In December 2024, the news dispersed on the Internet that children's comics appeared in Lviv’s bookstores about the last years of the life of the Ukrainian political figure Stepan Bandera. We checked whether this is so.
Since the beginning of December, the Russian media and Telegram channels began to write that a book with children's comics on the leader of anti-communist resistance in Western Ukraine of the 20th century Stepan Bandera could supposedly appear in Ukraine. On December 11, the speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation spoke about the same Maria Zakharova. A week later a number of Russian telegram channels announcedthat the book went on sale and posted a video from a bookstore in Lviv. For a few days, the news collected almost one and a half million views in Telegram (according to TGSTAT service), and among the accounts published by it were such popular channels as "Operation Z: Warrixes of Russian Spring"(495,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Solovyov"(196 000),"Uncle Glory"(182 000),"Voblya"(132 000) and others.
IN articles The Russian media cited the statement of the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada and the ex-head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory of Vladimir Vyatrovich about the comic book about Bandera. IN interview The parliamentarian allegedly explained to the Ukrainian television channel of NTA the goal of creating a comic book: “So that people have not just a positive assessment of Bandera, because he is the hero of the cool song“ Obs by our Bandera ”, and so that people understand why he became the hero of this song.”
In the context of Russian propaganda, the figure of Stepan Bandera associated Exclusively with Nazism and military crimes. For example, the editor of the Russian edition of RT Margarita Simonyan She saidthat a significant part of the Ukrainian people is “Bandera”, that is, followers of Nazism. That is why in the Russian media the news about the release of comics about the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement was Interpreted as an act of heroizing the criminal. However, many Ukrainians They think Bandera is a national hero and a symbol of the struggle for the independence of Ukraine. According to the results of street polls In December 2024, the idea of creating a children's comic book about Bandera found a positive response among citizens.
December 19 Publication "Arguments and facts»Published an article with the heading" Mailed minors. In Lviv, they began to sell children's comics about Bandera ”, which reported that the book had already entered the city’s bookstores. Most of these articles as the source indicated the Telegram channel "Lion 24/7 of News" - allegedly there, a video of the buyer leafing through the book in the store appeared. Suspicions of the reliability of these personnel were caused by the fact that all publications used the same 40-second video, where the girl holding the camera leaf through the book on the store sheet. In addition, Russian propaganda periodically Uses Bandera's ambiguous reputation to promote the narrative on neo -Nazi beliefs that allegedly prevail in Ukrainian society.
In the video you can consider a watermark with the logo of the Ukrainian YouTube channel "Speak the great lion". “Verified” failed to find a video about the comic book there, but in the project account in Telegram there was publicationMade on December 18 at 16:49 Moscow time. In the post, the very video is commented in Ukrainian: “About Bandera in the comics! Subscribers are divided by finds in Lviv’s bookstores. ” After 20 minutes "Lion 24/7 of News»He shared the same video, and the majority of Russian media and Internet users were already referring to this channel.
On the cover of the book, in the lower right corner there is a logo with the inscription “Vivat”-a symbol of the Ukrainian publishing house that specializes in the release of books in the Non-Fiction genre, children's and adolescence. On the official website of Vivat, the book is really Sold In paper and electronic formats. It can also be purchased in other online stores (for example, Cosmic Shop And "Sens"). In addition, “verified” managed to find others photo And video The same book, laid out by users in social networks.
Thus, in Ukraine, a children's comic book about Stepan Bandera in December 2024 really published in Ukraine. According to the deputy of the Ukrainian Rada Vladimir Vyatrovich, this book should help children better understand why Bandera became a hero for many Ukrainians.
Photo on the cover: Instagram
Read on the topic:
- Mythdetector. What do we know about Stepan Bandera and how they use his name in the Kremlin propaganda.
- BBC News. Four myths about Stepan Bandera
- Meduza. From Bandera to Azov: we answer the main questions about Ukrainian nationalism
- Is it true that Ukrainian nationalists were convicted of the Nuremberg process?
- Did Goebbels say that Bandera needs the third Reich in order to destroy the rebellious Slavs, after which they themselves need to be destroyed?
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