Composed of a bronze statue on a pedestal nearly seven meters high and a triumphal arch behind it, nearly thirty metres in height. The four columns of the triumphal arch behind Bandera’s statue represent four periods of Ukrainian independence: Ancient Rus’, the times of the Cossacks, the period of state building after WWI, and the present time. The columns display state symbols and depictions of the leaders, creating a descent of heroic forerunners for Bandera.
The L’viv Bandera monument stands beside, and higher than, the former Polish Roman Catholic cathedral of St. Elżbieta. A provocation, it is said, given the extremely negative meaning that Bandera has for the Poles. The monument was placed, commentators say, “in the most Polish place in L’viv – next to a Roman Catholic church facing a Polish school where the most radical activists were educated.”
About Stepan Bandera
As a leader of the nationalist movement in Ukraine (OUN-B) from the 1930s to the 1950s, Bandera is a controversial figure. He became regarded by his followers as a symbol of the fight for Ukrainian state independence. Myth-making about Bandera was undertaken by the Ukrainian diaspora. The myths were re-exported to Ukraine at the end of the 1980s. Some Western scholars have been severely critical of the totalitarian, anti-Semitic, and fascist nature of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, as have a number of Ukrainian scholars, but in a somewhat milder way
Some monuments to Bandera
Monument to Bandera in Uzyn, Monument to Bandera in Velyki Mosty, Monument to Bandera in Dublyany, Monument to Bandera in Romanivka.
Monuments and plaques in numbers
As of early 2014 there are 46 full-sized statues or busts of Stepan Bandera, plus 14 plaques, all located in L’vivs’ka, Ivano-Frankivs’ka, and Ternopil’s’ka Oblasts as well as in Rivnens’ka and Volyns’ka Oblasts. All have been erected since 1990 and construction has continued at a steady pace.
Street names
Over 100 streets have been renamed after Bandera, even beyond the area containing monuments, referred to as Banderivs’kyy kray.
Museums and excursions
Besides the monuments, there are five Bandera museums, established between 1990 and 2010, in places connected with phases in Bandera’s life.
L’viv-based travel agency Vidviday, offers an excursion called Following the paths of Stepan Bandera from the cycle The Country of Heroes. This one-day tour of the Banderivs’kyy kray, at a price of 150 hryvna, would seem to be a sort of secular pilgrimage. Here heroization takes on the connotations of a secular religion: awe before a monument turns into piety as one retraces the stations of the hero’s life.
The initiative for the monument dates back to the early 1990s. Some of the funds came from a coalition of associations, including a Committee for the Construction of a Monument to Stepan Bandera, the Association of Political Prisoners, and the Prosvita organisation. A significant part of the costs were covered by the Oblast administration.
Mykola Posikira (sculptor), Myhajlo Fedyk (architect), Grygorij Shevchuk (designer) with Yuriy Stoljarov