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Anti-Communist Ukrainian Nationalists Joined Nazis

Part One and Part Two of this series have exposed the falsehoods in a

recent film and book about the collectivization of agriculture in theSoviet Union during the early 1930s. This article and next (Part Threeand Part Four will discuss who the liars are and what they are up to.Part Five will outline what really happened, and, along with Part Six point to the right lessons of the Soviet experience for workers today.Another major propaganda effort is underway to spread anti-communism. Conquest's book, and the Ukrainian nationalists' phonyfilm, are only the beginning. In New York State the Department of Education has put together a curriculum on the "Ukrainian Famine"which will be taught as part of the "Holocaust Studies" course forHigh School students. Another curriculum has been printed for IllinoisHigh Schools. 1A "Ukrainian Famine Commission" in Washington, DC, funded byCongress two years ago, has begun holding "hearings" on the faminein many U.S. cities, starting in Detroit in November 1986. TheCommission is headed by James Mace, the leading non-Ukrainian"expert" on the famine (previous articles in this series showed thatseveral bourgeois historians have attacked Mace's fraudulent"scholarship"). These hearings are aimed to get the story of the"terror-famine" into the mass media and beyond.Involved in all of these efforts is the Harvard University Ukrainian

Research Institute (URI), funded by the Ukrainian NationalAssociation, the largest of the exile groups. The URI publishes its own journal, monographs (short research pamphlets) and books. Its aim isto make the cause of Ukrainian nationalism "respectable."

The Ukraine

First, a note about the Ukraine. The Ukraine and Russia have always[until the past few years -- note added 1996] been part of a singlecountry. The word "ukraina" means "on the border or outskirts" -- thefar limit of Russia. Russian history begins with the Princedom of Kiev,the major city of the Ukraine. During the Middle Ages, the politicalcenter of Russia shifted to the north, first to Moscow and then, in the18th century, to St Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). The languagesspoken in the Ukraine and in the north (Russia proper) graduallydiverged somewhat. By the 19th century a separate Ukrainianliterature had come into existence. The languages are, however, stillvery closely related, like the different dialects of Italian or German. There are several million Ukrainian immigrants in the US and Canada.Many are Jews, fleeing the intense anti-Semitism that has beencharacteristic of the Ukraine for centuries. Most of the rest were

peasants, among whom feelings of "nationhood" were nil. Manyemigrated around the turn of the century to take up farming in the

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Mid-West and in the prairie provinces of Canada, where all-Ukrainiantowns still exist. Others came to work in US industry, like millions of other European workers. The old Socialist and Communist parties of the US and Canada had many Ukrainian members; the pro-MoscowCPUSA has long had a Ukrainian Workers' organization.

Of those who arrived in the West after World War II we maydistinguish three groups. Most numerous were peasants who weresent west (i.e. from the Ukraine to Germany) by the Nazis during thewar to work as slave laborers. Others were soldiers who had fought inGerman-formed military units, or in forces formed by pro-NaziUkrainian nationalists. Many of these were forced to do so; manyothers volunteered. The third group were confirmed nationalists,mainly urban intellectuals, almost all Nazi collaborators.It's hard to say what proportion of those people outside the formerSoviet Union who are of Ukrainian descent would identify themselvesas nationalists, but it is certainly a minority. Millions, for example, are Jews, who well recall the vicious anti-Semitism of the Ukrainiannationalists. Many other Ukrainians are anti-nationalist, who knowthat the Nationalists killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians withthe Nazis' help.Still others are pro-Soviet -- in essence, a competing form of nationalism -- since after the Bolshevik Revolution the Ukraine hasbeen built up and bourgeois Ukrainian culture flourishes. The youngergeneration, even of nationalist parents, are increasingly assimilatedand care little or nothing for the old issues. But the active, anti-Communist nationalists are the leaders of the non-Jewish Ukrainian

community. This group includes many former Nazi collaborators. Theydominate the Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churchesand most social and other non-Jewish Ukrainian organizations.

Ukrainian Nationalists -- Enemy of Ukrainian Peasantsand Workers

 The film Harvest of Despair describes the period of the BolshevikRevolution and ensuing Civil War (1917-1921) this way:"Ukrainians grasp the chance to reclaim their independence after 200years of Russian domination. Kiev, Ukraine's ancient capital, is onceagain the seat of government ... History has taught Ukraine thatfreedom has a price. The people prepared to defend their nationalrepublic against all invaders... In four ensuing years of chaos,Ukrainians fight Lenin's Red Army, Denikin's White Army, Germans,Poles." 2 This gives the impression that the Ukraine had once been anindependent state, with its capital at Kiev; that it was then capturedby Russia; and that most Ukrainians had a sense of nationalconsciousness. The truth is far otherwise. The Ukraine was never an independent

state. Even authors very sympathetic to the Ukrainian nationalistsadmit this. 3 When Kiev was last a "capital," it was capital of Russia,

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up to the Mongol invasion of the 1200s. The whole Ukraine cameunder Russian rule in 1797; before that, it was ruled by the Polishlords.Ukrainians were not unified. During the Civil War many -- probablymost -- politically active Ukrainians supported the Bolsheviks

(Communists). The Germans overthrew the nationalist "Rada"(Council) and set up a landlord regime under Skoropadsky as theirpuppet. Petlyura, a former Rada member, fought Skoropadsky andthe Bolsheviks too. The "socialist" Ukrainian nationalists, praised bythe film, got little mass support in fact:"[Their] remarkably swift defeat was a consequence of the characterof the nationalist movement. Nationalism was the primary concernonly for a group of intellectuals and semi-intellectuals, such as villageteachers, minor bureaucrats, and journalists ... the commitment of the peasants to nationalism was dubious. In the beginning of 1919the peasants did not care enough to defend a Ukrainian governmentin Kiev." The Ukrainian nationalists were grossly racist, especially against Jews:Petlyura, who based his hope on foreign recognition and help, had torepudiate pogroms [anti-Jewish terror campaigns] and he evennamed a Jew 'minister of Jewish affairs.' However, he did little toprevent anti-Semitic outbreaks, and his followers well understood thathis injunctions against 'excesses' were meant exclusively for foreignaudiences. The nationalists habitually depicted their enemies [i.e. theBolsheviks] as Jewish and thereby did a great deal to prepare the soilfor what was to come.

We should recall that the Nazi-appointed head of the UkrainianOrthodox Church in the U.S. and Canada, "Metropolitan Mstyslav,"who appears in Harvest of Despair , was Petlyura's nephew andpersonal adjutant (military assistant).Only the Bolsheviks fought racism, as the anti-communist Americanhistorian Peter Kenez reveals:"Ultimately the Jews did learn. It was Soviet rule, which in spite of itseconomic policies, in spite of occasional pogroms carried out by someill-disciplined Red troops. offered the best chance for survival. Onoccasion, an entire Jewish settlement would follow the retreating Redsoldiers ... .it was clear to everyone that Soviet leaders were willing to

fight against pogroms and punish the offenders. 4 The Ukrainian Bolsheviks formed a separate Republic, which laterfreely joined the USSR. Since only the Bolsheviks stood for "land tothe tiller [i.e. to the peasants]," the Communists had far more supportamong the peasantry than any of the Ukrainian nationalist groups. The nationalists were defeated by their own reactionary policies,which the Ukrainian peasants rejected. It failed to win the peasantsowing to its failure to espouse the cause not merely of socialrevolution, but of social reform on any significant scale -- a failurefrankly and repeatedly admitted by Vinnichenko, the most honest of 

its leaders. Vinnichenko conceded that the peasants so hated the

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nationalist Rada they even rejected its attempts to impose theUkrainian language and culture. 5

Nationalism Leads to Fascism

After their defeat in the Civil War, the leading Ukrainian nationalistsfled to Western Europe. Some went to Poland, which obtained a largeUkrainian population when it took over a big part of Western Russiaafter the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The Polish government suppressedthe Ukrainian language and culture, but permitted some anti-Communist Ukrainian nationalist activity.During the 1930s most Ukrainian nationalists came to support theNazis, as the force most likely to "liberate" the Ukraine from theUSSR. When nazi Germany conquered Poland in September 1939,they set up training camps for Ukrainian nationalists, to prepare for

the invasion of the Soviet Union. 6Here is part of an account of a torture school run in Nazi- occupiedPoland for fascists of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)in late 1939:"'The Ukrainian commandant of the entire [Ukrainian training] unitwas Lieutenant Vil'nyy,' wrote Kosakivs'kyy, 'whose real name wasMykola Lebid. The curriculum included drills, intelligence andcounterintelligence training, and interrogation techniques [i.e.torture], but emphasized "exercises in the hardening of hearts.""At sundown," recalled Kosakivs'kyy, "Kruger, Rosenbaum [the twoGerman Secret Police, or Gestapo, leaders of the school], Lebid and a

few students would go to Zakopane, enter some Jewish home on theway, grab a Jew, and bring him to the Unit. One evening, late inNovember or early in December 1939, they returned with a young Jew. In the presence of Ukrainian seniors,including myself, Kruger andRosenbaum, fortified with alcohol, proceeded with theirdemonstration of the proper methods of interrogation.""Seeking to induce the innocent Jew to confess that he had raped an'Aryan' woman, the German officers beat and tortured him, usingtheir fists, a sword and iron bars. When he was bloody from head totoe, they applied salt and flame to his wounds. The broken man thenconfessed his fictional crimes, but that was not the end.""'Thereupon,' Kosakivs'kyy, continues, 'he was taken to the corridorof the house and the 'co-eds' (three women members of the unit)were called in. In their presence, Rosenbaum beat the Jew again withan iron pipe and Lebid too assisted manually in that 'heroic action.'...We learned afterwards that the tortured man was stripped naked,stood-up in front of the school as a 'sentry' and doused with water inheavy frost.'""Kosakivs'kyy and his friend protested to Lebid the next day, but thecommandant told them bluntly that 'it was the duty of every memberof the OUN to show the Germans that his nerves are just as tough as

a German's and that the heart of any nationalist is just as hard assteel.' Such 'practical exercises' continued unabated..." 7

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When the Nazis invaded the USSR in June 1941, some Ukrainianpeasants in the Western Ukraine initially welcomed the Nazis becauseof their resentment against the forced collectivization of thepeasantry during the 1930s or after Soviet occupation of EasternPoland in 1939 [after the Nazi invasion of Poland was completed, and

it became clear that the Western allies were not going to fight theNazis -- the period known as the "phony war" -- the Soviet Union re-occupied the part of Russia which Poland had taken from it in the Treaty of Riga in 1920]. According to Dallin, however, the extent of this welcoming of the Nazis has been greatly exaggerated. 8 In theEastern (Soviet) Ukraine, however, the Ukrainian nationalists, whohad first tried to win peasant support by promising to abolish thecollective farms, had to abandon that line as "the only way to avoidalienating much of the East Ukrainian youth." 9 A decade aftercollectivization,the youth in the Ukraine were overwhelmingly pro-Soviet. The Ukrainian fascists formed an army that was alternately used andrepressed by the Nazis, who formed their own "Galician" SS Divisionfrom among Eastern (non-Soviet) Ukrainians, and the "Roland" and"Nightingale" detachments for special terrorist action against theUkrainian population itself.However, the most successful Communist partisan movements --those of the Ukrainians Oleksii Fyodorov and Sidor Kovpak -- werealso made up of Ukrainians and operated in the Ukrainian country-side. These were the largest and most successful anti-Nazi resistancemovements in Europe, and were led and manned by Communist

Ukrainians! 10 By the middle of the war, the Germans had thoroughlyalienated even the more anti-Soviet Ukrainian peasantry by theirbrutality.Kovpak's Red Ukrainian guerillas had to fight Ukrainian fascist troops.Despite a few conflicts, the Ukrainian nationalists sided with the Nazisduring WWII and were solidly behind Hitler again by 1944. Theycontinued guerilla warfare against the Soviets in the hills of WesternUkraine until about 1952. During the last stages of this fight, theC.I.A. dropped supplies to fascist nationalists troops fighting theSoviet forces within the Soviet Union. 11 The Ukrainian nationalist groups were always made up mainly of 

intellectuals. Few workers and peasants joined them. An anti-Communist American scholar sympathetic to the nationalists admits"Ukrainian nationalism ... was unable to penetrate the mass of thepopulation to any extent. 12

Capitalist Rule: "ABC -- Anything But Class"

 This, then, is the history of Ukrainian nationalism. It demonstrates theuniversal truth, that nationalism leads to anti- communism and,eventually, to fascism. This is logical. National- ism is a bourgeois

ideology. "Nationalist movements throughout the world have usuallybeen the work of the middle class." 13

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Encouraging workers (or peasants, most of whom are also workers) tounite according to ethnic, color, or linguistic similarities, meansputting them under the leadership of the bourgeoisie of that ethnic orlinguistic group. Capitalists have the most to gain from capitalism --wealth and status -- and the most to lose from egalitarian

communism, and so are overwhelmingly anti- communist. Whencommunism threatens their privileges, they turn inevitably to fascistrepression against the working class, whom they exploit to get theirwealth and to whom the goals of communism are attractive.Only communism encourages workers to become class-conscious -- tosee that they must ally with workers of all other ethnic, linguistic,racial, etc., groups against their own bosses and bourgeoisnationalists. The bosses will do anything to prevent this. Their ruleis "ABC -- Anything But Class:" -- to mislead workers intouniting along any lines but those of class, so that they can beexploited. 

Notes

1. The University of the State of New York. The State EducationDepartment, Bureau of Curriculum Development. Case Studies:Persecution/Genocide. The Human Rights Series. Volume III.I (Albany,NY: 1986). Of the 162 pages of text, the "Ukrainian Famine" takes up142. For Illinois see Myron B. Kuropas, with the assistance of theUnited States Ukraine Famine Commission, Forced Famine in Ukraine1932-1933; Curriculum and Resource Guide for Educators. Both of 

these curricula repeat the ultra-right wing Ukrainian nationalistfalsifications without any alternate viewpoints whatsoever. Back.2. Transcript of the film and panel discussion, p. 8 (Firing Line SpecialEdition: 'Harvest of Despair', broadcast September 24, 1986.Southern Educational Communications Association, Box 5966,Columbia, SC 29250). Back. 3. John A. Armstrong, Ukrainian Nationalism. Second edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), p. 7. Back.4. Peter Kenez, Civil War in South Russia, 1919-1923: The Defeat of the Whites (Berkeley, CA: Univ. Cal. Press, 1977), p. 146; p. 147(emphasis added). Back5. E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution 1: 1917-1923 (Pelican pbedition), p. 296. Back6. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union had concluded a non-aggression pactwith Nazi Germany in August, 1939. A secret clause in that pactstated that the USSR would occupy the part of Poland that had beenpart of Russia until 1918 (Galicia and Volhynia). In 1940 the USSRdemanded and got two predominantly Ukrainian territories(Bessarabia, also called Moldavia, and Bukovina) which Rumania hadtaken over in 1918. These predominantly Ukrainian areas whichbelonged to Poland or Rumanian before 1939-40 are called the

"Western Ukraine." They had all been under Soviet control for lessthan two years at the time of the Nazi invasion of the USSR which

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began on June 22, 1941. It was in these areas that some peasantsinitially greeted Nazi troops as "liberators," and where the Ukrainiannationalists had most success in recruitment. Back7. Joe Conason, "To Catch a Nazi", Village Voice (New York City),February 11, 1986, p. 19. Camp leader Mykola Lebid was one of the

chief Ukrainian nationalists in the OUN, worked for the Nazis in theSoviet Union throughout the occupation, and fled to Germany withthem at the end of WWII. There he was recruited first by WestGerman intelligence and later by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency(CIA), which smuggled him into the U.S., hid his fascist past, and gothim U.S. citizenship in 1957. Since then he has lived in New York Cityand runs an anti-communist, nationalist publishing house, supportedwith CIA funds. Back8. Alexander Dallin, German Rule in Russia 1941-1945, 2nd edition(Boulder, CO: Westview, 1961), p. 64. Back9. John A Armstrong, Ukrainian Nationalism, 2nd edition (New York:Columbia Univ. Press, 1964), p. 128. Back10. Gerard Reitlinger, The House Built on Sand: The Conflicts inGerman Policy in Russia, 1939-1945 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,1975; original edition 1960), p. 246. For Fyodorov as a Ukrainian, seeArmstrong, p. 132; for a good review of his book, The UndergroundCommittee Carries On, see PL Magazine Vol. 11, No. 1 (February-March, 1976), p. 35-37, 40. Back11. Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helmsand the CIA (New York: Pocket Books, 1979), pp. 46, 52. Back12. Armstrong, pp. 288-9. Back

13. Armstrong, p. 238. BackBack to previous article of this series; or Forward to the next article of this six-part