Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

From the Inexhaustible Source
January 7, 1957 | Stepan Bandera

Posted on 03/23/2014 1:06:11 PM PDT by annalex

Stepan Bandera

From the Inexhaustible Source

Written on the occasion of Christmas, January 7, 1957

The struggle with the Moscow version of the Communist doctrine is struggle to the death. It is so not only for those who knowingly chose to oppose it, but also for the entire people that got caught in its merciless vise. That is because the ruthless extermination of individuality, self-reliance, of any expression of love for freedom, the cold and methodical extermination of human beings, -- that is the essence of Moscow’s “national policy”. Every enslaved nation, all its strata and every individual man constantly stand before the dilemma: to be vanquished and become Moscow’s obedient tool, or to perish.

In the beginning of the Communist rule we were told that the project consists of the extermination of certain “class enemies”, -- those who stand in the way of the advanced and humane school of thought to expose its best qualities. They said, one day a new generation will grow up, raised in the communist spirit, the entire world will be convinced in the benefits of the new doctrine, and then the machine of oppression and extermination would be retired as no longer needed. However, the multitudes of “class enemies” kept increasing. The machine worked and worked. During four decades the “new generation” had time to grow up, become adults, get old and have grandchildren, who now since birth were raised in the correct spirit. But nothing changed. It was still necessary to oppress and kill people. Without it, the communist “kingdom of universal equality” cannot survive.

People did not change. The sense of justice, the human dignity, the thirst for the truth could not be exterminated. People did not believe that the inhumane communist system functioned for their own good. They did not believe that their executioners are knights, that the victims were unavoidable. Then they were blocked off from the rest of the world by a wall, telling them day and night tales about the poverty and lack of opportunity of the working men in the capitalist countries and making them thank the “party and the government” for every breath of air. Everything that is dear to human heart and to the soul of the nation went under the knife: the Church, the national traditions, all forms of unique culture and creativity, the history, the literature unless it performed an educational and propagandistic function. Where the rich prairie of diverse grass once blossomed, scorched earth remained.

It seemed a better condition for turning men into whatever they wanted could not be invented. All the obstacles were removed, all resistance suppressed, people brought into obedience and under complete control. But no! Nothing helped! And this failure is the clearest evidence that the task of building communism and creating a “new man” is madness, utopia, and foreordained to fail. That is because its foundation was the false view of the nature of man and society. Indeed, to a materialist the spiritual dimension, -- that is, everything lofty, luminous, ineffable, -- is nothing other than a product of living conditions, class loyalty and educational circumstance.

When the creators of the “new social formation” and “new man” realized their defeat, they found an original resolution: they declared the current condition “transitory” and shifted wholly to what they do best: oppression and expansion. The man in his present “defective” condition has to be maximally enslaved; the rule of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union must be spread as wide as possible. Ideally – world-wide. Thus the transformation of man and social relations in accordance with the communist utopia was postponed indefinitely.

This forced “compromise” generated a whole stratum of party bureaucrats, who long since lost their faith in the communist ideals, but instead possess quite pre-revolutionary bureaucratic and police “talents”. And the chief talent is hypocrisy.

People are still force-fed the communist doctrine. However, nowadays not psychotic fanatics are doing the force-feeding, but well-fed functionaries. They learned to doze out the terror, skillfully directing it where their ideological monopoly is threatened. The terror in their hands took on more sophisticated forms. If before the tactics were to exterminate, now they prefer isolation, discrediting, seduction to join their side. The past decades had taught them that terror is not all-powerful. In the past they had overused this potent medicine of a threat of death and now they realize that threats don’t impact the internal rod, which won’t bend and won’t break, because the rod is planted in things beyond life and death.

Life, in their worldview, is the highest value. Death is its negation. How can one consciously exchange the first for the second? How does this trick work? Not understanding the nature of that choice they could not nevertheless avoid the immutable fact that this choice is made by millions of people. At times, by entire nations! As they deny the eternal soul they deny Him Who is Life and the source of life of each man. Who is before all life. With Whom each human soul unites past the threshold of death.

It is not an accident that the creators of “new life” made war on the Church of Christ. There is a reason why with such mad determination uproot they the principles of the traditional popular religiosity! But even as they destroyed the temples, exterminated the clergy, deprived the people of all visible signs of church life, they could not remove the root of faith that is present in the soul of man from the beginning: the longing for God and unstoppable urge toward Him.

They can deprive men of all freedoms, put them in bondage, enslave, imprison in stone walls. One thing is not possible: kill in them the desire of freedom. That is because the desire for freedom is a God-given gift, which cannot be taken away from men.

The man-hating system built by the communists put the truth in prison, with barbed wire bound it in concentration camps, drove it underground. The system left nothing except lies and falsehoods. But one thing it did not find the strength to do: to deprive man from being able to tell truth from falsehood, from the yearning for the truth, from the readiness to fight and suffer for the truth, and from the ability to have faith in the inevitable victory of the truth. That is because on the road of truth and honor the human soul draws nearer to God. It is not possible to block the soul from going on that road. No matter how they try, the soul returns on the road.

The love of the fellow human and the sense of justice also cannot be exterminated from human relations. Because they are the gift of God that no one can take away from us. It is love for the neighbor and the sense of justice that are the foundation of the national consciousness, national sense, national honor. These are only holy when they are springing from that Divine source and are illumined by Its light.

This is why any, however feeble, signs of national revival and reference to the national tradition cause such fierce hatred in the communist bureaucrats. They want people that are divided and confused so that they can manipulate them better: send them to the “great construction” projects, put in uniforms, throw against machine guns. But however long one poisons the national sense in a man, it will still break through like grass through asphalt.

Precisely these properties of the human soul, that cannot be uprooted, call the soul to resist communist tyranny, which is fated to hate God, nation, man. The ability to resist this, at the first glance, invincible enemy points to the source of strength inside the fighter that exceeds the natural human capabilities: the Divine Inspirer. That strength comes from our faith in the merciful, grace-filled God, His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Everyone can drink from this bottomless well as much living water as his soul is capable to absorb. Under most difficult life situations in the greatest calamity, in the desperate struggle, when it seems that the entire world is against you, the faith in the Savior brings immediate and indestructible relief.

The task to defend and preserve the Church of Christ from destruction cannot be separated from the general tasks of the national liberation movement. In the final accounting, it is one and the same task, in which the Church and the rebellion go hand in hand, saving and strengthening one another.

In these Christmas days all our thoughts are, of course, about our longsuffering nation, of our relatives and friends in Ukraine, of those who languish in prisons, concentration camps and exile. Above all of this is the great mystery – the Mystery of the Incarnation. Why did Our Lord come to us in humble abode of shepherds, in the image of a helpless baby, in need of care and protection? This thought fills the soul with faith and love. It is not a matter of humility, for true debasement is the company of self-righteous sinners, not humble simple men. Our heart is captivated with something else: that Christ came to those who more than anyone else needed Divine help. He came even less powerful than they were, and having received help from the shepherds made them imitate the Most High, raised them to a soaring height. Because they gave of their grace to the Author of all grace.

This striking Christmas metaphor overshadows our thoughts of the beloved nation, of the faith in Christ, of our enslaved Fatherland. We, the fighters and the sufferers of the Ukrainian liberation movement – are helped by God! From this inexhaustible source we drive our strength. Our faith directs us on the road of the fight.


TOPICS: Politics; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS:



1 posted on 03/23/2014 1:06:11 PM PDT by annalex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: annalex

Bandera was an evil man, every bit as evil as what he opposed.


2 posted on 03/23/2014 1:07:23 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: A.A. Cunningham; andyk; BatGuano; bayliving; Belteshazzar; bert; Bibman; Bigg Red; bigheadfred; ...
The task to defend and preserve the Church of Christ from destruction cannot be separated from the general tasks of the national liberation movement. In the final accounting, it is one and the same task, in which the Church and the rebellion go hand in hand, saving and strengthening one another.

Translation is mine, from a Russian translation found here by Vladimir Golishev.

* * *
If you want to be on this right wing, monarchy, paleolibertarianism and nationalism ping list, but are not, please let me know. If you are on it and want to be off, also let me know. This ping list is not used for Catholic-Protestant debates.
3 posted on 03/23/2014 1:10:28 PM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Trying to scare me? I am not afraid.


4 posted on 03/23/2014 1:11:21 PM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: annalex

Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia_and_Eastern_Galicia

I want a free and Democratic Ukraine, but not with guys who worship this scum in charge.


5 posted on 03/23/2014 1:14:43 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
I love this article so much I think I will venerate Stepan Bandera myself, quite regardless of the deplorable acts his organization did when he himself was in a Nazi prison.

Bandera was a revolutionary and a nationalist, at the time when his country exchanged one occupation for another. The ethnic cleansing in Volhynia started, as you know with the Polish side being the guilty party under the Second Polish Republic; that was recognized by the League of Nations. The massacre in question did not occur in a vacuum.

In any event it is silly to have a hysterical reaction to a very profound and insightful article, that any nationalist anywhere can nothing but admire.

6 posted on 03/23/2014 1:53:35 PM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: annalex

And just what did the Poles do that was so bad that is justified massacring women and children.


7 posted on 03/23/2014 1:54:42 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
Nothing that justified the massacre, of course, but there were confiscations, beatings, forced conversions and Polish settlements. Do this, and the violence would escalate.

The point is not that the OUN was innocent but that Bandera did not inspire any of the massacres. He was, for one thing, Catholic and unlikely to be inspiring sectarian violence toward the Poles. Note that Poland today takes a very magnanimous attitude about the modern followers of Bandera's philosophy, apparently recognizing that Ukrainian nationalism is helpful to any nationalist, including a nationalistic Pole. It is especially salutary in order to balance the European community's leftist internationalism.

8 posted on 03/23/2014 2:04:41 PM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: annalex

That land went back and forth between Poles and Ukraine/Russia for centuries.


9 posted on 03/23/2014 2:06:13 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: annalex

Something far too many western members of the various ecclesial groups need to remember, and better yet, come to believe:

“It is not a matter of humility, for true debasement is the company of self-righteous sinners, not humble simple men. Our heart is captivated with something else: that Christ came to those who more than anyone else needed Divine help. He came even less powerful than they were, and having received help from the shepherds made them imitate the Most High, raised them to a soaring height. Because they gave of their grace to the Author of all grace.”


10 posted on 03/23/2014 2:11:49 PM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kolokotronis

Isn’t it wonderful?

As you know, I have no ethnic or personal reasons to admire Ukrainian nationalism, and before I read this I assumed that Bandera was what his biography suggests: a revolutionary, a brave man, a victim of the KGB, a hero for some and a villain for others. It turns out this man was a thinker of considerable theological depth.


11 posted on 03/23/2014 2:22:09 PM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: annalex
Previously posted:

Current events: Ukraine

Escalation in Ukraine
Address to Owners of Weapons (Ukraine)
Sustaining Ukraine's breakthrough: EU expertise and markets are essential [Soros]
Ukrainian Major Archbishop appeals for solidarity and warns the danger of civil war is not over
Alarm in Ukraine as Putin Puts Russian Troops on Alert
A Jewel in Two Crowns [Soviet Sevastopol]
NATO warns Russia to cease and desist in Ukraine
Why Russia No Longer Fears the West
Who Will Stop Putin's Aggression
Illarionov: "Putin's aim is Kiev and all the Ukraine"
Legality of the Crimean Referendum: Legal Analysis
12 posted on 03/23/2014 2:32:41 PM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: annalex

“Isn’t it wonderful?”

It is better than simply wonderful, my friend.


13 posted on 03/23/2014 2:39:08 PM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: annalex

I was saying to myself before I finished the piece that this is the best thing I’ve ever read on Communism and the Soviets. It is too bad that such wisdom only comes from experiencing the beast. And a great translation also (not that I can read Russian). Thanks Annalex.


14 posted on 03/24/2014 2:31:49 AM PDT by No One Special
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: No One Special

Thank you for reading.

I agree: he got the essence of both the Soviet System and the national struggle. Bandera is indeed a hero for the civilized world.


15 posted on 03/24/2014 5:39:31 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson