Ukrainian nationalist politician and leader of the OUN-B.
Bandera led Ukrainian nationalist underground activity in eastern Galicia, then part of Poland. A leader in the OUN, he was sentenced to death for organizing the 1934 assassination of Polish interior minister Bronisław Pieracki; the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. After the OUN split in 1940, he led its radical OUN-B faction, which proclaimed a Ukrainian state in Lviv shortly after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and pledged cooperation with Nazi Germany. German authorities detained him and sent him to Sachsenhausen concentration camp; after the war he led the OUN-B émigré organization in West Germany.
Activities and affiliations
- Political and party leadership · Affiliation unconfirmed
Career Timeline
- 1929Joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
- 1931Became head of propaganda for the OUN.
- 1933Became head of the OUN's home executive in Poland.
- 1934Was sentenced to death for organizing the assassination of the Polish interior minister; the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
- 1940Led the OUN-B faction after the OUN split.
- 1941–1944Arrested by German authorities and imprisoned at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
- 1945Became leader of the OUN's foreign organization.
- 1959Assassinated in Munich by KGB agent Bohdan Stashynsky.