ABSTRACT
Ukraine, one of the youngest states in Europe, received its current borders between 1939 and 1954. The country remains divided between east and west, a division that is discernible in language, culture, religion and, not the least, historical memory. Whereas Ukrainian nationalism in the 1990s was described in terms of “a minority faith,” over the past half-decade there has been a significant upswing in far-right activity (Wilson, 1997: 117–146). The far-right tradition is particularly strong in western Ukraine. Today a significant ultra-nationalist party, the All-Ukrainian Association (Vseukrains'ke Ob”iednanne, VO) Svoboda, appears to be on the verge of a political breakthrough at the national level. This article is a survey, not only of its ideology and the political tradition to which it belongs but also of the political climate which facilitated its growth. It contextualizes the current turn to the right in western Ukraine against the backdrop of instrumentalization of history and the official rehabilitation of the ultra-nationalists of the 1930s and 1940s.
