On Ukrainian Nationalism, for the Ukrainian Community in Italy and for Italians (06.12.2025)
An interview with Vitaliy Dribnytsya for the independent group “Infodemia Europa” (experts and activists in Italy countering Russian disinformation). The historian explains to Italian and Ukrainian audiences the nature of Ukrainian nationalism, the origins of the OUN and the red-and-black flag, the difference between nationalism, chauvinism, and Nazism, and other narratives of Russian propaganda. A source for the article on whether the OUN was a fascist movement.
Key moments
- 02:21 The red-and-black flag: the Banderites' party flag and a modern symbol of resistance
- 05:33 The founding of the OUN in Vienna in 1929, Yevhen Konovalets and his 1938 assassination
- 09:41 Ukrainian nationalism as state-building; the analogy with the Italian Risorgimento
- 11:24 Why Russian propaganda made Bandera the chief enemy
- 13:26 Nationalism, chauvinism, Nazism — three different things
- 20:48 "Rashism" as a contradictory set of markers in Ukrainian law
- 24:33 The myth of Russians settling the lands emptied by the Holodomor
- 28:15 Why the Soviet Union is not the same as Russia
- 30:49 The Holodomor and its cover-up: Duranty versus Gareth Jones
- 37:08 Putin's guilt and the responsibility of Russian society