25 March 2010

Viktor Yushchenko, the third President of Ukraine and the leader of Our Ukraine, has written a letter to Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, in connection with the awarding of the title of “Hero of Ukraine” to Stepan Bandera. “Ukrainians should convey the truth to Europe and the rest of the international community about those who fought for our liberation,” his letter states.

The return to Europe is one of the fundamental principles of the Ukrainian national idea. Ukraine’s integration into Euro-Atlantic structures is a development strategy that will be implemented regardless of the change in the country’s political leadership. This is a difficult path: in order to traverse it, the support of our European partners is crucial. That is why we in Ukraine enthusiastically welcome the declarations made by European structures, in which the aspirations of our state find support. One such declaration was the resolution passed by the European Parliament on February 25 of this year [2010]. As a president who directed all his efforts at strengthening [Ukraine’s] integration into Europe, I thank you for recognizing that Ukraine is a European country and can lay claim to joining the European Union. In addition, as a state president who sought to unite the nation on the basis of its truly heroic and tragic history, and as a politician who will continue this work, I cannot refrain from expressing my astonishment concerning the article in the resolution that expresses profound regret in connection with the awarding of the title of “Hero of Ukraine” to Stepan Bandera.

My decision was not a haphazard one. It was based on the scholarly findings of historians and archival researchers. This decision was a manifestation of giving due respect to an individual whose activities led unequivocally to the restoration of the independent Ukrainian state. Stepan Bandera’s active participation in the Ukrainian liberation movement cost him many years of imprisonment and, ultimately, his life. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, of which he was the leader, proclaimed the restoration of the Ukrainian state with the Act of June 30, 1941. Despite German pressure, Stepan Bandera’s refusal to rescind the Act resulted in his imprisonment in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he remained for nearly the entire duration of the war. Meanwhile, in late 1941 the Ukrainian liberation movement, which began to be called “Banderite” in the documents of the occupying regime, launched an active anti-Nazi struggle, thereby facilitating the victory of European democratic values over totalitarianism. Bandera’s entire family fell victim to totalitarian regimes: his father, the Rev. Andriy Bandera, was shot by the Soviets in 1941 and buried in the notorious Bykivnia Forest near Kyiv; his brothers Oleksandr and Vasyl were murdered in the Nazi death mill known as Auschwitz; and his sisters Oksana, Marta, and Volodymyra were imprisoned for many years in Soviet labor camps in Siberia. After the war, Stepan Bandera resumed his political work, which was aimed at achieving independence for Ukraine, and for that reason, as a dangerous enemy of the Soviet regime, he was murdered by a KGB assassin in 1959. Already during his lifetime, Bandera had become a symbol of the liberation struggle both to millions of Ukrainians and to those who sought to erect obstacles on our journey to freedom. They tried to strip our nation, which had existed for hundreds of years without its own state, of its own history. Certain individuals and even entire periods of our past were either passed over in silence or presented in a completely distorted fashion. National figures who made the greatest contribution to the struggle for the liberation of our people—Ivan Mazepa, Symon Petliura, and Stepan Bandera—were portrayed as traitors. Only recently has systematic work begun to restore the national memory of Ukrainians, the return of the truth about our past.

Mr. Buzek! As a representative of the Polish people, you should be particularly mindful of these processes. After all, your state also experienced a painful but entirely crucial period of re-examining the past and forming its own view of Polish history. In order to do this, the Poles had to break the silence surrounding Katyn, the lies about the Warsaw Uprising, and the heroic resistance of the soldiers of the Armia Krajowa. The histories of our two peoples are extraordinarily similar. Yet they have not been without conflicts and opposition. Therefore, certain pages of our past or its historical figures will continue to be perceived differently by Ukrainians and Poles. Owing to their actions, Polish heroes often do not fit our vision of history; they are, instead, its antiheroes, and the same goes for Ukrainian heroes. Reaching an understanding concerning assessments of the Armia Krajowa or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) should not be based on the fact that Poles killed Ukrainians and Ukrainians killed Poles (this must not be forgotten, and both sides should pay due respect to all victims of this conflict). Understanding should be based on the fact that both of these military formations bravely resisted totalitarian regimes and fought for the national liberation of their peoples. The restoration of the truth about the past, no matter how painful it was, is a guarantee of democratic development in the future. Work in this direction means putting into practice genuine European values. Therefore, we will continue this work. We Ukrainians should convey the truth to Europe and the rest of the international community about those who fought for our liberation. The truth about the UPA, which fought under the slogans of “Freedom for nations!” “Freedom for the individual!” should occupy a place of honor in Europe’s history of resisting Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism.

I am hopeful of your understanding of the importance of this work and your continuing support for Ukraine’s European integration.

Respectfully,

 

Viktor Yushchenko