Dmytro Dontsov, who after the Second World War had been teaching Ukrainian literature at the University of Montreal, published an article about Bandera on 14 November 1959. Dontsov reminded the mourning Ukrainians that Bandera was not a democrat and that he was killed like Petliura and Konovalets’, by which he meant that Bandera was assassinated by the Soviet Union or by Jews. Dontsov concluded that Bandera was assassinated because of his name, which “could become a banner under which all brave and honest Ukrainians unite in a critical hour.”[1963]

The death of another Eastern European fascist leader, Ante Pavelić, the Poglavnik of the NDH, on 28 December 1959 in Madrid, caused the same elements of the Ukrainian diaspora that had mourned Bandera to mourn Pavelić. The Croatian leader had survived an assassination attempt in El Palomar near Buenos Aires on 10 April 1957, the sixteenth anniversary of the founding of the Ustaša state. He moved to Madrid in November 1957 but died several months later as a result of the attack, which was apparently carried out by the Yugoslav intelligence service. The OUN paper Homin Ukraїny claimed that Pavelić was a “great proponent of Ukraine and other nations enslaved by Moscow.” In a eulogy for Pavelić, Homin Ukraїny honored the Poglavnik as a “great patriot” and “fighter for independence” exactly as it had with Bandera a few weeks before. The OUN newspaper based in Toronto further emphasized that the ABN and the OUN participated in Pavelić’s funeral and placed wreaths beside his coffin.[1964] Volodymyr Pastushchuk, the second OUN and ABN speaker at Pavelić’s funeral, bade the Croatian Poglavnik farewell in Spanish:

In a few minutes, the Spanish earth will cover the body of the greatest among Croats. The Red murderers killed his body, but his spirit and his liberating ideas and national pride will live among us. Ante Pavelić taught us to love our motherlands and to be faithful to our national ideas. He gave his life for his brothers and fellows, which is evidence of the greatest love. ... We Ukrainians understand the sorrow of our brother Croats because, only two months ago, we sorrowed for the loss of the Providnyk of our liberation movement, the unforgettable Stepan Bandera of blessed memory, killed by the same criminal communist hand. With the death of Pavelić, the Croatian nation has lost its great leader; and our family of enslaved nations, one of the best strategists of the anticommunist struggle.[1965]

The fifteenth day of October became an important date in the calendar of the nationalist factions of the Ukrainian diaspora, which commemorated Bandera’s death every year until the collapse of the Soviet Union. In a number of places, such commemorations continued until at least 2009. Bandera became an important symbol of anticommunist struggle among Ukrainians and other “enslaved nations.” His “charismatic communities” propagated various nationalist, far-right, and neo-fascist ideas during his many commemorations. His death symbolized the suffering of Ukraine and all Ukrainians. It was misused to deny the atrocities committed by the OUN and UPA. The fact that Bandera was murdered by the KGB reassured the commemorating factions that they were engaged in a holy war against the Soviet Union for an independent Ukrainian state. The assassination also transformed Bandera into a symbol of liberation and resistance. This treatment of Bandera resembled the conduct of the Ustaša communities, and even more so of the Slovak émigrés who, during Josef Tiso’s trial and after his execution on 18 April 1947, commemorated the leader of the Slovak clerical fascist movement as a political martyr.[1966]

The largest and most lavish Bandera commemorations and demonstrations took place on “round” anniversaries of his death, such as the fifth and tenth. In this subsection, only some of the most representative will be described, and more attention will be paid to cities with strong communities of Ukrainian political émigrés, such as Edmonton, Toronto, and Munich, and to capital cities—London, Washington, and Ottawa, where the largest anticommunist Bandera demonstrations took place. Cyclical commemorations—accompanied by poems or songs composed in honor of the Providnyk and repeatedly reproduced in newspapers and brochures or recited and sung at various gatherings—fulfilled two interrelated functions. First, they transposed Bandera into a hero and martyr. Second, they reinforced the collective disavowal of the atrocities committed by the OUN, UPA, and various Ukrainian collaborators. Commemorating the Providnyk, his adherents transposed themselves, with the help of his distorted and instrumentalized image, into victims, heroes, and martyrs. The aggressive propaganda of the Soviet Union reassured the “charismatic communities” that they were in the right and thereby strengthened the Bandera cult among Ukrainian emigrants.

One of the first Bandera commemorations in 1960 took place in Calgary on 20 February. At this event, the participants watched a film of Bandera’s funeral and listened to people who had known the Providnyk in person.[1967] On Pentecost (Zeleni Sviata), 28 May 1960, 200 people gathered at Bandera’s grave to participate in a panakhyda during which a priest blessed a large cross at the grave. The ZCh OUN member Iaroslav Bentsal’ delivered a patriotic speech in honor of his Providnyk.[1968]

Bandera’s grave, with its large and remarkable military cross, became a popular pilgrimage site for Ukrainians from Europe, North and South America, and Australia.[1969] On 15 October 1960, Homin Ukraїny again published a photograph of Bandera’s bust on the first page and informed its readers that, “on 15 October of this year, one year passes since Moscow, the eternal enemy of the Ukrainian nation, took away the thread of the heroic life of our Providnyk,” although still no evidence existed as to who might have killed Bandera.[1970] On page 2 of the same issue, the editors published photographs of Bandera’s funeral and a poem devoted to him. In several articles they asked their readers to continue Bandera’s revolutionary struggle, which they understood as the only correct way to liberate Ukraine.[1971]

In Toronto, the association of UPA veterans combined Bandera’s commemoration with the Holiday of Arms (Sviato Zbroï), which usually took place on 14 October. On 15 October 1960, panakhydas for the “repose of the soul of Bandera of blessed memory” and “all UPA warriors who sacrificed their lives for Ukraine’s freedom” were conducted in two churches. Participants included SUM and Plast members, and the male choir Prometei of the SUM sang. On 16 October, a commemorative gathering was organized in the Ukrainian Home at 83–85 Christie Street. The Prometei choir performed “The Military Song” (Boiova Pisnia) and a few other similar nationalist and military songs. A number of people delivered speeches, and other mourners sang religious and military songs. The stage was decorated with busts of Bandera and Shukhevych, between which a poster of Jesus and a UPA emblem were placed.[1972] Similar celebrations were organized on 15 and 16 October in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Edmonton, London, Montreal, Munich, Ottawa, Philadelphia, and many other localities. In a number of places, Bandera’s admirers erected symbolic coffins, at which SUM members and other mourners performed nationalist rituals, recited poems, and sang religious, military, or nationalist songs in honor of their Providnyk. Many of them decorated the stage with Bandera’s portrait, under which children and

 

 

Fig. 42. Children commemorate Bandera at a symbolic coffin of the Providnyk

in the 1960s in Galashiels (Scotland), TShLA.

teenagers, dressed in folkloristic Cossack costumes, or SUM or other uniforms, performed various political and religious rituals.[1973]

On the second anniversary of Bandera’s death, an émigré institution, called the Underground Post of Ukraine, released four cinderella stamps. The first stamp showed Bandera in high school or at university age. The second featured Bandera after his release from prison in Poland. The third depicted Bandera’s bust, prepared by the artist Chereshn’ovs’kyi, which showed Bandera as a statesman during the Second World War. This period was described as the time “when under [Bandera’s] banners 200,000 fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and OUN cadres conducted an implacable struggle against two occupiers of Ukraine—the Hitlerites and the Muscovites.” The last stamp showed Bandera after the Second World War. The stamps were distributed by SUM members, characterized by Shliakh peremohy as “the generation that prepares itself for taking over the banner of the struggle for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and is following the path that was pointed out by the great Providnyk Stepan Bandera.” Shliakh peremohy encouraged its readers to put the Bandera stamps on letters when corresponding with friends. The stamps were distributed in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[1974]