Stepan Bandera

Ukrainian political leader

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June 23, 2026

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Stepan Bandera was a Ukrainian political leader and the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) faction. The OUN was a Ukrainian nationalist organization that emerged during the period of Soviet and Nazi occupation of Ukraine. Bandera's faction, OUN-B, was in conflict with another faction led by Andry Melnyk (OUN-M).12

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Bandera and his followers proclaimed the restoration of Ukrainian statehood. However, the Nazis arrested Bandera and other organizers, and did not support Ukrainian independence aspirations. The German occupation brought severe repression, including the mass killings of Jews and the forced labor of Ukrainians in Germany. In response to these conditions, Ukrainian nationalist partisan units, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), formed and engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Germans, as well as fighting against Soviet partisans.3

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Ukraine
Western Ukraine under Soviet and Nazi rule
…and the younger supporters of Stepan Bandera with actual experience in the conspiratorial underground. The split became permanent after a congress held in Kraków in February 1940, when the Melnyk and Bandera factions developed into separate organizations (OUN-M and OUN-B, respectively) differing in ideology, strategy, and tactics.
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…and the younger supporters of Stepan Bandera with actual experience in the conspiratorial underground. The split became permanent after a congress held in Kraków in February 1940, when the Melnyk and Bandera factions developed into separate organizations (OUN-M and OUN-B, respectively) differing in ideology, strategy, and tactics.
Read More