Stepan Bandera is a key figure in Ukrainian history, yet a divisive one. Ban-dera’s legacy continues to live in the identities of Ukrainians today. This essay ex-plores his early life, his contribution to the nationalist movement, Russia’s strategic use of Bandera’s image, and the ongoing controversy about his legacy.
The History of Stepan Bandera
Stepan Bandera was born in 1909 in the village of Staryi Uhryniv (Ivano-Frankivsk). It is located in Western Ukraine, which was a part of Poland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was born as the second oldest of six children in a clerical family. Not only was his father a priest, but he would also get involved in political activities in the West Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR).
Bandera was raised a Ukrainian patriot and his learning environment encour-aged his nationalism. This escalated when he entered the agricultural program at the Lviv Polytechnical Institute and joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), whose main objective was the independence of Ukraine by liberating the land from the rule of the USSR and Poland. …
