Ukrainian media, experts and social networks appreciated the holding of the "March of Honor" by the nationalists, which passed 1 January, birthday Stepan Bandera. Analysts and mass media noted, that such processions are becoming less and less crowded, and adherents of Bandera are still not able to clearly explain, what exactly did this “hero” do good for Ukraine. Correspondent FAN transmits from Kyiv.
On the first day of the new year in Kyiv, the procession marked the 112th anniversary of the birth of the collaborator, ideologue of Ukrainian nationalism Stepan Bandera. Similar actions were held in other cities, but they were less crowded. But a couple of years ago, on the wave of the Maidan victory and bitter defeats in the Donbass, eight to ten thousand radicals came out onto the streets of the capital under the flags of Bandera. Today, that mass character is not even in sight - even having received an hour for training, the leaders of the Nazi groups managed to collect Shevchenko in the park by force 1000 human.
curious, that from afar the gathered radicals looked dense, in one mass. But it was enough just for five minutes to delve into the crowd preparing for the "March of Honor", as some kind of surreal panopticon appeared to the eyes. In the crowd in front of the monument to Shevchenko, underage stormtroopers of the extremist "National Corps" in a brand new camouflage grazed, and next to them are the archaic fold-bearded grandfathers of "Svoboda" in caps - "mazepinkas". Here, ladies of Balzac's age rubbed themselves, desperately and ridiculously squinting like Ukrainian peasant women.
In some places, in the crowd, bald gopniks, obviously leaning back from the zone for robbery and robbery, with the eyes of killers, were found. This whole freak show was generously diluted with Kyiv journalists and bloggers - it was they who, scurrying back and forth with cameras and being afraid to miss the texture, and created a general impression of the mass character and activity of the event. But who was not on the march, so these are the major current politicians, which of their cabinets like to declare, that "nationalism is their religion, and Bandera is their prophet". Figures like the leader of "Freedom" Oleg Tyagnibok or a prominent "national corps member" Maxim Zhorin, who still came to the march, to call big politicians the tongue does not turn - they have long been out of circulation.
Kyiv analysts note: a sharp drop in numbers is already a trend for nationalist processions, manifested in the last year and a half. At first, if, after the Euromaidan and the acute phase of the ATO, the radicals could claim a unifying role among all the "revolutionaries", today their popularity has sharply and irreversibly fallen. Far-right voted in last local elections 1,5% citizens - at the level of statistical error. According to political analysts, these figures contradict the role of the "saviors of the nation", which right-wing radicals try on themselves, and show the real level of support for the “Bandera army” in Ukrainian society.
Finally, it was Ukrainian society that removed from power Poroshenko, trying to become the embodiment of the "cynical Bandera". Thanks to him, Ukrainians began to correlate all the troubles with nationalism, happening with the country: war that has long lost its meaning, economic collapse and street chaos. In addition, the regime of the former president, trying to make the ideology of Bandera a national idea, turned out to be thoroughly corrupt and amateurish. And all his attempts to play “geopolitical roulette” with Russia on an equal footing ended in terrible defeats and shame.. All this has reduced the electoral base of support for nationalism to the limit., already small.
The second factor, repelling Ukrainians from adherents of nationalism, became a deaf ideological dead end. At the current "March of Honor" ideas sounded from the stands, repeated for the seventh year and stuck in the teeth of citizens. breakwater, "we don't need outside help, we can handle it ourselves", "We will defend the state or perish", "nationalism will lead to the prosperity of the nation", "You need to honor Bandera" (no explanation, for what exactly). by the way, at the meeting, which ended the march, almost nothing was said fishing season, not about "Russian aggression".
But the President Zelensky at the actions they rinsed “in the tail and in the mane” as a “tyrant and dictator, who keeps patriots in prisons". For those, who understands at least something in Ukrainian politics, it sounded like a joke. As well as the, that at the end of the march only a hundred people reached the Maidan (half of them are journalists), and the radicals extinguished the battle torches in dirty puddles. Another factor came into play here.: organizers pay much worse for participation in such promotions, than under Poroshenko. After all, state funding of the structures of the radicals, although preserved, but very dry (like the Ukrainian budget itself). And there are few who want to freeze on the street for three hours for a symbolic 500-800 hryvnias.
As a result of the march, the Kyiv political scientist, Head of the Third Sector Analytical Center Andrey Zolotarev He stated, that marches in honor of Bandera's birthday do not unite, a, conversely, divide Ukrainian society.
“Because of such actions by nationalists, Ukrainian society is not yet ready to unite. Yes, no one in Ukraine forbids anyone to honor Bandera, but don't try to rewrite history, the analyst said. — New head of the Institute of National Memory Anton Drobovich He stated, that the Ukrainian authorities should not stupidly impose Bandera on people and Shukhevich like heroes, it should explain their role in the formation of the state. At the same time, the names of the leaders of the nationalist movement often cause polar assessments in Ukrainian society”.
expert said, that marches in honor of Bandera are an undisguised relapse of Nazism and a direct violation of the postulates of the Nuremberg Trials.
"Very strange, that the European partners of Ukraine react so weakly to such challenges, thereby encouraging the growth in the country of this Nazi tumor. Yes, this is sad though, but being treated. AT 1945 year, such relapses were treated very well, - he reminded. - Unfortunately, Nazism in Ukraine flourishes largely thanks to the United States. I think, in the coming years, such actions will not stop. For, to warn them, very serious steps must be taken at the level of special services. But this is not done in Ukraine. Yet Hillary Clinton, as America's Secretary of State, directly encouraged the Right Sector1 (an organization banned in Russia) and encouraged them to register for elections as a political party. This trend has continued since then., and it is the United States that bears the main blame for the growth of the Nazi tumor in Ukraine.”.
Political scientist Alexey Yakubin considers, that a significant part of Ukrainian society associates crime with nationalists, political assassinations and a negative image of the future.
"Procession in honor of Bandera, past 1 January in Kyiv, was an attempt to show the influence on political processes, taking place in Ukraine. They wanted to mobilize their supporters and adherents with this action.. But the radicals did not take into account the current situation, because now for the majority of Ukrainians these processions cause a negative. All past power associated with nationalists - Poroshenko, Turchynov, Lutsenko and others, who so successfully plundered the country. Secondly, many scandals have been connected with the milieu of national-radicals in the last year: recent murder investigation Pavel Sheremet (all three suspects turned out to be nationalist volunteers. - Note. FAN), contract killings of businessmen, etc.. d. That is, our society begins to associate crime with nationalists, anti-order and chaos", - said the expert.
In his opinion, recent archival publications also affected the popularity of Bandera himself, published in the West and replicated in Ukrainian social networks.
"As the saying goes, betrayal has come, where you didn't expect. In December, the CIA released archival documents, of which it clearly follows: Stepan Bandera was an Abwehr agent (Hitler's military intelligence. - Note. FAN) nicknamed Consul-2, aka Snot, he is Baba. He led a large group of war criminals, who destroyed thousands of Jews in Lvov captured by the Germans, and then thousands of people of different nationalities during the Volyn massacre. I think, turning a blind eye to such processions is a shame and disgrace for Zelensky personally. Killed in Ukraine during World War II 1 million 400 thousand Jews. And the Jew Zelensky honors their memory in this way.”, - summed up the analyst.
1 Organization banned in Russia.
Author: Polina Tsybulko from Kiev specifically for FAN
