Having become the second fascist country in Europe (in 1925), Lithuania is among the EU and NATO countries celebrating its Waffen SS units that served the Third Reich. Lithuanian fascists were nurtured by Western intelligence and were projected into that former Soviet republic as part of the destabilization of the Soviet Union. Now, Lithuania has resucitated the Lithuanian Rifleman’s Union, a paramilitary unit that collaborated with the Third Reich. Along with the Ukrainian OUN/B and UPA–the Lithuanian Rifleman’s Union continued the combat of World War II as guerilla forces supported by the OPC (an element of U.S. intelligence.) All of the contents of this website as of 12/19/2014–Dave Emory’s 35+ years of research and broadcasting–as well as hours of videotaped lectures are available on a 32GB flash drive. Dave offers his programs and articles for free–your support is very much appreciated.
The war in Ukraine has served to make the normalization of Nazis almost routine. This broadcast highlights that normalization, places it in a broader historical context and sets forth essential background information that fleshes out understanding of the phenomenon.
Points of Analysis and Discussion Include:
1a.–The program begins with review of a critical insight made by Glenn Pinchback, an officer at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This insight encapsulates an ideological dynamic that has, in part, resulted in the normalization of Nazis via the Ukraine war.
1b.–Exemplifying the normalization of Nazis is the whitewashing of the Plast organization by the New York Times, which presents it as a normal summer camp.
2.–A more accurate portrayal of the Plast organization was presented by Scott Ritter: “ . . . . Plast is to Ukrainian nationalists like the Hitler Youth was to German Nazis. . . .”
3.–The whitewashing of Plast can be seen as deriving from the cultivation of Ukrainian and other Eastern European fascist groups by the Gehlen organization.
4.–For the second time this year, Azov Nazis were feted as heroes at Stanford University.
5.–Stanford fellow and conservative luminary Francis Fukuyama was among those who celebrated the Azov Nazis.
6.–Azov’s Nazis evolved directly from the Third Reich collaborationist government of Ukraine. Roman Svarych, WWII Ukrainian Nazi satrap Yaroslav Stetsko’s personal secretary in the 1980’s, was instrumental in the spawning of Azov. Svarych was the Minister of Justice of Ukraine under three different administrations. (That is the equivalent of U.S. Attorney General.)
7.–Ukrainian revisionist Volodymyr Viatrovych served as Minister of Education in Ukraine.
8.–Ukrainian school children are now taught the doctrine of fascist and anti-Semitic ideologue Ulas Samchuk.
9.–Apologists for the Ukrainian fascists cite Vlodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish heritage as proof that Ukraine isn’t infested with Nazis. Zelensky is extensively networked with the Azov Nazis.
10.–Former U.S. Airborne soldier Brian Boyenger appears to have assisted the Georgian Legion in the Maidan false-flag sniper killings. Boyenger also presides over Task Force Pluto, which has incorporated U.S. Nazis into its ranks, including indicted murderers.
11.–Former Marine and U.S. Nazi Christopher Pohlhaus is training American Nazis to fight in Ukraine. One wonders if his trainees will return to the U.S. in order to subdue those who figure to be blamed for “losing” Ukraine.
The program begins with discussion of Bohdan Daszak’s work on behalf of the Germans in a World War II concentration camp. After highlighting disinformation in a summation of Bohan Daszak’s service, we note that the Daszak family was from the Lvov, in Ukraine. That is the area in which the notorious Janowska concentration camp was located. Allegations that “Daddy Daszak” worked at Janowska may very well be true.
After highlighting the Plast organization, a global Ukrainian equivalent of the Hitler Youth and speculating about the possibility that the senior Daszak may have grown up with service in Plast, we note the significant roles of both Finland and Sweden in collaborating with the Nazis, a history which adds ominous depth to the recent admission of both nations to NATO.
Next, the broadcast details the renaming of a street in Kiev for Ulas Samchuk, a notorious anti-Semite and Nazi/OUN‑B collaborator. His work is required reading in Ukrainian schools!
The program concludes with a look at the New York Times’ whitewashing of the Nazi manifestation in Ukraine.
Mr. Emory’s Patreon site features the first two articles he has written (on the U.S./Russian pipeline war and Lithuanian fascism through the years), as well as highlighting numerous goings on in the world, including Covid-19. Dr. Jeffrey Sachs “pretty convinced” Covid came from a U.S. Bio-Lab. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE. Mr. Emory emphatically recommends that listeners/readers get the 32GB flash drive containing all of Mr. Emory’s 43 years on the air, plus a library of old anti-fascist books on easy-to-download PDF files.
Updating coverage of the Ukraine war, the title of this series comes from the late, brilliant political comedian Mort Sahl’s 1976 autobiography Heartland. Mort Sahl was one of Jim Garrison’s investigators in the New Orleans DA’s investigation of the assassination of JFK.
The program begins with discussion of a powerful economic motive for baiting Russia into the Ukraine war–creating a pretext for obliging Europe and Germany to forego use of the Nordstream 2 pipeline and sever the EU from consumption of Russian natural gas.
” . . . . The only way left for U.S. diplomats to block European purchases is to goad Russia into a military response and then claim that avenging this response outweighs any purely national economic interest. As hawkish Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, explained in a State Department press briefing on January 27: ‘If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.’ The problem is to create a suitably offensive incident and depict Russia as the aggressor. . . .”
In FTR#1245, we detailed Swiss intelligence officer Jacques Baud’s analysis of Ukraine’s impending assault on the ethnically and linguistically Russian population of Eastern Ukraine and Biden’s signing off on that operation in order to realize American and Western European goals.
Next, we present an oblique, possibly very significant element. A Foreign Policy article discussing a forbearer of EU president Ursula Von Der Leyen’s who was a key Third Reich official in Galicia (Western Ukraine).
It appears that Joachim Freiherr von der Leyen was a member of the prominent silk merchant family into which Ursula married.
Conventional family trees make no mention of him: ” . . . . Joachim Freiherr von der Leyen ( September 28, 1897 in Haus Meer , Büderich (Meerbusch) ; † 1945 in Dresden ) was a German lawyer and administrative official who worked as a district administrator in the occupied countries of Czechoslovakia and Poland during the National Socialist period and as a district captain of the district of Galicia was involved in the organization of the Holocaust. Von der Leyen comes from the von der Leyen family of silk barons in Krefeld. . . .”
Next, we highlight the ongoing lionization of Ukrainian Nazi and fascist elements in the mainstream U.S. press.
A long spread in the Sunday New York Times beatifies the Nazi Azov Regiment, the chief Ukrainian unit defending the Azovstal steel works.
Another NYT piece presents a heroic portrayal of a Ukrainian saboteur from the Nazi/fascist Azov and Right Sector units: ” . . . . Before the war, Svarog occasionally joined weekend training with Right Sector and National Corps, a branch of the Azov movement, both of which are aligned with paramilitary units in Ukraine. . . .”
The elevation of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists by the U.S. is exemplified by a Pentagon-sponsored athletic competition: ” . . . .This August, during the Department of Defense’s annual Warrior Games at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, liberal comedian Jon Stewart awarded a Ukrainian military veteran named Ihor Halushka the ‘Heart of the Team’ award for ‘inspiring his team’ with his ‘personal example.’ Halushka happens to have been a member of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has been armed by the US and integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard. . . . Perhaps the most famous Ukrainian Warrior Games participant is Yulia Palevska, who the New York Times has dubbed ‘a symbol of Ukrainian bravery and self-sacrifice.’. . . . Yulia Palevska and Ihor Halushka were members of the fascist Right Sector organization and Azov Battalion, respectively. . . .”
Next, we further develop Ukraine’s enemies/death list, noting the experience of former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter.
Joining Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Henry Kissinger on the list, several of the members of which have been murdered, Ritter notes the presence of OUN/B youth camps in this country, possible breeding grounds for assassins.
Furthermore, Ritter correctly locates those OUN/B youth camps in the political continuum stretching from the Third Reich, through the Cold War, up to today—a continuum inextricably linked with the Gehlen organization.
“ . . . . I had to drive past Ellenville, a sleepy little town that is home to a camp belonging to the Ukrainian American Youth Association which, every summer, coordinates with the Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms of Ukraine to hold a ‘Heroes’ Holiday’ honoring veteran of the Ukrainian People’s Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. . . . That a monument to men responsible for genocidal mass murder and who, in the case of two of them (Shukhevych and Bandera) openly collaborated with Nazi Germany, could be erected in the United States is disturbing. [NB—Konovalets cooperated with the Third Reich as well, D.E.] That every year Ukrainian-American adherents of the odious ideology of Stepan Bandera gather to celebrate his legacy at a “children’s camp” where the youth are arrayed in brown uniforms that make them look like what they, in fact, are — ideological storm troopers for a hateful neo-Nazi ideology that promotes the racial superiority of the Ukrainian people, is a national abomination. . . . Bandera has been elevated to the status of a national hero in Ukraine, and his birthday is considered a national holiday. . . . The legacy of Stepan Bandera is at the very heart of what passes for Ukrainian nationalism today. It dominates the political arena inside Ukraine, where all competing political ideology and affiliations have been outlawed by President Volodymyr Zelensky. . . .”
In FTR #907, we noted the profound presence of the Ukrainian fascists in the United States, as well as their operational connections to the Third Reich. In FTR #1072, we noted the Ukrainian youth cadre in the U.S., and its affiliation with the OUN/B milieu in Ukraine.
Our next item out these connections, noting:
1. The CYM organization and its presence in the U.S.
2. The decisive involvement of post-World War II emigres in the growth of that movement.
3. CYM’s close affiliation with the OUN/B.
4. CYM’s uniformed, military orientation: ” . . . . Among the most popular activities are military-style games where campers are divided into two teams that have to dodge or capture their opponents by moving stealthily and organizing ambushes. . . . .”
Further solidifying the continuity between the Third Reich, the Gehlen Org and the GOP, we note that, while it was the BND (the intelligence service of the Federal Republic) the “Org” was financing the Eastern European fascist groups that encompassed the CYM camps in the U.S.
Our programs conclude with excerpts of another interview with Swiss intelligence officer Jacques Baud.
For the edification of the reader, we present the full text of the interview here.
In the program, we note Ukraine’s “mirror imaging” of the political and military aspects of the war, representing Ukrainian atrocities and war crimes as Russian.
In turn, Western media slavishly report the Ukrainian propaganda as fact, a dynamic Mr. Emory has cited as cementing the Nazification of America, begun during the closing stages of World War II.
Baud cites Ukrainian operations behind Russian lines: “ . . . . This is a terrorist campaign targeting pro-Russian Ukrainian personalities and officials. It follows major changes in the leadership of the SBU, in Kiev, and in the regions, including Lvov, Ternopol since July. It is probably in the context of this same campaign that Darya Dugina was assassinated on August 21. The objective of this new campaign could be to convey the illusion that there is an ongoing resistance in the areas taken by the Russians and thus revive Western aid, which is starting to fatigue. These sabotage activities do not really have an operational impact and seem more related to a psychological operation. It may be that these are actions like the one on Snake Island at the beginning of May, intended to demonstrate to the international public that Ukraine is acting. What the incidents in Crimea indirectly show is that the popular resistance claimed by the West in February does not exist. . . .”
Colonel Baud also highlights Ukraine’s shelling of the Zaporihizia Nuclear Power Plant: “ . . . . By bombing the plant, Ukraine could also be trying to pressure the West to intervene in the conflict, under the pretext that Russia is seeking to disconnect the plant from the Ukrainian power grid before the fall. This suicidal behavior—as stated by UN Secretary General António Guterres—would be in line with the war waged by Ukraine since 2014. There is strong evidence that the attacks on Energodar are Ukrainian. The fragments of projectiles fired at the site from the other side of the Dnieper are of Western origin. It seems that they come from British BRIMSTONE missiles, which are precision missiles, whose use is monitored by the British. Apparently, the West is aware of the Ukrainian attacks on the ZNPP. This might explain why Ukraine is not very supportive of an international commission of inquiry and why Western countries are putting unrealistic conditions for sending investigators from the IAEA, an agency that has not shown much integrity so far. . . .”
Colonel Baud sums up the role of terror central to the Nazified Ukrainian regime, parroted by Western MSM: “ . . . . Ukrainian crimes were beginning to be revealed on social networks, and on 27 March Zelensky feared that this would jeopardize Western support. This was followed—rather opportunely—by the Bucha massacre on 3 April, the circumstances of which remain unclear. Britain, which then had the chairmanship of the UN Security Council, refused three times the Russian request to set up an international commission of enquiry into the crimes of Bucha. Ukrainian socialist MP Ilya Kiva revealed on Telegram that the Bucha tragedy was planned by the British MI6 special services and implemented by the SBU. The fundamental problem is that the Ukrainians have replaced the ‘operational art’ with brutality. . . .”
The cleansing program being implemented by the Zelensky government and the SBU intelligence service of Ukraine appears to be a European manifestation of the Phoenix Program: ” . . . . Douglas Valentine, author of the seminal book The Phoenix Program (1990), in a recent interview told me that Phoenix went public in 1968 under the justification that it was ‘protecting the people from terrorism’—like with the SBU programs today. The detentions were largely designed to encourage defections while striking fear in the public. . . .” ” . . . . Valentine . . . sees eerie parallels between the original Phoenix program and Zelensky’s operations today. In both cases, Valentine told CAM in an exclusive interview, ‘neutralism wasn’t tolerated.’ . . .” Ukrainian television anchor quotes Adolf Eichmann verbatim in this video from UKRAINE 24. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE. Mr. Emory emphatically recommends that listeners/readers get the 32GB flash drive containing all of Mr. Emory’s 43 years on the air, plus a library of old anti-fascist books on easy-to-download PDF files.
Continuing analysis of the Ukraine War and the ascent of the OUN/B Nazi collaborators to positions of power in Ukraine, we note the following:
1.–Actor Ashton Kutcher tweeted support for Ukraine, where his wife, Mila Kunis, was born.
2.–”. . . . A Member of the Ukrainian Parliament from the far-right Svoboda Party [Igor Miroshnichenko] … sneeringly proclaimed that [Kunis] was not Ukrainian but a zhydovka. This deeply hurtful slur for a Jew was an alarming gutter effort to inject Jew-hatred into the acceptable bounds of mainstream Ukrainian discourse. . . .”
3.–Many key ministerial posts in the new Ukrainian government have been filled by Swoboda and Pravy Sektor, the political heirs to the OUN/B. The supervision of the military and the judicial process is under the sway of those parties. ” . . . . The man facing down Putin’s aggression as secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council is Andriy Parubiy. He oversees national security for the nation having previously served as security commandant during the anti-government protests in Kiev. . . . Overseeing the armed forces alongside Parubiy as the Deputy Secretary of National Security is Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector . . . .The new Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych is a member of the far-right Svoboda party . . . . Svoboda now controls the ecology and agricultural ministry with Andriy Mokhnyk, the deputy head of Svoboda, running ecology and Ihor Shvaika as agriculture minister. . . . ‘There are seven ministers with links to the extreme right now. It began with Svoboda getting 10 per cent of the vote in the last election, it is certainly a concern in the long run.’ . . . . Svoboda member Oleh Makhnitsky is now acting prosecutor general. . . .”
4.–Vasily Vovk (the Ukrainian intelligence officer in charge of the investigation of the shoot-down of MH 17) summed up the findings of his “investigation”: ” . . . . ‘I am confident that this missile system was delivered from the territory of the Russian Federation with a high-skilled crew — most likely a crew of well-trained officers, of course from Russian territory,’ he said. . . .”
5.–A more complete understanding of Vovk’s political inclinations can be gleaned from this: ” . . . .Vovk – a general who holds a senior reserve rank with the Security Service of Ukraine, the local successor to the KGB – wrote that Jews ‘aren’t Ukrainians and I will destroy you along with [Ukrainian oligarch and Jewish lawmaker Vadim] Rabinovych. I’m telling you one more time – go to hell, zhidi [kikes], the Ukrainian people have had it to here with you.’ ‘Ukraine must be governed by Ukrainians,’ he wrote. . . .”
6.–The Azov Battalion’s National Druzhyna militia was awarded the job of election monitoring by the Ukrainian government in their recent elections. ” . . . . They are the ultranationalist National Militia, street vigilantes with roots in the battle-tested Azov Battalion that emerged to defend Ukraine against Russia-backed separatists but was also accused of possible war crimes and neo-Nazi sympathies. Yet despite the controversy surrounding it, the National Militia was granted permission by the Central Election Commission to officially monitor Ukraine’s presidential election on March 31. . . .”
7.–Azov has gained influence within the Ministry of the Interior through Vadim Troyan, the former deputy commander of Azov who is now deputy minister of the interior. ” . . . . The deputy minister of the Interior—which controls the National Police—is Vadim Troyan, a veteran of Azov and Patriot of Ukraine. . . . Today, he’s deputy of the department running US-trained law enforcement in the entire nation. Earlier this month, RFE reported on National Police leadership admiring Stepan Bandera—a Nazi collaborator and Fascist whose troops participated in the Holocaust—on social media. The fact that Ukraine’s police is peppered with far-right supporters explains why neo-Nazis operate with impunity on the streets. . . .”
8.–There has been a series of suspicious deaths of opposition political figures and critics of the Poroshenko/Maidan regime in Ukraine. One wonders of the “European Union values” supposedly being manifested in Ukraine includes systematic political assassination of the opposition, a possibility that must be considered in this context. Recall that the deputy commander of the Azov Battalion became chief of police in Kiev in this time frame.
9.–There is no more significant aspect of the “Azov manifestation” than the Azov-sponsored ISG conferences, which have included national security figures from neighboring countries who–apparently–share Azov’s geopolitical orientation. ” . . . . a large share of the foreign speakers from Poland, Lithuania, and Croatia had a (para-)military background, among them advisor to the Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Targalski and retired Brigadier General of the Croatian Armed Forces Bruno Zorica.[156] Among the talking points of Polish military educator Damien Duda were ‘methods of the preparation of a military reserve in youth organizations’ and the ‘importance of paramilitary structures within the framework of the defence complex of a modern state.’ . . . It also included ‘military attaches of diplomatic missions from the key countries in the region (Poland, Hungary, Romania and Lithuania). . . .”
10.–In numerous broadcasts, we have noted the Orwellian rewrite of Ukrainian history to deny the perpetrators of the Holocaust in that country and whitewash the Nazi-allied OUN/B and UPA. We conclude the program with introductory discussion of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. We will continue with this analysis in the next program.
In December of 2021, the U.N. voted 130–2 on a motion to condemn celebrations of Nazism. Only the U.S. and Ukraine voted against it. The EU and UK abstained.
” . . . . ‘By its terms, the Assembly expressed deep concern about the glorification of the Nazi movement, neo-Nazism and former members of the Waffen SS organization, including by erecting monuments and memorials, holding public demonstrations in the name of the glorification of the Nazi past, the Nazi movement and neo-Nazism, and declaring or attempting to declare such members and those who fought against the anti-Hitler coalition, collaborated with the Nazi movement and committed war crimes and crimes against humanity ‘participants in national liberation movements’. . . .”
Look at the picture at right:
That embodies the political dynamic underlying the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
The first two of a number of programs that will deal with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, these programs begin the detailed documentation of the ascent of the OUN/B successor groups to positions of power in the national security, police, educational and political establishments in Ukraine.
These program will highlight and recap the exhaustive documentation presented over the roughly eight-year period since the Maidan coup, documenting the OUN/B Nazi dominance in Ukraine.
Note that Putin’s stated war aim: “De-Nazification” is not only substantively relevant, but just.
Mr. Emory doubts that the war will go well. The fighting may well have been sparked by a looming attempt by the Ukrainian government to seize the breakaway provinces by force, supported by U.S. and other Western military supply and clandestine special operations troops–the only circumstance that Mr. Emory felt would precipitate Russian intervention.
The historical and institutional evolution of the fascist OUN/B successor groups in control of Ukraine is excerpted in sections of a Covert Action Magazine article:
Some of the most important U.S. think tanks and associated military individuals and institutions embody this continuity: ” . . . . The continuity of institutional and individual trajectories from Second World War collaborationists to Cold War-era anti-communist organizations to contemporary conservative U.S. think tanks is significant for the ideological underpinnings of today’s Intermarium revival. . . .”
We present key excerpts of the paper to underscore dominant features of this evolutionary continuity:
1.–A key player in the events that brought the OUN successor organizations to power in Ukraine has been the Atlantic Council. It receives backing from NATO, the State Department, Lithuania and Ukrainian Oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. The think tank also receives major funding from the Ukrainian World Congress, which evolved from the OUN. ” . . . . In 1967, the World Congress of Free Ukrainians was founded in New York City by supporters of Andriy Melnyk. [The head of the OUN‑M, also allied with Nazi Germany.–D.E.] It was renamed the Ukrainian World Congress in 1993. In 2003, the Ukrainian World Congress was recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as an NGO with special consultative status. It now appears as a sponsor of the Atlantic Council . . . . The continuity of institutional and individual trajectories from Second World War collaborationists to Cold War-era anti-communist organizations to contemporary conservative U.S. think tanks is significant for the ideological underpinnings of today’s Intermarium revival. . . .”
2.–Ukrainian proto-fascist forces were at the core of Josef Pilsudski’s Polish-led Intermarium and overlapping Promethean organizations. 3.–Those forces coalesced into the OUN. ” . . . . According to the British scholar and journalist Stephen Dorril, the Promethean League served as an anti-communist umbrella organization for anti-Soviet exiles displaced after the Ukrainian government of Simon Petlura (1879–1926) gave up the fight against the Soviets in 1922.[12] . . . . as Dorril affirms, ‘the real leadership and latent power within the Promethean League emanated from the Petlura-dominated Ukrainian Democratic Republic in exile and its Polish sponsors. The Poles benefited directly from this arrangement, as Promethean military assets were absorbed into the Polish army, with Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian contract officers not uncommon in the ranks.’[13] The alliance between Piłsudski and Petlura became very unpopular among many Western Ukrainians, as it resulted in Polish domination of their lands. This opposition joined the insurgent Ukrainian Military Organization (Ukrainska viiskova orhanizatsiia, UVO—founded 1920), which later transformed into the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Orhanizatsiia ukrainskykh natsionalistiv, OUN). . . .”
3.–According to former Army intelligence officer William Gowen (a source used and trusted by John Loftus and Mark Aarons) the Intermarium and Promethean network assets were used by Third Reich intelligence during World War II. ” . . . . Based on Gowen’s reports, such authors as Christopher Simpson, Stephen Dorril, Mark Aarons, and John Loftus have suggested that the networks of the Promethean League and the Intermarium were utilized by German intelligence. . . .”
4.–Not surprisingly, the Intermarium/Promethean milieu appears to have been centrally involved in the Nazi escape networks, the Vatican-assisted “Ratlines,” in particular. ” . . . . American intelligence began to take notice of the Intermarium network in August 1946[42] in the framework of Operation Circle, a Counterintelligence Corps (CIC) project the original goal of which was to determine how networks inside the Vatican had spirited away so many Nazi war criminals and collaborators, mostly to South America.[43] Among the group of CIC officers involved in the operation was Levy’s source William Gowen. Then a young officer based in Rome, Gowen suspected the Intermarium network to be behind Nazi war criminals and collaborators’ extensive escape routes from Europe. . . .”
5.–It comes as no surprise, as well, that U.S. intelligence absorbed the Intermarium/Promethean networks after the war. ” . . . . According to Aarons and Loftus, although he had initially been thoroughly opposed to this course of action, by ‘early July 1947, Gowen was strongly advocating that American intelligence should take over Intermarium; before long, the CIC officer was no longer hunting for Nazis, but recruiting them.’[49] . . . .”
6.–One of the main components of the “Intermarium continuity” is the ABN—the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. The OUN and associated elements constitute the most important element of the ABN. ” . . . . a vast number of anti-communist organizations were formed in the immediate post-war period and supported by the US.[57] They constitute one of the main components of the Intermarium ‘genealogical tree,’ in the sense that they revived the memory of Piłsudski’s attempts to unify Central and Eastern Europe against Soviet Russia and gave them new life, but blended this memory with far-right tones inspired by collaboration with Nazi Germany.[58] The most important of the European anti-communist organizations was the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN). . . . Because fascist movements were, in the 1930s, the first to organize themselves against the Soviet Union, the ABN recruited massively among their ranks and served as an umbrella for many former collaborationist paramilitary organizations in exile, amongst them the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera (OUN‑B), the Croatian Ustaše, the Romanian Iron Guard, and the Slovakian Hlinka Guard.[59] It thus contributed to guaranteeing the survival of their legacies at least until the end of the Cold War. According to the liberal Institute for Policy Studies think tank, created by two former aides to Kennedy advisors, the ABN was the ‘largest and most important umbrella for former Nazi collaborators in the world.’ . . . .”
7.–In addition to the OUN/Ukrainian fascist milieu, the Croatian Ustashe fascists became a dominant element. This is fundamental to the Azov Battalion’s Intermarium project, discussed in FTR #‘s 1096 and 1097. ” . . . . The most active groups within the ABN became the Ukrainian and Croatian organizations, particularly the Ukrainian OUN.[61] The OUN, under the leadership of Andriy Melnyk (1890–1964), collaborated with the Nazi occupiers from the latter’s invasion of Poland in September 1939. The Gestapo trained Mykola Lebed and the adherents of Melnyk’s younger competitor, Stepan Bandera (1909–1959), in sabotage, guerrilla warfare, and assassinations. The OUN’s 1941 split into the so-called OUN‑B, following Stepan Bandera, and OUN‑M, following Andriy Melnyk,[62] did not keep both factions from continuing to collaborate with the Germans. . . .”
8.–Former SS and Abwehr officer Theodor Oberlaender–the political officer for the UPA and the Nachtigall Battalion during the Lviv Pogrom of June 1941–was vital to the continuity of the OUN and UPA and thus, the Intermarium” . . . .While in Soviet Ukraine the UPA kept on fighting against Moscow until the early 1950s, their capacities were exhausted. . . . As Federal Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees, and the War-Damaged during the Adenauer government, Oberländer played a crucial role in the rise of the ABN and allowed Ukrainian collaborationists to take the lead in it. Yaroslav Stetsko (1912–1986), who presided over the Ukrainian collaborationist government in Lviv from as early as 30 June 1941, led the ABN from its creation in 1946 until his death in 1986. . . .”
9.–The Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) confirmed the primacy of the OUN/B within the ABN. Note the continuity of OUN and UPA guerilla warfare in Ukraine, begun under third Reich auspices and enjoying post World War II support from CIA, and OPC. This has been covered in AFA #1 and FTR #777.) : ” . . . . CIC confirmed that by 1948 both the ‘Intermarium’ and the UPA (Ukrainian partisan command) reported to the ABN president, Yaroslav Stetsko. The UPA in turn had consolidated all the anti-Soviet partisans under its umbrella. Yaroslav Stetsko was also Secretary of OUN/B and second in command to Bandera, who had the largest remaining partisan group behind Soviet lines under his direct command. Thus, OUN/B had achieved the leadership role among the anti-Communist exiles and was ascendant by 1950 . . . .”
10.–Contemporary Ukraine is the focal point of the reincarnated Intermarium concept. ” . . . . The most recent reincarnation of the Intermarium has taken form in Ukraine, especially among the Ukrainian far right, which has re-appropriated the concept by capitalizing on the solid ideological and personal continuity between actors of the Ukrainian far right in the interwar and Cold War periods and their heirs today. . . .”
11.–The continuity of the Intermarium concept as manifested in contemporary Ukraine is epitomized by the role of Yaroslava Stetsko (Yaroslav’s widow and successor as a decisive ABN and OUN leader). Note the networking between her Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and Svoboda. “. . . . This continuity is exemplified by the wife of long-time ABN leader Yaroslav Stetsko, Yaroslava Stetsko (1920–2003), a prominent figure in the Ukrainian post-Second World War émigré community who became directly involved in post-Soviet Ukrainian politics. Having joined the OUN at the age of 18, she became an indispensable supporter of the ABN after the war . . . . In July 1991, she returned to Ukraine, and in the following year formed the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (CUN), a new political party established on the basis of the OUN, presiding over both.[129] Although the CUN never achieved high election results, it cooperated with the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU), which later changed its name to Svoboda, the far-right Ukrainian party that continues to exist. . . .”
12.–Yaroslava Stetsko’s CUN was co-founded by her husband’s former secretary in the 1980s, Roman Svarych. Minister of Justice in the Viktor Yuschenko government (as well as both Timoshenko governments), Svarych became the spokesman and a major recruiter for the Azov Battalion. ” . . . . The co-founder of the CUN and formerly Yaroslav Stetsko’s private secretary, the U.S.-born Roman Zvarych (1953), represents a younger generation of the Ukrainian émigré community active during the Cold War and a direct link from the ABN to the Azov Battalion. . . . Zvarych participated in the activities of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations in the 1980s. . . . In February 2005, after Viktor Yushchenko’s election, Zvarych was appointed Minister of Justice. . . . According to Andriy Biletsky, the first commander of the Azov battalion, a civil paramilitary unit created in the wake of the Euromaidan, Zvarych was head of the headquarters of the Azov Central Committee in 2015 and supported the Azov battalion with ‘volunteers’ and political advice through his Zvarych Foundation. . . .”
12.–The “Intermarium Continuity” is inextricable with the historical revisionism about the roles of the OUN and UPA in World War II. That revisionism is institionalized in the Institute of National Remembrance. ” . . . .The reintroduction of the Intermarium notion in Ukraine is closely connected to the broad rehabilitation of the OUN and UPA, as well as of their main hero, Stepan Bandera. . . . During his presidency (2005–2010), and particularly through the creation of the Institute for National Remembrance, Viktor Yushchenko built the image of Bandera as a simple Ukrainian nationalist fighting for his country’s independence . . . .”
13.–As discussed in numerous programs, another key element in the “Intermarium Continuity” is Kateryna Chumachenko, an OUN operative who served in the State Department and Ronald Reagan’s administration. She married Viktor Yuschenko. ” . . . . It is not unlikely Yushchenko’s readiness during his presidency (2005–2010) to open up to right-wing tendencies of the Ukrainian exile leads back to his wife, who had connections to the ABN. Kateryna Chumachenko [Yushchenko], born 1961 in Chicago, was socialised there in the Ukrainian exile youth organisation SUM (Spilka Ukrajinskoji Molodi, Ukrainian Youth Organisation) in the spirit of the OUN. Via the lobby association Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) she obtained a post as ‘special assistant’ in the U.S. State Department in 1986, and was from 1988 to 1989 employed by the Office of Public Liaison in the White House. . . .”
15.–Embodying the “Intermarium Continuity” are the lustration laws, which make it a criminal offence to tell the truth about the OUN and UPA’s roles in World War II. Note Volodymyr Viatrovych’s position as minister of education. ” . . . . This rehabilitation trend accelerated after the EuroMaidan. In 2015, just before the seventieth anniversary of Victory Day, Volodymyr Viatrovych, minister of education and long-time director of the Institute for the Study of the Liberation Movement, an organization founded to promote the heroic narrative of the OUN–UPA, called on the parliament to vote for a set of four laws that codified the new, post-Maidan historiography. Two of them are particularly influential in the ongoing memory war with Russia. One decrees that OUN and UPA members are to be considered ‘fighters for Ukrainian independence in the twentieth century,’ making public denial of this unlawful. . . .”
16.–As discussed discussed in FTR #‘s 1096 and 1097, the Azov Battalion is in the leadership of the revival of the Intermarium concept.” . . . . In this context of rehabilitation of interwar heroes, tensions with Russia, and disillusion with Europe over its perceived lack of support against Moscow, the geopolitical concept of Intermarium could only prosper. It has found its most active promoters on the far right of the political spectrum, among the leadership of the Azov Battalion. . . .”
17.–Azov’s Intermarium Support Group has held three networking conferences to date, bringing together key figures of what are euphemized as “nationalist” organizations. In addition to focusing on the development of what are euphemized as “nationalist” youth organizations, the conference is stressing military organization and preparedness: ” . . . . In 2016, Biletsky created the Intermarium Support Group (ISG),[152] introducing the concept to potential comrades-in-arms from the Baltic-Black Sea region.[153] The first day of the founding conference was reserved for lectures and discussions by senior representatives of various sympathetic organizations, the second day to ‘the leaders of youth branches of political parties and nationalist movements of the Baltic-Black Sea area.’ . . . . It also included ‘military attaches of diplomatic missions from the key countries in the region (Poland, Hungary, Romania and Lithuania). . . .”
18.–Azov’s third ISG conference continued to advance the military networking characteristics of the earlier gatherings, involving military officials from Eastern European countries and including the necessity of giving military training to what are euphemized as “nationalist” youth organizations. Note the continued manifestation in the “new” Croatia of Ustachi political culture. ” . . . . On October 13, 2018, the ISG organized its third congress. Besides the Ukrainian hosts, a large share of the foreign speakers from Poland, Lithuania, and Croatia had a (para-)military background, among them advisor to the Polish Defence Minister Jerzy Targalski and retired Brigadier General of the Croatian Armed Forces Bruno Zorica.[156] Among the talking points of Polish military educator Damien Duda were ‘methods of the preparation of a military reserve in youth organizations” and the “importance of paramilitary structures within the framework of the defence complex of a modern state.’ . . . .”
Program Highlights Include: The appointment of former Pravy Sektor chief Dymytro Yarosh as advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces; Yarosh’s affiliation with the ideology of OUN/B head Stephan Bandera; the evolution of Pravy Sektor–a political front for the final military incarnation of the UPA, the military branch of the OUN/B; The formation of the Werewolf guerilla groups by Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen, including elements of UPA; the battle cry of the Werewolves, broadcast by Radio Werewolf: “Rather Dead Than Red,” a phrase that lived long after; The genesis of the term “Iron Curtain,” minted by Nazi finance minister Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk; the apparent genesis of the French OAS as part of the Werewolf operation; The continuation of UPA guerilla activity by units fighting with their German SS officers in Ukraine until 1952; The institutionalization of the civilian militia of Azov Battalion (National Druzhyna Militia) and the C14 Militia of the Nazi Svoboda group as auxiliary police forces, enjoying law-enforcement powers in 21 Ukrainian cities, including Kiev; the launching of anti-Roma pogroms by National Dryzhyna and C14 groups, with the apparent connivance of the police authorities; The career of former Azov Battalion officer Vadim Troyan, who became the national police chief in Ukraine and then a top aide to the Interior Minister of Ukraine; The adoption by the Ukrainian military and police of the “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to The Heroes!” salute of the OUN/B and UPA in World War II; The naming of streets in Ukraine for Nazi war criminals; The brutal anti-Polish massacres by UPA in the Ukraine-Polish War, a “sub-war” of WWII; Suppression of freedom of speech and press in Ukraine; The outlawing of accurate historical documentation of the Nazi collaborators and ethnic cleansing of the OUN/B and UPA.
Representative of the important Nazi role in Ukrainian national security affairs is the appointment of former Pravy Sektor chief Dymytro Yarosh as an adviser to the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces. Yarosh wrote about his appointment on Facebook: “By order of Lieutenant General Valery Zaluzhny, I was appointed an adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. . . .” We have covered the ascent in Ukraine of the successors to the OUN/B WWII Nazi collaborators in numerous programs and posts. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE. Mr. Emory emphatically recommends that listeners/readers get the 32GB flash drive containing all of Mr. Emory’s 43 years on the air, plus a library of old anti-fascist books on easy-to-download PDF files.
For years, we have exhaustively documented the return to power of the Third Reich-allied OUN/B in Ukraine. A revealing vote at the UN shone a rare spotlight on the pro-fascist and Nazi strategic agenda that the US and much of the rest of the West has pursued since before the guns of World War II fell silent. With the EU and UK abstaining from the vote, the US and Ukraine were the only nations voting against the resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE.