Radical Nationalist Parties and Movements in Contemporary Ukraine Before and After Independence: the Right and Its Politics, 1989-1994
Nationalities Papers, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1997 RADICAL NATIONALIST PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS IN CONTEMPORARY UKRAINE BEFORE AND AFTER INDEPENDENCE: THE RIGHT AND ITS POLITICS, 1989-1994 Taras Kuzio Introduction The radical right in the Ukrainian political spectrum is dominated by three move- ments—the Nationalist Union Ukrainian State Independence (DSU), the Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA, formerly the Ukrainian Inter-Party Assembly, UMPA) and the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (KUN). The UNA is dominated by the highly secretive Ukrainian Nationalist Union (UNS) which grew out of the national- ist wing of the Association of Independent Ukrainian Youth (SNUM). The KUN was launched in 1992 in Ukraine as the overt arm of the emigre Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists-Bandera faction (known commonly as OUN revolutionaries, or OUNr). Other organisations, such as SNUM and the more radical eastern Ukrainian-based Association of Ukrainian Youth (SUM), increasingly adopted "revolutionary nationalism" as their ideology in 1990-1991, with nationalists propagating a "youth cult" to attract the younger generation (both for members and intellectual support).1 It is also often pointed out that Ukrainian nationalism will have a large appeal among the youth of tomorrow.2 Other nationalist groups, though smaller, have also emerged, such as the Ukrainian National-Radical Party (UNRP) and the Organisation for the Liberation of Ukraine,3 but they have remained largely insignificant. The UNRP was established at the end of 1990 in L'viv, joined the Ukrainian Inter-Party Assembly (UMPA) but remained underground. Its leader, Mykhailo Stasiuk, launched the nationalist and widely read journal Derzhavnist in 1991, claiming the highly inflated membership figure of 500 members.4 The Ukrainian National Party (UNP) and the Ukrainian People's Democratic Party (UNDP), the founders of the UMPA, amalga- mated into the Ukrainian National Conservative Party (UNKP) in 1992.
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