Thread by @JamesClay1917

1941. Ukrainian nationalists under Stepan Bandera with Nazi support, organized expedition groups which followed the advance into the USSR. Instructions were contained in a document, 'Struggle and Activities of OUN During Wartime.' The document contains explicit genocidal orders.

To subvert the natural aversion workers have to murdering each other, the OUN had produced constant racist incitement in its journal, Rozbudova Natsii, since 1929. But a sense of hopelessness was also cultivated. The new document attacked workers' hopes for socialist revolution.

Tragically, the political degeneration of the revolution under the Stalinist bureaucracy had opened up the ideological space for OUN's propaganda, which exploited the social division which had opened up in real life between the parasitic bureaucratic caste and the working class.

OUN commanded its soldiers to liquidate "unwanted Polish, Muscovite and Jewish figures, especially supporters of Bolshevik-Moscow imperialism." OUN's crimes in WWII are integral to nationalist politics, and were consciously politically prepared for years. More on that soon...

@anti_imperialUK Yes, I have tweeted primary sources detailing the relationships between OUN and German military intelligence. But to chalk up the OUN's ideology or actions entirely to some 'conspiracy' is fundamentally incorrect, and doesn't reflect the development of the historical process.

@anti_imperialUK Why was OUN attracted to Nazism? Because it was based in the petty bourgeoisie which had been deprived of its property and its 'rights' by the development of history, by the conquest of power by the working class. OUN and Nazis shared a common enemy - the revolutionary workers.

@anti_imperialUK Sure it’s a factor, but to point to it alone without drawing a picture of the underlying movement of class forces leads to the adoption of a conspiratorial view of history. Not saying that’s your take. Just inserting a note of caution.

@anti_imperialUK I want to 'blame Stalin' for a lot of things, but only the things for which he (and the bureaucracy) was responsible - destroying the revolution, murdering its leading cadre, and acting as the agency of world imperialism inside the workers' movement. I think that's quite enough.

@Parrots38 Well, if you ever come across it again, please share it with me. Digitized primary sources are hard to come by!