Stepan Bandera | 17Oct2009 | Lubomyr Markevych
Intrigue over Stepan Bandera
[W.Z. In commenting on the following article
Russia seizes Stalin-era research
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8311335.stm
Lubomyr Markevych notes the parallels with the KGB/FSB actions on
Stepan Bandera:]
Happens in Ukraine as well. The SBU (the KGB's successor in Ukraine)
reported that various files relating to Stepan Bandera and the killing
of Roman Shukhevych and Volodymyr Ivasiuk were removed from its
archives and taken to Moscow. As recently as last week the SBU
announced that they had requested the FSB (the KGB's successor in
Russia) to make copies of the Bandera files and return the copies to
Ukraine for its historical records. The FSB refused.
In addition, annecdotal stories continue to circulate in Ukraine about
the KGB's removal and burning of files in 1991-92 near the town of
Irpin north of Kyiv and the removal of other files and shipping them by
rail to Moscow under armed guard. Former President Kravchuk neither
confirms nor denies these allegations which were made under his watch
and allegedly with his compliance. Yevhen Marchuk who was head of the
SBU at the time has never commented. However former KGB agents who
later swore allegiance to Ukraine are adamant that the above removals
took place. Other KGB agents who refused to take the oath to Ukraine
are now retired from the service, continue to reside in Ukraine but
won't comment.
In related developments, a groundbreaking collaborative first took
place with the SBU opening an exhibit this week dedicated to the 50th
anniversary of the assassination of Stepan Bandera and displaying
historical artifacts lent to it by the "Museum of Ukraine's Struggle
for Freedom", in London, England. See:
http://www.sbu.gov.ua/sbu/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=90074&cat_id=39574
This follows on the SBU's opening of an exhibit in Lutsk earlier this
month dedicated to the 67th anniversary of the creation of the UPA.
Among the exhibits are a large selection of documents, photos and
artifacts from SBU files, including an original UPA battle flag.
However the choice of Volyn for this exhibit comes as a surprise, at
least to me. While it was in Volyn and not Halychyna that the first
formations of UPA were conceived and saw action, it was also the region
where the most damning excesses of ethnic cleansing and murder of the
Polish civilian population took place. It is to Ukraine's and Poland's
credit that UPA's actions agaisnt Poles in Volyn and the Polish Armja
Krajowa's actions against Ukrainian civilians in Halychyna have been
recently confronted and are now the subject of collaborative scholastic
exploration by historians of both countries. In so doing both Poland
and Ukraine are trying to square their historical excesses against the
more important and bigger picture of why their respective insurgencies
came into existence in the first place. The article which follows does
not appear to address this issue however it would be unfortunate if the
exhibit in Lutsk did not do so as well. Failure to confront this matter
at every opportunity only serves to nourish Russia's pathological
UPA-phobia and allows it to exploit the issue at every divisive
opportunity, - even as the Poles and Ukrainians are attempting to move
on. See the article:
http://www.sbu.gov.ua/sbu/control/uk/publish/article?art_id=90043&cat_id=39574
LM
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[W.Z. Mr. Markevych earlier provided the following link to an article
in Life Magazine, 07Sep1962 on Bohdan Stashynsky, who assassinated
Stepan Bandera in Munich on 15Oct1959 and defected to U.S. officials in
West Berlin in 1961:]
Tomorrow October 15th, 2009 is the 50th anniversary of Stepan Bandera's
assassination in Munich, Germany at the hands of KGB assassin Bohdan
Stashinsky.
Some of you may remember the day and perhaps a few might even remember
that LIFE Magazine published an article on his assassination on the
third anniversary of his death(Sept 7, 1962). Through the modern wonder
of digitized archiving this article is now available on line at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=-k0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA72&dq=Bandera&as_pt=MAGAZINES#v=onepage&q=Bandera&f=false
(The article starts on page 70)
Many thanx to Bohdan Romaniuk for tracking it down for a new generation
of readers.