Andriy Biletsky (politician)

People's Deputy of Ukraine
8th convocation
November 27, 2014 – present
Elected as: Non-partisan, 217th electoral district (located in Kyiv)
June 2014

Andriy Yevhenovych Biletsky is a Ukrainian military man and politician, who is leader of the organizations Social-National Assembly and Patriot of Ukraine, which are considered by some as white racist[1][2] and neo-Nazi.[3][4][5][6] He also is a military commander of Azov Battalion, many of whose members was described as followers of neo-Nazi ideology.[7][8]

Biography

Born in 1979 in Kharkiv, Soviet Union, Biletsky's father Yevhen Mykhailovych Biletsky hailed from an old Cossack family that founded a village of Krasnopavlivka (Lozova Raion), while Biletsky's mother Olena Anatolivna Biletsky (nee Lukashevych) descended from a noble family from Zhytomyr region, to which belong the Decembrist Vasiliy Lukashevich (Vasyl Lukashevych) who founded the "Little-Russian Secret Society".

In youth, Biletsky practiced several types of hand-to-hand combat and boxing. In 1990 he refused to be accepted to the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization, becoming the Soviet pioneer and along with senior schoolmates raised Ukrainian flag over his school.[9] His major patriotic influence in youth was a father's gift, the prohibited in the Soviet Union, History of Ukraine for children by Anton Lototsky.[9] In 2001 with honors Biletsky graduated the History faculty of the University of Kharkiv. The same year he participated in the Ukraine without Kuchma (UBK) protests, for which ended up under an administrative arrest. The Security Service of Ukraine pressured the university administration to exclude him out of the institution.

In 2002 Biletsky became a leader of the Kharkiv branch of Tryzub of Stepan Bandera political organization and in 2003 cooperated with the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) opposed the idea of its transformation into Svoboda.

After transformation of SNPU into Svoboda and liquidation of the original Patriot of Ukraine, in 2005 Biletsky initiated revival of the Patriot of Ukraine independently from any political factions. The new Patriot of Ukraine initially consisted out of the Kharkiv branches of UNA-UNSO, Tryzub and former SNPU. Since 2005 Biletsky also cooperated with the newly established Ukrainian Conservative Party.

On October 18, 2008 Biletsky and Patriot's members were all arrested by militsiya for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army memorial march. In November 2008 on his initiative there was created the Social National Assembly (SNA) that included four organizations, Spadshchyna (Heritage), Patriot of Ukraine (2005), Revolyutsiya i Derzhava (RiD, Revolution and State), and Slava i Chest (SiCh, Glory and Honor).

In August 2011, members of Patriot and SNA were arrested in connection with the Vasylkiv terrorists case. At the same time there was an armed assault on the headquarters of Patriot in Kharkiv during which two members were wounded, while the assailant was injured. Members of Patriot were arrested and charged with an attempted murder on 11 September 2011. On 19 November 2011 there was an attempt to kill Biletsky when he was fired upon in Kharkiv and received two firearm wounds. Biletsky managed to bring himself to the city hospital where he was operated. The local militsiya classified the event as hooliganism. On 27 December 2011 Biletsky was also arrested on same charges as other Patriot members and until 27 April 2012 was held in detention at the Kharkiv investigation jail (remand) for 28 months.[9] The supporters of Social-National movements qualified the arrests as political repressions leading to protests of nationalists in several cities of Ukraine.

During the Euromaidan events, members of the Biletsky's Patriot became one of the founders of Right Sector on November 28, 2013. On 24 February 2014 the Ukrainian parliament adopted a decision on freedom of political prisoners and the next day Biletsky with other prisoners were completely acquitted and freed from the custody.

On March 12, 2014 Biletsky became a party leader in special operations for the "Right Sector - East" that includes such regions like Poltava, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts. On 5 May 2014 in Berdyansk he became a founder and commander of the Azov Battalion (as a territorial battalion of patrol service) that on 20 November was transformed into a regiment. The battalion was initially based on members of the Patriot of Ukraine, SNA and the AutoMaidan movement. The paramilitary formation became known as the Little black men as an opposition to the Russian special operations Little green men.[9]

On 13 June 2014 Biletsky led his detachment to successful liberation of Mariupol (First Battle of Mariupol) from the Russian separatists. According to the British military reporter Askold Krushelnycky, "Biletsky was cool in the evaluation of actions and giving orders calmly and, in my opinion, logically".[9] On August 2, 2014 he, Major of Militsiya, was awarded the Order For Courage (III degree) and on August 15, 2014 Biletsky was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

On September 10, 2014 Biletsky was admitted to the military council of the People's Front, yet did not became a member of the party. On September 27, 2014 he ran as independent candidate at the 217th electoral district (Kiev) for the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election and won receiving 31,445 votes (33.75%). Previously, Biletsky ran for the Ukrainian parliament in 2006 unsuccessfully.[9]

In interview to LB.ua (Left Bank) on 10 December 2014 Biletsky announced that the Patriot of Ukraine as political organization suspended its activities due to the war situation in the country and dissolved primarily within the Azov Battalion.[10] In the same interview Biletsky denied any relations of the Patriot's logo to the German runic sign which some political scientists claim.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Shekhovstov, Anton (March 2011). "The Creeping Resurgence of the Ukrainian Radical Right? The Case of the Freedom Party.". Europe-Asia Studies 63 (2): 203–228. doi:10.1080/09668136.2011.547696. During the second half of the 1990s, the SNPU recruited Nazi skinheads and football hooligans. At the same time, the party decided to reorganise its ‘popular guard units’ to form the Tovarystvo spryyannya zbroinym sylam ta viiskovo-mors’komu flotu Ukrayiny ‘Patriot Ukrayiny’ (Society of Assistance to Armed Forces and Navy of Ukraine ‘Patriot of Ukraine’), headed by Andrii Parubii. However, although the ‘Patriot of Ukraine’ was formed in 1996, it was not until 1999 that it became a full-fledged organisation. Its first convention took place in Lviv in December 1999 and was celebrated by a night-time torch procession through the city streets… [In 2004, the SNPU] the convention disbanded the Patriot of Ukraine, as this paramilitary organisation as such and its overtly racist stances in particular posed a threat to the new ‘respectable’ image of the Freedom Party… The Kharkiv local organisation of the Patriot of Ukraine refused to disband and renewed its membership in 2005. The following year, it managed to register as a regional social organisation, but, from then on, it had no organisational ties with the maternal party.
  2. ↑ Shekhovstov, Anton (2013). "17: Para-Militarism to Radical Right-Wing Populism: The Rise of the Ukrainian Far-Right Party Svoboda.". In Wodak. Right-Wing Populism in Europe. Bloomsbury Academic. Svoboda also seems to benefit from the increasing popularity of extreme-right youth movements and organizations like the Social-National Assembly (SNA), 'Patriot of Ukraine' and Autonomous Resistance, whose aim is to create 'a uniracial and uninational society'. The activities of these groups are not limited to physical or symbolic violence against ethnic and social minorities, as they also take an active part in numerous social campaigns - generally along with representatives of Svoboda - ranging from mass protests against price rises to leafleting against alcohol and drug use. Needless to say, members of these extreme-right movements are often members of Tyahnybok's party. Interestingly, 'street combat youth movements' like the SNA no longer focus on ethnic issues: in contrast to the older Ukrainian far right, the new groups are, first and foremost, racist movements.
  3. ↑ Anton Shekhovtsov, Andreas Umland Ukraine's Radical Right // Journal of Democracy. Volume 25, Number 3 July 2014
  4. ↑ Shekhovtsov, Anton (2013). "17: From Para-Militarism to Radical Right-Wing Populism: The Rise of the Ukrainian Far-Right Party Svoboda". In Ruth Wodak. Right-Wing Populism in Europe. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 249–263. ISBN 1780932456. Retrieved 12 May 2014. — «At the same time, Nova Syla's Yuriy Zbitnyev is one of the leaders of the neo-Nazi group Social-National Assembly, an organization that is also close to the younger members of Svoboda, but Nova Syla itself, while remaining on the fringes of Ukrainian politics, is not much influenced by these relations.... Svoboda also seems to benefit from the increasing popularity of extreme-right youth movements and organizations like the Social-National Assembly (S.N.A), 'Patriot of Ukraine' and Autonomous Resistance, whose aim is to create 'a uniracial and uninational society'. The activities of these groups are not limited to physical or symbolic violence against ethnic and social minorities, as they also take an active part in numerous social campaigns - generally along with representatives of Svoboda - ranging from mass protests against price rises to leafleting against alcohol and drug use. Needless to say, members of these extreme-right movements are often members of Tyahnybok's party. Interestingly, 'street combat youth movements' like the S.N.A no longer focus on ethnic issues: in contrast to the older Ukrainian far right, the new groups are, first and foremost, racist movements.»
  5. ↑ Ishchenko, Volodymyr (2011). "Fighting Fences vs Fighting Monuments: Politics of Memory and Protest Mobilization in Ukraine". Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 19 (1-2). ...rightist non-partisan groups including overtly racist “autonomous nationalists” (http://reactor.org.ua) and the neo-Nazi “Patriot of Ukraine” (http://www.patriotukr.org.ua/). For the far right sector politics of memory actions comprised 29.2% of all protest actions with their participation, this was larger than the shares of social-economic, political struggle, and civic rights protest issues (Table 7)… After the notorious death of Maksym Chaika in a fight with antifascists in Odessa in April 2009, Yushchenko unambiguously supported the far right interpretation of the accident claiming the victim to be “an activist of a patriotic civic association” consciously murdered by “pro-Russia militants” ignoring Chaika’s connections with rightist football hooligans and his membership in the “SICH” (“Glory and Honor”) organization, a participant in the Social-Nationalist Assembly (http://sna.in.ua/) together with the neo-Nazi group “'Patriots of Ukraine.'"
  6. ↑ Ghosh, Mridula (2013). Ralf Melzer, ed. The Extreme Right in Ukraine’s Political Mainstream: What Lies Ahead?. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. In its own internal flows of communication and control, Svoboda has always been a top-down organization that does not permit dialogue or encourage critical thinking and dissent. Yet it has made good use of “open” forms of grassroots exchanges, communicating with the public and attracting new recruits via social networks like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and VKontakte. In this context, special mention should be made of the relations that Svoboda has maintained with what may be called the “informal” far-right, a category that includes the neo-Nazi underground, radical football fans, and hooligans. Members of these groups constitute hidden reservoirs of support for Svoboda and its ideology, Among them are those who openly propagate intolerance (e.g., by supporting total bans on immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers), including one part of UNA-UNSO; the Ukrainian National Labor Party and Patriots of Ukraine; skinheads; followers of Hetman Pavel Skoropadskiy; Fans of the Third Hetmanate; and the Delegation of the Right from the regions. There are also those who do not champion racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism, but nevertheless harbor other radical ideas...
  7. ↑ Azov fighters are Ukraine's greatest weapon and may be its greatest threat
  8. ↑ Volunteer Ukrainian unit includes Nazis
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Bereza, A. Andriy Biletsky. How war changed a political prisoner into a commander of the Azov Battalion. "Novoye Vremya". 22 October 2014
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Shvets, Ye. Andriy Biletsky: Half of Azov speaks in Russian language. But they die and kill for Ukraine. LB.ua. 10 December 2014

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