Stepan Bandera
Stepan Bandera (January 1, 1909 - October 15, 1959) was a controversial Ukrainian nationalist. He led a rebel army, called the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), that fought against the Red Army. Bandera wanted to create an independent Ukrainian state and was sent to a Soviet concentration camp (gulag) in 1941.
The OUN persecuted Jews, Russians and Poles. During the Second World War the OUN welcomed the Germans as liberators from communism and fought alongside them until Hitler's anti-Slav racial policies began murdering Ukrainians.
After the war, Bandera lived under a false name in Munich, Germany, where he was killed by a KGB-agent in 1959.[1]
Stepan Bandera was honored by the Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko as a "Hero of the Ukraine" in 2010.[2] The next president Viktor Yanukovych withdrew the honor. Today there are many monuments in Western Ukraine honoring him.
