Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Dredging Ukraine's Past To Ferment Turmoil Today

‘Hero of Ukraine’ Splits Nation, Inside and Out -- New York Times

STARYI UHRYNIV, Ukraine — Half a century after his death at the hands of the K.G.B., Stepan Bandera, a World War II partisan, has not lost his ability to rally Ukrainians against Russia — and against each other.

Monuments to Mr. Bandera have sprung up across western Ukraine, his fight for the country’s independence glowingly recounted to schoolchildren on field trips, as if he were the George Washington of Ukrainian nationalism. But in eastern Ukraine and as far away as Moscow and Brussels, Mr. Bandera is reviled as a Nazi puppet.

Read more ....

My Comment:
I am glad that my father is not alive to see this. A Russian-Ukrainian, he fought with the Soviet military against the Nazis and their allies like Stepan Bandera. Shame to departing President Mr. Yushchenko for naming this Nazi collaborator a "Hero Of Ukraine", and kudos to the European Union for also condemning this recognition.

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