UPA veterans, leftists clash on the Khreschatyk (10/23/05)

UPA veterans, leftists clash on the Khreschatyk

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Demonstrating that no reconciliation is imminent between Ukraine's World War II veterans and their supporters, Communists and nationalists clashed on October 15 on Kyiv's main boulevard, the Khreschatyk.

Amidst fist fights and flying eggs, Communists and Natalia Vitrenko's Progressive Socialists succeeded in blocking 80 Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) veterans from reaching Independence Square in their attempt to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of their army's founding.

The high turnout among Ms. Vitrenko's followers, more than 3,000 demonstrators, revealed the fierce resistance UPA veterans face in their campaign to get the Ukrainian government to recognize them as a fighting force that led a national-liberation struggle for Ukrainian independence.

"It wasn't just a rally," Ms. Vitrenko said of the conflict afterwards. "It was a highly spiritual act in defense of the historical truth about the Great Patriotic War [as World War II is known in Soviet parlance] and our Orthodox Church."

The success of the Communists and Progressive Socialists was partly because UPA veterans and their nationalist supporters had many obstacles.

Though their request to march was registered with the Kyiv Administration for Internal Politics as early as October 1, the UPA veterans did not receive official permission from the Kyiv Shevchenko Court until the afternoon before the event, said Volodymyr Pidipryhora, the academic department chair of the Kyiv Regional Brotherhood of OUN-UPA. The OUN is the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which gave rise to the UPA.

As a result, they had little time to organize, and only about 1,000 supporters showed up for the rally, finding themselves far outnumbered.

Meanwhile, leaders of the anti-UPA forces arrived on buses from as far as Donetsk and Sevastopol.

They were so well prepared that they had a few hundred come out onto the maidan on October 14, or Feast Day of the Mother of God's Protection (Sviato Pokrovy), which is also the day UPA veterans mark as their founding.

However, there was no one there to oppose, so they left after a few hours of waving flags and making anti-fascist speeches.

The UPA veterans opted for October 15 as the day for their march because it enabled them to unite two important dates - the Feast Day of the Mother of God's Protection and the anniversary of Stepan Bandera's assassination.

Meanwhile, the only thing motivating the Communists was to interfere and obstruct the UPA veterans, Mr. Pidipryhora said, and they were given a permit to be on the maidan nevertheless.

"We wanted to show Ukrainians who these veterans of the UPA are, especially since so few are left," he said. "And, secondly, we wanted to hold a moleben in honor of the fighters who gave their lives for Ukraine."

Only about 10,000 UPA veterans are still alive in Ukraine, said Volodymyr Viatrovych, the director of the Liberation Movement Research Center.

On the morning of the march, the leftists arrived on the Khreschatyk hours earlier than the nationalists, first marching down Kyiv's main boulevard, then setting up their placards, speakers and truck-bed platforms on the maidan's eastern side.

They were relatively well-financed, carrying hundreds of Progressive Socialist and Communist Party flags, T-shirts and vests, and several Russian flags and placards attacking the UPA veterans as fascists.

Facing them on the maidan's western side were several hundred UPA supporters.

If not for the presence of more than 1,000 police officers lined up all along the Khreschatyk, the isolated scuffles and fist fights that broke out that day could have easily turned into violent battles between those representing opposite ends of Ukraine's political spectrum.

Before the UPA veterans even stepped onto the Khreschatyk, Ms. Vitrenko and her allies began delivering vitriolic speeches condemning the nationalists as fascists who wanted bring Catholicism to Ukraine and destroy Russian Orthodoxy.

The anti-UPA demonstrations led by Ms. Vitrenko had contradictory messages. Many waved Communist flags, while others held Russian Orthodox icons, despite Marxism's condemnation of religion.

They also tried painting the UPA veterans as enemies of Orthodoxy, when many of the UPA veterans and their supporters are Orthodox Christians themselves.

Ms. Vitrenko attacked President Viktor Yushchenko as an agent of expanding Catholicism who has proposed uniting the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church with the Orthodox Church in order "to destroy and faster capture our Orthodox temples."

In fact, Mr. Yushchenko is a devoted member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate.

Ms. Vitrenko accused Mr. Yushchenko of adopting an "official policy of fascism." An unidentified, outspoken female speaker singled out prominent Ukrainian Americans.

"Remember how they stole your uncles and brothers in the middle of the night," the woman thundered. "Those OUN-ivtsi are guilty of this fascist crime! Shame on their followers: those Rukhivtsi who went through training in Munich and Chicago, such as [First Lady Kateryna] Chumachenko, [Roman] Zvarych and others. Those who went on ICTV last night and talked about the Banderites' righteousness!"

Despite the heavy police presence, officers neglected to prevent scores of Communists from rushing onto the Khreschatyk when the veterans began their march near the intersection with Khmelnytsky Street.

The veterans had obtained government permission to march on the Khreschatyk starting at noon, while the Communists and their allies did not have a permit.

Nevertheless, the anti-UPA demonstrators, particularly from the Crimean-based group Proryv, charged onto the Khreschatyk waving Russian flags, unrestrained by police.

The two opposing groups collided several hundred feet south of Horodetskyi Street, and that's where the first fists flew and objects were hurled.

Surrounding the veterans were a few hundred members of Rukh, the Nationalist Youth Congress, the Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian National Self Defense and Oleh Tiahnybok's Svoboda Party.

Leading the charge was not only Ms. Vitrenko, but Verkhovna Rada national deputies such as Oleksander Bondarenko, a Communist Party member who is usually at the forefront of their provocative and violent actions.

Ukraine's national deputies are immune from arrest, and those present took advantage of that fact to shield and defend those activists around them, even as they waved Russian flags.

In an act of defiance and drama, some anti-UPA protesters threw themselves on the ground to prevent the veterans from progressing further.

Sensing a potentially a dangerous situation, rows of police on either side separated the opposing groups, creating a barrier more than 300 feet wide that would remain for the remainder of the day.

The UPA veterans would not get any closer to the maidan (Independence Square).

Rather than defying police and attempting to proceed further, the veterans decided to conduct their moleben on that spot.

Leading the religious commemoration were Father Hegumen Yevstratyi Zoria of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church officials.

Through the hours of the standstill, which lasted from noon until sunset, isolated fights broke out between the groups, in which men swung sticks and punches, while Russian Orthodox "babushky" (elderly women) flung eggs and kefir.

The sight of nationalists and Communists battling on the Khreschatyk drew hundreds of spectators, many of whom were foreign tourists or visitors startled by the events.

At the Ukrayinskyi Dim on the Khreschatyk's north end, an international real estate investment conference was taking place. "I was pretty shocked," said Pat Vredevoogd, the first vice-president of the National Association of Realtors from Grand Rapids, Mich. "That was the first time I ever encountered that. I found it interesting."

Both sides left when it was apparent the police weren't going to let them pass.

Afterwards, both sides claimed they were trying to be peaceful, and both sides blamed the police for failing to do its job.

Ms. Vitrenko accused the Kyiv Shevchenko Court of bias by denying her group the right to be on the Khreschatyk. She denied that she receives financing from Russian sources.

Mr. Pidipryhora blamed the Kyiv Court for Internal Politics for allowing the anti-UPA demonstrations, which disturbed their solemn event.

Saturday was the fourth time the Kyiv Regional Brotherhood of OUN-UPA held a public event on the Khreschatyk on the anniversary of the UPA's founding.

However, it was the first time they were violently opposed, said Orest Vaskul, the head of the Kyiv Regional Brotherhood of OUN-UPA.

The leftists were allowed to conduct ceremonies in previous years, including the 60th anniversary, he said.

They've intensified their opposition for fear that the pro-Ukrainian government will recognize the UPA, Mr. Pidipryhora said.

"To recognize the UPA is to recognize the triumph of the UPA over the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics," Mr. Pidipryhora said. "It's like a bone in their throats."

Molebens, concerts and ceremonies commemorating the UPA fighters took place on October 14, throughout Ukraine including Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Lutsk and Kharkiv.

In the city of Bila Tserkva on October 16, Communist protesters prevented UPA supporters from entering a private building where they planned a ceremony, Mr. Pidipryhora said. Eventually, the local police had to create a passage through the protesters to allow the UPA supporters to enter their own private space.

The fight for the UPA's recognition promises to drag on for years as it is among the most divisive issues in Ukrainian society today.

On October 18, national deputies of the Ukrainian People's Party presented to the Verkhovna Rada petitions signed by 1 million Ukrainians who support government recognition of the UPA.

Their party leader, Yurii Kostenko, said they plan to bring another million signatures.

In response, Communist Party members brought their own petitions, with 3 million signatures against UPA recognition.

Mr. Kostenko said UPA recognition will only be possible with the next Parliament, after the March 26 elections.

Ukrainian UPA veterans are able to receive benefits from the German government as participants in the war, even though they had fought against the Germans and aren't German citizens, said National Deputy Volodymyr Maistryshyn, a member of People's Party of Ukraine faction.

"Ukrainians with tryzubs on their passports are going abroad (for their benefits)," said Andriy Shkil, a national deputy of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. "This is a pity."

As for the veterans, they have declared a "misiachnyk," or a month, of rallies and acts throughout Ukraine, called "From Prokrova to Bazar," Mr. Pidipryhora said.

The next big nationalist event will take place in late November in the village of Bazar in Zhytomyr Oblast, where UPA veterans who found themselves in Great Britain as prisoners of war helped erect a memorial in honor of the 359 soldiers of the Ukrainian National Republic Army who were executed in Bazar on November 21, 1921, by a firing squad of the Soviet forces.

"We will show all the Reds and the pro-Russian forces that the patriotic forces of Ukraine exist, we will exist and we're not going anywhere," Mr. Pidipryhora said. "We're on our own land."

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