Elimination and Rebirth : The German Occupation of Soviet Ukraine in the OUN-M Propaganda

Abstract: This thesis presents the way the OUN-M’s newspaper Ukraïns’ke slovo framed the German occupation of Soviet Ukraine. Using a qualitative text analysis, this paper investigates sixty-six issues of the periodical, published in September-December 1941, in order to identify collective action framing that the OUN-M utilises to portray the Nazi occupation and elements of fascist ideology that are present in these frames. Combining the conceptualisation of fascism and collective action framing, the results of this study are related to the political platform of the OUN-M. The findings demonstrate that Ukraïns’ke slovo used three collective action frames to diagnose the alleged “enemies” of Ukrainians, propose a solution of eliminating these “enemies,” and motivate its audience. In the framing process, the periodical embedded fascist rhetoric in its portrayal of the German occupation of Soviet Ukraine. Furthermore, as of September-December 1941, the political platform of the OUN-M also had a strong fascist foundation. However, further research is required to explore the OUN-M as a fascist organisation.