plunder but also vilify and put the blame on their victims. This is a very Russian way of doing things, which everyone must be aware of.

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