Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the formation of a Ukrainian nation, Ukraine has been a battleground in the rivalry between the U.S. and Russian imperialists. And Ukrainian nationalists have tried to win the workers of Ukraine to support one or the other of these imperialist powers. Now workers are killing each other as imperialist powers and Ukrainian capitalists fight over Ukraine’s riches.
Under Viktor Yushchenko, president of Ukraine from 2005 to 2010 and a leader of the pro U.S. so-called Orange Revolution, fascist lies began to be accepted as the official truth, taught in Ukrainian schools and promoted by Ukrainian academics, all meant to promote Ukrainian nationalism and anti-communism.
Historic lies as a means to rationalize war, violence against our class, or as a way to build trust in the “State” are not unique to Ukraine or Russia. It is a practice we see imposed by international ruling classes from the U.S. to China and yes, today in Ukraine (see Editorial, page 2).
Below, CHALLENGE debunks some of the lies about Ukraine spread by Ukrainian nationalists and fascists. We say SMASH ALL BORDERS, and fight only for an international communist revolution led by the working class.
The 1930’s famine: a “Holodomor” lie
There never was any “Holodomor” or deliberate starvation of workers from Ukraine by the Soviet Union. It’s a lie disseminated by Ukrainian nationalists and fascists, with no historical evidence. The “Holodomor” is a politically motivated myth. It originated with Ukrainians living outside Ukraine, led by veterans of Ukrainian pro Nazi forces.
While the famine of 1932-33 took a terrible toll, it was only one of a long series. Russia and Ukraine had experienced famines every two to four years for a millennium — yes, for a thousand years—and devastating famines every decade or so. As the Soviet leadership, Joseph Stalin included, realized the extent of this famine, they sent millions of tons of food and grain aid to Ukraine. They also sent tractors and organizers to collectivize agriculture. The result was a good harvest in 1933, which ended the famines once and for all.
The collectivization of agriculture reorganized farming on a large-scale with increasing mechanization. Collectivization was the greatest humanitarian triumph of the 20th century. It ended the famines that had devastated Ukraine and Russia for a thousand years! (There was one more famine in the Soviet Union, in 1946-47. It was caused by the devastation of World War II and the worst drought in centuries. It affected all of Europe and much of Asia. England also had to institute bread rationings.
Nazi collaborators not“freedom fighters”
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) were trained by Germany’s Nazis. They were not “freedom fighters” as today’s Ukrainian fascists would have us believe. During World War II they entered the Soviet Union with Adolph Hitler’s troops and participated in mass murders of Jewish, Polish, and communist workers. As many as 100,000 civilians from Poland were slaughtered in 1943-44.
Stepan Bandera led the more hard-core fascist wing of the OUN. In 1941, the Banderist leadership declared an “independent” Ukraine state, in reality a satellite of Nazi Germany. UPA was formed in part from the 14th Waffen-SS Division (storm troopers), an all-western Ukrainian Nazi SS division.
Both the lies about the famine and about Ukraine’s “freedom fighters” have a Nazi origin. And both are taught as “truth” in today’s Ukraine!
Euromaidan: U.S promoted coup
In 2010 the Russian imperialists made a comeback as their stooge, Victor Yanukovich, was elected president. Yanukovich was just as corrupt and anti-working class as the previous pro U.S. president. He was deposed by the U.S.-supported Euromaidan coup in 2014.
One of the political parties involved was the outright fascist Svoboda, a neo-Nazi outfit that received over two million votes in the previous parliamentary elections. This group toppled the Lenin statue in Kyev, replacing it with the black-and-red Nazi occupation flag from World War II.
Svoboda and the paramilitary neo-Nazi Right Sector are the political descendants of western Ukraine leaders who sided with the Nazis during World War II. Svoboda has organized large celebrations in memory of  World War II Nazi collaborators and the Nazi Waffen SS (storm troopers). Svoboda and Right Sector were unreservedly backed by the EU and U.S. imperialists.
Neo-Nazi“volunteer” battalions of the Ukrainian Army
After the Euromaidan coup, the Russian imperialists struck back. In February-March of 2014 Russian forces took over Crimea from Ukraine. The Ukrainian government was alarmed and with U.S. aid started upgrading its military. Neo-Nazis took advantage.
The neo-Nazi Azov Battalion was started in 2014 as a volunteer unit of the Ukrainian National Guard. It received funding from the interior ministry, but was also funded by Igor Kolomoisky, an energy billionaire (oligarch) and ex-governor of the Dnipropetrovska region in eastern Ukraine. Kolomoisky also funded the neo-Nazi leaning battalions Aidar, Dnipro 1, Dnipro 2, and Donbas. Meanwhile the U.S. Army was training these neo-Nazi battalions (Aljazeera, 3/1).
There were over 30 nationalist battalions, all funded by private investors. Amnesty reported  such loose regulation on these groups that its "members... act with virtually no oversight or control" (News Week, 9/9/14).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: Neo-Nazi collaborator
Zelensky was elected to fight corruption in Ukraine, make peace with Russia and far down the list was improving conditions for the impoverished working class of Ukraine.  Instead he has attacked his political enemies, installed his friends and associates in positions of political and economic power and strengthened neo-Nazi groups such as the Azov battalion. He has done nothing for the working class and his popularity had sunk to about 20 percent before the war with Russia began.
 Zelensky was corrupt from the start, depending heavily on the backing of Ihor Kolomoisky, the same billionaire who funded the neo-Nazi Azov and Aidar battalions. He had the backing of Kolomoisky’s media empire that had produced his comedy show. He appointed various Kolomoisky associates as his advisors and to key positions in his government. Those officials who threatened Kolomoisky’s interests were fired (Atlantic Council, 7/10/21). He also amassed a small fortune which he hid in “a sprawling network of offshore companies'' (The Guardian,10/3/21).
Meanwhile the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion flourishes under Zelensky. But Azov is much more than a volunteer battalion. It has its own political party; two publishing houses; summer camps for children; and a vigilante force known as the National Militia, which patrols the streets of Ukrainian cities alongside the police. It also has a military wing with at least two training bases and a vast arsenal of weapons; drones, armored vehicles and artillery pieces. It has also become a military training center for neo-Nazis from all over the world, training up to 17,000 racists from some 50 countries. Cossack House is their recruitment center in Kiev, on loan from the Ukraine Defense Ministry (Time, 1/7/21).
Nationalism, and its twin fascism, mean misery and death for workers. Let’s turn the guns on the imperialist powers and their capitalist stooges. Fight for communism.