Patriot of Ukraine

History

The origin of the "Patriot of Ukraine" can be traced to Lviv where the Association of Support for the Armed Forces and Navy of Ukraine "Patriot Ukrayiny" (Ukrainian: Товариство Сприяння Збройним силам та Військово-Морському флоту України "Патріот України") was registered on 10 June 1996 as a civic association, registration number 375.

The first Congress of the "Patriot of Ukraine" was held in Lviv on 12 December 1999 where it was officially adopted by the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) as its paramilitary youth wing. In the evening, around 1500 members of the SNPU and the "Patriot of Ukraine" staged a torchlight demonstration in the city. The first leader of the organization became Andriy Parubiy, who established a long-lasting tradition of torchlight parades, which became an organizational trademark. At that time Parubiy gained national notoriety in Ukraine after he was put on trial for alleged assault on communist demonstrators in Lviv on 7 November 1997. The main TV channels in Ukraine broadcast footage of Parubiy clashing with the demonstrators. The trial was dragged, moved around, and finally the case was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. A photo of Parubiy leading the "Patriot of Ukraine" march was placed on the cover of his book published in Lviv in 1999.

The "Patriot of Ukraine" was dissolved by the SNPU on 14 February 2004, when the IX Congress of the SNPU adopted a new name - VO Svoboda, and elected Oleh Tyahnybok as its leader. Aiming at building a parliamentary type of political organization with an image of the "party of order", Svoboda had shaken off some old baggage, including Wolfsangel-type logo, which was replaced with the national colors and a trident (trizub) hand gesture (three raised fingers), the so-called "Trident of Liberty". The original "Patriot of Ukraine" organization was also discarded since Svoboda wanted to appeal to a broader base of the Ukrainian electorate. Eventually, Svoboda while still remaining a radical nationalist party was able to benefit from its new strategy: first, it scored wins at the 2010 local elections in three regions of Western Ukraine, then, it won 10.5% of the national vote during the 2012 parliamentary elections in Ukraine and created its own parliamentary faction in the Verkhovna Rada.

However, some regional branches of the Patriot of Ukraine, for example, in Zhytomyr (later renamed into Haidamaky) and also in Kharkiv, refused to disband.

Re-establishment

In 2005 the process of the re-establishment was started in Kharkiv where the Patriot of Ukraine was re-constituted as an independent political organization and subsequently registered by local authorities as a civic association on 17 January 2006, registration number 1057. The Patriot of Ukraine defined itself as a "revolutionary vanguard of the Ukrainian social-nationalistic movement". The organization continued to use the "Idea of the Nation" symbol (similar to Wolfsangel rune) which was initially used by the Social-National Party of Ukraine, the only difference is the color of the monogram as the SNPU used azure (blue) monogram on gold and the "Patriot of Ukraine" utilizes sable (black) on gold and gold on sable. The monogram consists of a combination of the Latin letters "I" and "N". (Note that organization's propaganda materials describe the letters as Old Russian, as they were traditionally drawn before Peter the Great reformed the alphabet in 1707-1710.) The letter "N" symbolizes the central place of the national idea in organizational ideology; while the letter "I" with both ends sharpened emphasizes the unstoppable movement of ideas and triumph of the ideal over materialistic.

In 2007, the organization officially ended its relationship with Svoboda, a direct descendant to the SNPU. In the statement it was announced that,

Breaking all relationships with "Svoboda", the "Patriot of Ukraine" realizes that it assumes all the responsibility in the struggle for future Greater Ukraine. As an organization the "Patriot of Ukraine" is based on the "party-army" principle: it aims at creating a powerful All-Ukrainian Social-National movement, in which the new Social-National Party of Ukraine will hold a prominent place aided by storm detachments of the "Patriot of Ukraine" and the social-national trade-unions.

However, despite the split some prominent Svoboda's members, such as Andriy Illienko, Chairman of the Kiev City Branch of the Svoboda ("Freedom") All-Ukrainian Union and a member of the Verhovna Rada, continued to advocate social-nationalism and idea of the two revolutions: national and social, which created a common ground with the "Patriot of Ukraine".

Some researchers pointed to the fact that even after the declarative break-up, VO "Svoboda" continued to benefit,

From the increasing popularity of extreme-right youth movements and organizations like the Social-National Assembly (SNA), 'Patriot of Ukraine' and Autonomous Resistance, whose aim is to create 'a uniracial and uninational society.' The activities of these groups are not limited to physical or symbolic violence against ethnic and social minorities, as they also take an active part in numerous social campaigns - generally along with representatives of Svoboda - ranging from mass protests against price rises to leafleting against alcohol and drug use. Needless to say, members of these extreme-right movements are often members of Tyahnybok's party.

Ideology and program

The Patriot of Ukraine promotes a radical nationalist, racist and neo-Nazi platform, including:

Activities

In August 2011, three Patriot of Ukraine supporters were arrested and convicted in the so-called Vasylkiv terrorists case.

At the end of 2013, at the beginning of the Euromaidan protest movement, the Patriot of Ukraine created the Right Sector along with other far-right and nationalist parties and groups, including: Trident of Stepan Bandera (Dmytro Yarosh), UNA-UNSO (Oleksandr Muzychko) and the White Hammer (Vladislav Goranin), although they would later be dissociated.

During the Euromaidan, militants from the Patriot of Ukraine were active participants of major clashes with the riot police; according to Igor Krivoruchko, a leader of the Kiev's S.N.A. branch, on February 18, 2014, they seized and burned the headquarters of the ruling party - the Party of Regions - in Kiev.

On April 29, 2014, the Patriot of Ukraine together with the Spilna Sprava staged a torch rally procession in Kiev to commemorate the Euromaidan fallen heroes. The Self-defense of Euromaidan, attempted to disperse the rally and as a result a massive fist fight near Maidan Nezalezhnosti flared up.