Honouring Ukrainian Freedom Fighters

October 11, 2006 -- This Saturday, October 14, Ukrainian Christians throughout the world will observe the holiday known in Ukrainian as "Pokrova," or Protection of the Holy Mother of God, and will honour the memory of the heroic veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, known by its Ukrainian initials UPA.

Throughout history, this holiday was associated with the Ukrainian military establishment. During the 15th through 18th centuries, a church dedicated to the Protection of the Holy Mother of God stood in the centre of "Sich," the fortress of the Ukrainian Zaporozhian Kozaks, with the icon depicting the Protectress.

According to the legend, when the Sich was being destroyed by the Russian Imperial Army, the fleeing kozaks "took nothing with them except the holy icon of the Protectress."

In modern times, during WWII, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army UPA also chose to place itself under the divine protection of the "Pokrova." After the Russian Communists finally managed to occupy Ukraine for the second time and the surviving UPA fighters were sentenced to long terms of slave labour in the Gulags, the UPA veterans managed to observe this holiday even while incarcerated. Since the restoration of Ukraine's independence in 1991, the commemorations became public, albeit always accompanied by clashes with the members of the Communist party, its affiliates (socialists, Russian nationalists, etc.) and the organization of veterans of the Soviet army.

It is sad that, despite the fact that the UPA soldiers struggled hard for the independence of Ukraine for 10 years, fighting during and after WW II, against both the Nazi German and Russian Communist invaders, they are not being recognized as full-fledged veterans by the government of Ukraine consisting of former Communist functionaries, nor is the Pokrova Holiday a state holiday in "free" Ukraine.

According to available information, several patriotic political parties and organizations have formed an organization committee to stage commemorative events this Saturday. The leftist organization has announced its intent to prevent any commemoration of UPA, by force if necessary.