Social-National Party of Ukraine

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Social-National Party of Ukraine
Соціал-національна партія України
Founded13 October 1991; 32 years ago (1991-10-13)
Registered16 October 1995; 28 years ago (1995-10-16)[1]
DissolvedFebruary 2004; 20 years ago (2004-02)
Succeeded bySvoboda
HeadquartersLviv, Ukraine
Youth wingPatriot of Ukraine
Membership (2004[2])1,000[2]
IdeologyNeo-fascism
Ukrainian nationalism
Ethnic nationalism[3]
Anti-communism
Political positionFar-right
Party flag

The Social-National Party of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Соціал-національна партія України) (SNPU) was a far-right party in Ukraine that would later become Svoboda. The name of the party was an intentional reference to the Nazi Party in Germany.[4] The party combined radical nationalism, neo-fascist[5] and anti-communist positions.[6]

History

The party was registered on October 16, 1995

OUN politician Yaroslav Stetsko's Two revolutions.[3][8] A mirror image of the Wolfsangel, or Wolf's Hook, was chosen as the party emblem in 1991.[9]

On 21 September 1993 its "people's formations" came to the

UNA-UNSO activists.[3]

In the second half of 1990s the party also recruited skinheads and football hooligans.

West Ukraine.[3] According to Svoboda's website, during the 1994 Ukrainian parliamentary elections the party presented its platform as distinct from those of the communists and social democrats.[10] SNPU did not win any seats to the national parliament, but managed to receive some seats in the Lviv Regional Council.[3]

In the

Ukrainian Parliament in this election.[14] He became a member of the People's Movement of Ukraine faction.[14]

The party established the paramilitary organization

National Front).[3] The paramilitary organization was disbanded in 2004 during the SNPU's reformation and reformed in 2005[15] and currently one of the five major parties of the country.[16] Svoboda officially ended association with the group in 2007,[17] but they remain informally linked.[18][19][20]

In 2001, the party joined some actions of the "

Volyn oblasts.[10][third-party source needed
]

In 2004 the party had fewer than 1,000 members.[2] Andriy Parubiy left the party in 2004 and later joined centre-right party Our Ukraine of president Viktor Yushchenko.

The party changed its name to the All-Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" in February 2004 with the arrival of Oleh Tyahnybok as party leader.

neo-Nazi and other radical groups out the party,[22] distancing itself from its neofascist past while retaining the support of extreme nationalists.[21]

Ideology

Some media outlets, such as Lev Golinkin in The Nation, have described it as "neo-Nazi".[23] However, according to one scholarly article, "Only a small number of political scientists have classified the SNPU and its ideology. Andreas Umland and Anton Shekhovtsov characterize it as neo-fascist and extreme right... Tadeusz A. Olszanski...describes the ideology as radically nationalist with radical social rhetoric. There is also a study which describes the ideological positioning of the SNPU as national-centric and even liberal, but that also finds that the party leader has opinions that differ from the party program."[6]

Umland and Shekhovtsov wrote that "of these various Ukrainian nationalist parties the SNPU was the least inclined to conceal its neofascist affiliations... the official name of the party’s ideology, “social nationalism,” clearly referred back to “national socialism”—the official name of the ideology of the National-Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) and of the Hitlerite regime.

National Socialist party."[5]

Another echo was the use of a logo that resembled the

neo-Nazi groups: "Its official symbol was the somewhat modified Wolf’s Hook (Wolfsangel), used as a symbol by the German SS division Das Reich and the Dutch SS division Landstorm Nederland during World War II and by a number of European neofascist organizations after 1945. As seen by the SNPU leadership, the Wolf’s Hook became the “idea of the nation.”[24] The Ukrainian political scientist Vitaliy Kulyk, however, claimed that while similar to signs used by Neo-Nazi organizations in Europe the sign "Idea of the Nation" has nothing to do with Wolfsangel and there were no actions that confirmed the party's Nazi image.[3]

Political scientist Tadeusz Olszański wrote that the social-nationalist ideology adhered to has included "openly racist rhetoric" concerning 'white supremacy' since its establishment, and that therefore comparisons with National Socialism are legitimized by its history.[15] The party advocated the social nationalist ideology by combining radical nationalism with equally radical social rhetoric. Among the canons of its ideology there was: a vision of the nation as a natural community, the primacy of the nation’s rights over human rights, the urge to build an ‘ethnic economy’, but also an openly racist rhetoric concerning ‘white supremacy’.[citation needed]

According to Artem Iovenko, "Externally, the SNPU has distanced itself from the classification as pro-fascist." New party leader Oleh Tyahnybok said in 2004: “We were not fascists. We never shared the ideology of German National Socialism."[6]

Electoral results

Year Popular vote Percentage Overall seats Change Outcome
1994 49,483 0.2%
0 / 450
 New Extra-parliamentary
1998 45,155 0,16%
1 / 450
 Increase 1 Opposition

References

  1. ^ a b Oblast Council demands Svoboda Party be banned in Ukraine, Kyiv Post (May 12, 2011)
  2. ^
    S2CID 155079439. (source also available here
    )
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Andrusechko, Petro Tyahnybok's path towards Svoboda. Ukrayinsky zhurnal Poznan, May 2009, p.36-39
  4. ISBN 978-1-4462-4700-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link
    )
  5. ^ a b Spiegel Staff (27 January 2014). "The Right Wing's Role in Ukrainian Protests". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  6. ^
    JSTOR 48610450
    . Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  7. ^ a b c (in Ukrainian)Всеукраїнське об'єднання «Свобода», Database ASD
  8. ^ a b c d Rudling, Per Anders (2013). "The Return of the Ukrainian Far Right: The Case of VO Svoboda". In Ruth Wodak; John E. Richardson (eds.). Analyzing Fascist Discourse: European Fascism in Talk and Text. New York: Routledge. pp. 229–247.
  9. doi:10.4324/9780203071847. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  10. ^ a b "About party". Svoboda. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  11. ^ Elections of folk deputies of Ukraine on March 29, 1998 the Election programmes of political parties and electoral blocs Archived March 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (1998)
  12. ^ "Central Election Commission of Ukraine". Archived from the original on 2014-02-19. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  13. Central Election Commission of Ukraine
  14. ^ a b c d (in Ukrainian) Олег Тягнибок, Ukrinform
  15. ^ a b c d Olszański, Tadeusz A. (4 July 2011). "Svoboda Party – The New Phenomenon on the Ukrainian Right-Wing Scene". Centre for Eastern Studies. OSW Commentary (56): 6. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
  16. ^ After the parliamentary elections in Ukraine: a tough victory for the Party of Regions, Centre for Eastern Studies (7 November 2012)
  17. ^ "Заява Організації "Патріот України" про розрив стосунків з ВО "Свобода"". Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2014-10-30.
  18. ^ Stern, David (2012-12-26). "The rise of Ukraine's ultra-nationalists". BBC News.
  19. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-19. Retrieved 2014-03-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. ^ Shekhovtsov, Anton (24 July 2012). "Security threats and the Ukrainian far right". Open Democracy. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  21. ^
    S2CID 144502924
    .
  22. ^ "Resources".
  23. ^ Lev Golinkin. "Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine". thenation.com. Speaker of Parliament Andriy Parubiy cofounded and led two neo-Nazi organizations: the Social-National Party of Ukraine (later renamed Svoboda), and Patriot of Ukraine, whose members would eventually form the core of Azov.
  24. ^
    S2CID 144502924
    .
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