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Color me shocked that nobody selected a peasant Anarchist who was easily duped by Bolshevik salami tactics to be the symbol of united Ukrainian nationhood. Instead they had to chose the cringe nerd for the sole but very obvious reason because they knew they could always portray him to the normies as a victim of Nazi repression, because "he was in a concentration camp". (In reality, he was under the equivalent of house arrest under comfortable conditions, because he had qualms about one aspect of the proposed National Socialist European New Order, namely that it didn't include an autonomous Ukrainian state.)
sure...lol. We'll see how much of a good political sell this will turn out to be. I suggest you don't hold your breath.
People who were on the German side in the second late unpleasantness are still considered sus (even if they eventually got on their wrong side) , and Bandera is, to use modern woke term, problematic figure, especially in Poland.
In addition of being much more charismatic, Hollywood blockbuster worthy figure, Makhno would not have any of this baggage. (well, the Mennonites might object)
Bandera was picked as Hero(TM) and Founding Father(TM) of Ukraine not only because CIA chose to support OUN, but also because Soviet propaganda made him into Big Bad and gave him in this way great name recognition. Not because of anything he personally did.
In contrast, Soviet propaganda was nearly silent about Anarchists - all Civil War books and movies portrayed it as exclusive struggle of Reds and Whites, with Blacks shown only as ocassional perpetually drunk comic relief guys (and Greens absent completely).
It worked excellently so far. Look outside of your bubble - general public in Western world loves capitalism and loves LGBTQ+.
You know what Ukrainian nationalists mean when they speak of "Europe", don't you?
What they want Europe to mean does not matter, what Europe really means does matter.
Look at Ukraininan laws that are actually passing now - these are not laws about defending "Aryan race purity", these are laws about deregulation, privatization, restricting labor rights and protecting LGBTQ+ rights.
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