Banderites were fascists and contributed to plenty of massacres but they also fought the Nazis because they didn’t feel like bending the knee to Hitler, unlike, say, the Ustaša. In that sense they weren’t collaborationists. It’s why the whole national hero emotionality surrounding Bandera gets so frustratingly complicated.
Makhno is a much more suitable national hero but he was on nobody’s mind as the very idea or existence of Anarchism was suppressed in the USSR while Bandera was a suitable boogeyman. “Enemy of my oppressor is my hero” kind of mechanism.
Banderites were fascists and contributed to plenty of massacres but they also fought the Nazis because they didn’t feel like bending the knee to Hitler, unlike, say, the Ustaša. In that sense they weren’t collaborationists. It’s why the whole national hero emotionality surrounding Bandera gets so frustratingly complicated.
Makhno is a much more suitable national hero but he was on nobody’s mind as the very idea or existence of Anarchism was suppressed in the USSR while Bandera was a suitable boogeyman. “Enemy of my oppressor is my hero” kind of mechanism.
Still, I hope my metaphor went across.