CANADIAN MONUMENT TO CONTROVERSIAL UKRAINIANE NATIONAL HERO IGNITE DEBATE

The monument to Roman Shukhevych, commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army from 1943 until his death in 1950, has stood at the entrance of the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in North Edmonton, Alberta, since mid-1970s. Shukhevych is lionized by some for his fight for Ukrainian independence against Poland, the Soviet Union and later Germany. But critics of the monument say it glorifies a Nazi henchman who sided with Germany in hopes of winning independence for Ukraine.

A Canadian monument to a hero of an anti-Soviet nationalist uprising in Ukraine is raising questions about the manipulation of historical memory for political purposes.

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Critics of the monument say Roman Shukhevych was also a ruthless Nazi henchman and honouring him plays into the hands of the Kremlin propaganda machine that seeks to delegitimize the very idea of Ukrainian statehood.

The bronze bust of Shukhevych, one of the leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (known under its Ukrainian acronym UPA) during WWII and immediately after, has stood quietly at the entrance of the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in North Edmonton, Alberta, for 45 years.

Shukhevych’s stern gaze has greeted generations of Ukrainian-Canadians who came to the centre for various community activities, oblivious of the national hero’s messy wartime record of mass murder and ethnic cleansing.

But a series of tweets by the Russian embassy in Ottawa last October, decrying the presence of Nazi monuments in Canada has put the wartime record of the OUN and UPA and one of its most famous and controversial leaders under public scrutiny.

The tweets focussed on three monuments: the bust to Shukhevych and two monuments to the veterans of the 14th Waffen SS Galicia Division that was renamed into the 1st Ukrainian Division shortly before the end of WWII. One of these monuments is located at the St. Michael’s cemetery in Edmonton, the other is in Oakville, Ontario.

Ukrainian-Canadian historian John-Paul Himka, believes the Russian embassy tweets are part of a propaganda campaign by the Kremlin.

They have an interest in these matters because they are trying to present Ukraine as a fascist regime and as a Nazi coup, so that fits into their agenda and they like to create division and chaos in democratic countries, says Himka.

But it doesn’t mean that some of the Russian allegations are untrue, Himka says.

They look for things that they can use, Himka says, adding that he is very troubled by attempts by some Ukrainian-Canadian leaders and organizations to whitewash Shukhevych’s wartime record and glorify his exploits.

Lionized by some in the Ukrainian Canadian community as a brilliant guerilla commander who led the largest insurgency in Europe against Stalin, Shukhevych is considered a war criminal by Jews and Poles for his alleged role in the Holocaust and an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Polish minority in Western Ukraine.

A multicultural paradox

Per Rudling, an associate professor of history at Lund University in Sweden, says he became aware of the Shukhevych monument 15 years ago while completing his PhD at the University of Alberta.

I had been working on Ukrainian nationalist movement, Ukrainian-Polish and Ukrainian-Jewish relations during WWII, so … I found it a little bit puzzling the first time I saw it, Rudling says.

He was even more perplexed when he found out that the monument was partly funded by Canadian taxpayers through programs designed to promote multiculturalism in Canada.

A far right movement.

Ukrainian ultra-nationalists, carrying a banner with a portrait of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) Roman Shukhevych (second from the right), march in the centre of the western city of Lviv on April 28, 2013. The march commemorated the 70th anniversary of 14th Waffen SS Galicia Division made up mostly of Ukrainian volunteers.

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