Chapter 9:
The Revival of the Cult

Bandera’s assassination transformed him into a martyr and reinforced his political cult and myth. Immediately after the killing, factions of the Ukrainian diaspora turned his death into one of the greatest catastrophes in Ukrainian history. They triggered a plethora of deeply politicized and ritualized mourning commemorations that went on for several weeks. In this way, the diaspora communities revitalized the cult of the Providnyk and turned themselves once more into a “charismatic community.” After his death, Bandera was commemorated in several countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela. The globalization of the Bandera cult would not have been possible without the relocation of the DPs in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The most enthusiastic émigré element that commemorated Bandera consisted of those Ukrainians who left Ukraine in 1944 with the retreating German army, and the Waffen-SS Galizien veterans who surrendered to the British army. Some of these émigrés were already admirers of Bandera during the trials in Warsaw and Lviv in 1935‒1936, regarded him as their Providnyk during the “Ukrainian National Revolution” in the summer of 1941, or knew him as the legendary leader of the revolutionary movement when they fought in the UPA.

The Munich Shliakh peremohy, one of the main newspapers controlled by the ZCh OUN, for which Bandera had officially worked as a journalist, turned the front page of 18 October 1959 into a huge obituary with Bandera’s photograph placed in the center (Fig. 39). Although at this time it was neither known who had killed Bandera nor whether he had actually been assassinated, the editors stated in oversized letters above the portrait and under a cross in a military style: “With great sadness and pain we inform the members of the OUN and Ukrainian society that, at 1.00 p.m. on 15 October 1959, STEPAN BANDERA, the Great Son of the Ukrainian Nation and the longstanding leader of the revolutionary fight for the state independence of Ukraine, Head of the Leadership of the Foreign Units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was killed by an enemy’s hand.” On both sides of the picture, the editors provided some biographical background: “a longstanding prisoner of Polish jails who was sentenced by a Polish court to a death sentence, which was changed to a life sentence, and who was a prisoner in German jails and concentration camps from 1941 to 1944.” The front page also informed readers that after a church service at 9.00 a.m. on 20 October 1959, Bandera’s funeral and a panakhyda would take

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 38. Bandera’s corpse in the coffin. Poltava, Zhyttia Stepana Bandery, 51.

place at 3.30 p.m. at the Waldfriedhof in Munich and that the mourning period for the Providnyk would last from 15 October until 15 December.[1941]

Other nationalist newspapers published in the Ukrainian diaspora, such as the Toronto Homin Ukraїny and the London Ukraїns’ka dumka addressed Bandera’s death in a similar manner. Homin Ukraїny turned the front page of the issue for 24 October 1959 into a huge obituary with Bandera’s photograph featured in the middle. The headline consisted of the inscription: “Of bright memory” (sl. p) and the name “STEPAN BANDERA.” Introductions to two articles, which continued on page 6, were printed on either side of the photograph. One article was entitled “Fighter, Leader, and Symbol,” while the second was entitled “In Deep Sadness.” They informed readers that the death of Bandera “shocked the entire Ukrainian diaspora on this side of the ocean” and that he was killed by an enemy of the Ukrainians. Readers were advised that, in the person of Bandera, a symbol of both the general Ukrainian struggle and of an entire epoch in the struggle for independence had passed away.[1942]