Stepan Bandera - Anti-Hero of Ukraine

Jack Ryan, a CIA operative, based in Munich, American Occupation Zone, studied the balding man on the other side of his desk. Stepan Bandera was not impressive to look at, though he had angry eyes and was a little intense. He was only 5'4" and could not have weighed much more than a hundred pounds soaking wet in a full Gestapo black coat. He was not wearing that this morning, of course, but rather a cheap and rather worn black suit. After all, the war had been over for ten years, but stories about his collaboration with the Abwehr, Gestapo, and Nazi occupation forces in Ukraine were widely circulated, and these were the jokes that CIA agents made behind his back.

"Mr. Bandera, why should we work with you? "Mi6 cut ties with you a year ago, and we have reason to believe you have no remaining links to Ukraine."

"That is simply not true, I continue to receive useful intelligence reports from inside the Soviet Union. I will be an invaluable asset to the CIA as you seek to undermine Communist control of my country. Your FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, would not be pleased if you passed up this opportunity to track down communists working in the United States today.

"If Ukrainian nationalists in the USA actually know of any Communists in the USA, then I am sure that Hoover is already working with them. He does not need you for that."

Bandera gave an indignant shrug, and Ryan realized this was not a man who liked being contradicted. He pushed the point.

"The CIA has pretty much concluded we want to work with Lebed rather than you. His security is tighter, which is why his people are not all dead like in the links you pointed us to in the OUN."

"That is not..."

"I have not finished," said Ryan. "You do not seem to get the reality of the New World Order. You are still fighting for a fascist Ukraine long after fascism's sell-by date has well and truly expired. Your end game is you in charge and a one-party state, a fascist Ukraine, that is not our picture for the future of your country, and that is not the picture of Lebed, who wants a democratic and free Ukraine. Freedom is the CIA vision for your country."

"Do not be so naive, Ukraine has no history of democracy. You do not defeat the likes of the KGB, Stalin, or indeed Nikita Khrushchev by asking for freedom of speech and holding rallies in the street. You need to work with a movement that actually has a chance of freeing the country from Soviet control."

"What do you mean, like the Wehrmacht, SS, Abwehr, or Gestapo? How did that work out for you?" Ryan sneered.

"They did not understand the situation either, they wanted Ukraine for themselves. It was only in 1944, when it was almost over for them, that they realized the OUN option of an independent Ukraine led by the OUN was actually the best option all along. You are making the same mistake they did by underestimating us and what we can do."

"Our information is that your people are all dead, and there is very little that you can do. This meeting is over." Ryan pointed to the door of his office. "You are of no use to us."

"Well let us see how you react when I use my contacts in the Ukrainian emigre community to expose American stupidity in this matter."

"Bandera, you lost; it's over; enjoy your freedom; keep quiet; and maybe you will even have a long life."

"I still have relations with the BND, you know, I could go and share what I have with them instead."

"Do it, and they may even accept your begging bowl, but not for the reasons you think. The organization is completely compromised and infiltrated by Communist spies; we hardly trust them with anything sensitive. Whatever you give to them will probably result in more of your people dying inside Ukraine, as anything you say to them will go straight back to Moscow."

"You are missing a big opportunity."

"No, Mr. Bandera I am severing links with a man who was an enthusiastic supporter of the murder of 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews and who is no longer of any use to us. "

"The Jews are the reason that Communists control the Soviet Union. You must understand the link between the Jews and the Bolsheviks. "

"I work for the CIA, we know everything, and you know what, Mr. Bandera." Ryan paused, and then leaning over the desk and looking down at the scrawny man across from him, he added, "I myself am a Jew!"

"Then it seems the Americans are not the people to work with. You are compromised to the core, and it is just a matter of time before the Bolsheviks find ways to exploit that."

"Leave now, or I shall have you escorted from the building."

A red-faced Stepan Bandera turned to leave.

W/C 845

FORUM

HONORING OUR VETERANS   (ASR) Of course there's a Veterans Day - EVERY DAY! #423698 by Averren

Notes ▼

GOT THIRD PLACE IN THE VETERANS CONTEST

Maybe this is an odd fit for the Veterans forum but not all soldiers fight for the right army, for freedom, justice, and the American way. The USA is heavily invested in supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia and this is a righteous action against an invading army in my view. But this anti-hero is the man in the way of true Ukrainian victory in this war and he needs debunking on the way to victory there.

Please note that this is the worst face of Ukrainian nationalism and the one that the Russians exploit in their propaganda. Zelensky himself is a Ukrainian nationalist of an altogether more dangerous kind to the Russian regime. He is a Jew and he is a democrat and as such, the Russian propaganda against his regime is utterly illegitimate and based on outdated notions about the Azov brigade and OUN movements.

The CIA itself wanted nothing to do with the anti-hero Bandera and even Mi6 severed all links when his usefulness expired with his contacts inside the USSR. He is regarded as a freedom fighter by many in Ukraine but mainly out of ignorance of what he really stood for. I do not believe Ukraine can win this war until they leave people like Bandera behind. He was a fighter, a soldier for a country that only briefly existed in his lifetime after WW1, but he killed innocent Jews, and he worked directly with the second most murderous regime in history after the USSR. He was not a hero of Ukraine.

The BND did in fact cooperate with Bandera in the last years of his life. But it seems the transparency of their organization to the KGB allowed the assassination of Bandera in 1959 some four years after the imagined date of this interview with the CIA in 1955.

In practice, Mykola Lebed had just as sordid a history as Bandera but his philosophical outlook and actual usefulness were more conducive to CIA goals.

SOURCES: Chap 5. https://www.archives.gov/files/iwg/reports/hitlers-shadow.pdf

https://cryptome.org/2016/01/cia-ua-aerodynamic.pdf

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/AERODYNAMIC%20%20%20VOL.%201_0113.pdf