ABSTRACT
The OUN and UPA have figured prominently in contemporary memory politics. On the one hand, both organizations have been accused of conducting a genocidal policy against the Polish population of Volhynia in 1943, of complicity in the Holocaust, and of harboring racist and fascist views. On the other hand, they have been celebrated as national liberation fighters who created a legendary underground army. The chapter looks at the way this struggle over memory has evolved. It suggests that the UPA’s defense of local populations against deportations in the years 1944–47 and, most recently, the events of 2013–14 in Ukraine contributed to the creation of apologetic and often romanticized accounts of the two organizations.
