(AP) – Ukrainian partisans who fought both Soviet and Nazi forces in World War II protested Oct. 13 in the western city of Lviv, demanding they be given the same recognition as Soviet Red Army veterans.
About 1,000 activists gathered in front of the Lviv regional council in support of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which marks the 63rd anniversary of its founding on Friday. They brought dozens of cardboard boxes with 300,000 signatures backing their efforts. The protest was shown on Ukrainian television.
Last year’s election of President Viktor Yushchenko, who won big support in Ukraine’s nationalist west, raised hopes among the partisans that they would finally win official recognition and the accompanying social and financial benefits.
Communists and Red army veterans say such a move would be a mockery of the Red Army dead; the insurgents argue they fought to create an independent homeland.
Hostility toward the partisans runs deep in Ukraine because in the war’s early years, the anti-Soviet partisans sought support from the Nazis in their struggle. The country was overrun by the Nazis before the Red Army drove the Germans out. An estimated 7 million Ukrainians died in the fighting, and 2.4 million people were sent to Nazi concentration camps.
Under the Soviets, Ukrainian school children were taught that the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its partisan force were enemies of the people who committed horrific atrocities alongside Nazi troops.
Activists initially had planned to march through the Ukrainian capital on Friday to mark the anniversary, but put off that idea after Communists sought to hold a competing rally. Instead, more celebrations are planned in western Ukraine, where support for the partisans is higher. But officials haven’t ruled out some demonstrations in Kyiv.
Some 10,000 partisans are believed to still be living.
