Did Stepan Bandera say that the people who prefer bread to be free are losing both of them?

On the network, one can often find a statement about the choice between material wealth and freedom attributed to the famous Ukrainian policy. We checked whether its author is really Stepan Bandera.

January 1, 2023 on the official page of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Twitter appeared congratulation In honor of the anniversary of the birth of the Ukrainian politician Stepan Bandera. It contained a quote (translated into Russian): “When the people choose bread between bread and freedom, he eventually loses everything, including bread. If the people choose freedom, they will have bread grown by himself and not selected by anyone. ”

This popular quote signed by Stepan Bandera can be found on the pages of Ukrainian territorial communities, city ​​libraries, on Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-language online resources (UNIAN, "Wikisite","Quotes of famous personalities", Citaty.info, BBF, Telegraf) and in social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram). A billboard with this inscription and the image of Bandera in 2017 appeared In the Kherson region, in the immediate vicinity of Crimea controlled by the Russian troops. Quoted aphorism and On Ukrainian television.

By the evening of January 2, the tweet of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the occasion on the occasion of Stepan Bandera's birthday was removed. Such a decision, apparently, was in no way connected with a quote - just the very fact of honoring this figure caused negative reaction in neighboring Poland, where they reminded of the role of the organization headed Volyn massacre. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Arkadiyush Mulalarchik then stated that the government of his country intervened on this issue on the day of the publication of tweet, and the disappearance of the publication - "a sign that the Ukrainians listened to our voice."

It should be noted that in publications with this quote it is not customary to indicate the source (book, diary or speech of Stepan Bandera) from which it is taken. In some places The statement is submitted as one of the “rules of the life of Stepan Bandera”, but there is no work with a similar name in the bibliography of a policy. There is archival document under the name "44 rules of life of the Ukrainian nationalist", created, however, not by the Bandera himself, but his colleagues From the organization of Ukrainian nationalists (OUN) in the 1940s, but there is no thesis about bread and freedom. We did not find anything like it on historical sites where widely presented Heritage of Stepan Bandera, in the online archive OUNas well as in declassified documents Soviet state bodies.

Moreover, the search showed that on the rest of the online resources, including social networks, a quote with attribution of Bandera appeared only at the beginning of the last decade (example from 2011). And even without mentioning the leader of Ukrainian nationalists, she began to appear on the network at about the same time. What happened at the line of zero and tenths? This is probably due to the next event.

On November 22, 2009, speaking on the occasion of the celebration of the Day of Freedom (a holiday established in honor of the anniversary of the Orange Revolution) in the Kiev Center “Ukrainian House”, President of the country Viktor Yushchenko said: “I well understand the mood of people who, in the leaders of the state, want to see harsh business executives and managers. I have something to testify to my experience and success as a manager over a decade of state work. That is why I firmly know: when people choose bread between bread and freedom, he eventually loses everything, including bread. If the people choose freedom, they will have bread grown by himself and not taken away by anyone. But for this, the people in all its great mass should understand exactly who he was, where he came from, what happened to him, what injuries are experienced and how to recover to go further forward. ”

January 15, 2010, accepting Viktor Yushchenko in his show, TV presenter Savik Shuster reminded (13:40) To him this November quote and even conducted an appropriate survey, which showed that 68% of its participants prefer freedom to bread. However, unanimity in this matter did not help the current president in the elections two days later - he Sicked 5.45% of the vote and stopped the fight after the first round. Note that neither in November 2009, nor in January 2010, Yushchenko in no way referred to Bandera or other people in the context of this quote, and included it in Collection their chosen speeches without any remarks.

In the publications of those years, a quote was still sometimes attributed Viktor Yushchenko, however, gradually in the mass consciousness he began to replace him Stepan Bandera. Nowadays, as you can see, this happens even at the level of the pages of state bodies of Ukraine.

Was the quote Viktor Yushchenko (or his speaker) from nothing? Of course not. Choice Between bread and freedom for a long time, he excited the thinkers. Among the possible sources of inspiration of the Ukrainian president, the following can be distinguished:

1) words American politician Benjamin Franklin “He who can abandon the necessary freedom for the sake of small temporary security does not deserve neither freedom nor safety”;

2) distorted Winston Churchill’s quote “If the country, choosing between the war and shame, chooses a shame, it receives a war and a shame”;

3) Popular V Ukrainian literature and attributed to the English economist David Ricardo the statement “people who have no honor will not have bread”;

4) parable "Great Inquisitor"From the novel by Fedor Dostoevsky" The Brothers Karamazov ", in which the earthly bread is opposed to freedom and bread to heaven;

5) the statement of the figure of the Ukrainian national movement in the USSR Evgeny Pronyuk “is not paid for bread for bread”, which has become the name of his memoirs 2006;

6) thesis President Chile Eduardo Frey Montalva that "if he had to choose between bread and freedom, he would prefer freedom to be able to fight for bread."

Thus, there is no reason to argue that the author of the quote about the choice between bread and freedom was Stepan Bandera. In the distributed form, this phrase belongs to another Ukrainian policy - Viktor Yushchenko. At the same time, the main idea expressed in the quote is not original.

Photo on the cover: social networks

Incorrect attribution of quote

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