Not P.....but Seymour Hersh admitting his self-blocked blindness....

[Martin Dietze]

OK, and again.

1. Leonid Ragozin

So he thinks that Oleksandr Alfiorov is a nazi citing some controversial, but not nazi remarks made by him (they are actually very obviously meant to be anti Russian and insulting to Putin). Not convicing.
So who is this Leonid Ragozin? Born in Moscow, based in Latvia, known for spreading the old narrative about nazi Ukraine. Hence not surprising.
Him sharing a post by “Telegram Strany” doesn’t make it better. Remember that this telegram channel is related to the infamous pro-Russian, now banned news outlet “strana.ua <http://strana.ua/>” and known for spreading pro-Russian propaganda.


2. The UPA flag

The black-red UPA flag is not “decisively fascist” as you write. It has its roots in late 19th / early 20th century - long before the OUN adopted it. 
Even at the time of the OUN it was frequently viewed as a symbol of Ukraine’s struggle for independence rather than exclusively the OUN’s banner.

On a side note, in particular in Western Ukraine there is a tradition of commemorating Ukrainian nationalist partisans detached from their organisation’s political views.
When the Germans withdrew and the Red Army was taking their place many people joined the partisans in a desparate push to drive the Soviet force out again. 
People did not think much about politics, they were driven by the experience they had made under the Soviet occupation after the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact.
This can well be compared to Vietnamese joining the Viet Cong who hardly knew what communism was, had not read Marx’ works etc., but just wanted to liberate their country.
This is one of the reasons why OUN symbols have always played a role in Western Ukraine. 
Needless to say that Russian propaganda, ampliefied by the infamous “alternative media” in the West, have always exploited this.

Apart from that, the use of the black-red flag today is closely entangled with how people view Bandera, hence read on below.


3. Bandera (again)

You write: "Banderism indeed appears to be a spectrum ranging from the merely nationalist to outright National Socialism”.

This is not entirely correct, because it starts in the political center. 
The main reason for people from the political center subscribing to this is the already mentioned widespread distrust of historians and belief in myths rather than what scholars write. 
I have been in endless debates with Ukrainians who were perfectly reasonable liberal-minded but nevertheless insisted that Bandera had not been a fascist, and everybody saying otherwise were spreading Russian propaganda.
People have long been indoctrinated by Soviet style historical “science” which in vast parts had to serve a political purpose that now they have difficulties trusting academic research on their history as objective.

As I have kept writing for a long time - different country, different history, different mentality. What speaks a clear language in your own country may well have a different connotation in others. 

This is why I would like to encourage everybody participating in debates like this to get in touch with acutal Ukrainians. Ask them. Try to learn about them and their background. 
“Thanks” to Russia’s fascist war against their country they can now be found pretty much everywhere in the West, a good part by the way from the Eastern provinces about which quite a bit of wrong beliefs have already been shared here in this list.

Cheers,

Martin