Cult of Struggle

The nation as a blood-related spiritual community is the basis of our worldview. A Nation can be great only if it is led by an Idea. It is out national greatness and the maximum growth and development of the state-national organism during the millennia that is our Idea. This Idea is higher than the individual or universal values.
The Idea of Nation will always be alive as long as the Ukrainian Nation lives. This Idea can rest in our blood, or shout loudly at us, but this Idea is within every Russinian-Ukrainian.
The Idea of Nation does not work by itself. It has a leader. Our Leader is Andriy Biletsky. The Leader differs from the director in the fact that he doesn’t send other to death, but leads. It’s on him that the first hostile tricks fall and he gives an example of how to endure them. All his life is subjugated to the implementation of the Idea of Nation (maximal development and growth of the blood-spiritual community). If he deviates from this path at least one-step – he loses the aura of Leadership. He ceases to be a leader because he shows weakness – he puts personal priority over common interests. Whoever once in his life deviated from the path of struggle of Idea of Nation – forever loses the right to Leadership. For the reason that the Idea of Nation is an eternal struggle and fight that must not stop even for a moment.

Andriy Biletsky


In all periods of development of our state, devotion to the struggle was a measure of the individual’s greatness, moreover that of the state and nation.
The oldest state tradition in our area dates back to the time of our Skoloty ancestors (the Greeks called them Scythians, and the Persians – Saki). Their state existed for 1000 years – from the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. The Scythian kingdom existed longer than the Roman Empire.
The brightest achievements of Scythian kingdom are listed below:
1) The conquest of the Middle East and the destruction of Urartu’s kingdom and the Assyrian kingdom in the VII century BC.
2) Victory over Darius I, emperor of Persian Empire, the most powerful state of the time, and his army in VI century BC (512 BC).
3) The conquest of the west coast of Black Sea in IV century BC.
4) The destruction of Macedonian army under the rule of Zopirion (general of Alexander the Great) in 331 BC.
5) The elimination of piracy in Northern Black Sea region in second century BC.

For thousands of years, the Kingdom of Skolots was invincible. Its power was so great due to traditional religion and long-term devotion to its ideals. Our ancestors had only 2 types of temples – the temples of God of War Arei and temples of Koraks – the gods of brotherhood. The material incarnation of god Arei was Akinak – Scythian short sword.
The world of our ancestor’s gods was a world of struggle. The goddess of Earth Api, the daughter of Dnieper (Borisphen), who was the mother of all Skolots, is depicted with sword and a severed male head (probably the God of infertility). Our ancestors also imagined afterlife as a world of struggle, as it is showed on two relicts depicting the order of the universe – the royal pectoral from the Thick Tomb and a vase from mound Chortomlyk. They depict the tree of life, which unites the world of people and the world of the gods. The pectoral from the Thick Tomb shows us two Scythians in the center of the world holding a symbol of prosperity – the Golden Fleece. However, above it hang a bow and quiver, which show that strength is a key to prosperity.
In the afterlife there is no place for eternal bliss, as predicted by late Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. The Scythians believed that the world was a manifestation of the eternal cycle of confrontations and did not hope for eternal peace. They didn’t need it. Therefore, the Scythian wise man Toxarid said that the Scythians either attack others or fight among themselves for pastures, but never sit still passively. He knew that nothing unites society more than the image of a common enemy. If it is absent – then different parts of society begin to compete with each other internally.
The highest value of the Skolots was freedom, and its guarantee – weapons.
No wonder the Scythian philosopher Anacharsis wrote to the Greek royal son:
“You have flutes and heavy purse, and I have arrows and a bow. That is why you are a slave and I am free. You have many enemies, and I have none at all. In case you want to throw your money away, take a bow and quiver and live with the Scythians, you will have all our benefits”.

Skolot’s society was hierarchical – an elite led by the king was above all. They called themselves Royal Scythians. Their cause was war, and it was shedding blood for the interest of society as whole that they asserted their right to power. In their environment primarily prevailed the cult of struggle.
Those who betrayed the cult of struggle became exiles or were killed. Thus the Scythian king Skil, who became fascinated with the Greek cult of Bacchus and its mysteries, which involved entering a trance through alcohol and cannabis smoking, was executed. The Scythians considered pure reason to be the key to a strong man. Only a strong man is able to manage his life and the life of the country. Those who run away from reality due to the artificial states of intoxication by cannabis or alcohol are unworthy to be masters. Therefore, Scythian elders imprisoned King Skil, and after he fled to neighboring Thrace (modern Romania) he was returned and executed.

The first thing to begin with when training a young Scythian – was the study of stories about war-brothers. One of them was about the brothers Bellit and Bast, who went hunting for lions (long ago, lions lived in the Azov region and Black Sea costs). When they finally found him, the lion began to defend himself. He threw Bellit off his horse and began to shred him. Bast rushed to the aid of his brother – he killed a lion, but died of his wounds. Two mounds were built on the battlefield. One for the fallen brothers, and the other for the lion. When the Greek interlocutor interpreted this as disrespect for Bast and Bellit, the Scythian wise man Toxarid explained it as an expression of respect for both brothers who fought hard and the lion who fought for his freedom.
This story shows that our ancestors showed respect to those who desperately fight and deserve honor and respect, even if they are enemies. This explains the Scythian sage Anacharsis to the king of Asia Minor Croesus:
“Croesus, showing the prosperity of his kingdom and the number of conquered peoples, asked Anacharsis, as the eldest of the sages, which of the living beings he considers the bravest? Anacharsis said that these are most wild animals, since only they die bravely for their freedom”.
As we can see, the measure of the value of any living being was its ability to fight.

From the III century BC, the Skolots began to cede territories to related Sarmatian tribes, the most powerful of which were the Roxolani. The Sarmatians, like the Skolots, believed in the God of War Arei, worshiping ancient battle swords (unlike the Skolots, the Sarmatians preferred long swords). The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus recorded this: “They have no temples or shrines, no straw-covered tent, but they thrust their bare swords into the ground, so that is their barbaric custom, and reverently worship him as Mars (The Roman name for God of War), the protector of the lands in which they roam”.
The Sarmatian elite, which gradually absorbed the Skolot’s elite, was also devoted to the cult of struggle and, unlike the Skolots, had not yet become infected with the cult of materialism.

The traditions of the religion of the Scythians and Sarmatians (Roksolan) were adopted by the Ruthenians, whose main God was Perun – the God of War. War is the highest manifestation of struggle in the world. All other Gods – Veles (God of wealth and crafts), Svarog (God of blacksmithing), Stribog (God of wind), Semargl (protector of the World Tree and God of vegetation) an others were subordinate to Perun. This is how the Roman chronicler Procopius of Caesarea wrote in the 6th century BC about the sacred form of relations between the Ruthenians and Perun: “They recognize the one God, the Thunderbolt, as the ruler of the whole world and sacrifice bulls and all kinds of sacred animals to him. They do not know fate at all and don’t attribute any influence on people to it. When threatened with death, be it illness or war, they promise that if they are saved from it, they will immediately sacrifice to God for salvation of their lives – and when the danger is over, they will sacrifice and believe that they have bought their salvation. They also worship rivers and nymphs and other deities, and offer sacrifices to all of them; during the sacrifices they foretell”.

Ruthenians continued to worship the sword as the only source of wealth in this world. Here is what the Arab historian Abu Ali Ahmed Ibn-Omar Ibn-Dast wrote about the attitude of the Ruthenians to the sword in the ninth century in the Book of Precious Treasures: “When one them gives birth to a son, the father takes the sword taken out of its scabbard, puts it in front of the newborn and says: “I will not leave you any property, but you will have only what you get for yourself with this sword”.
Another Arab historian, Sharaf al-Zaman Tagir al-Marwazi, wrote: “They, Rus, are numerous and consider the sword as a means of subsistence. If a person dies and leaves daughters and sons, then all the property goes to the daughters, while the sons are given only a sword and they are told: “Your father won his good by the sword, follow his example”.

The greatest punishment for the Ruthenians was not death, but captivity – the inability to continue the struggle. It is such a punishment as the highest to prescribe the Ruthenians for themselves for violating the peace treaty with the Roman Empire in 945:
“If one intends to disrupt this friendship from Rus, then how many of them have been baptized, let them receive punishment from God Almighty – condemnation to death in this age and in the future, and how many are not baptized, let them have no help from God, nor from Perun, let them not be protected by their shields, and let them be cut down by their swords, and let them perish from arrows and other weapons of their own, and let them be slaves both in this age and in the future”.
In 966, during the war with the Romans, who attacked Rus, knyaz (prince) Svyatoslav of Kyiv accepted as a gift from envoys if the Roman emperor only weapons, ignoring the jewelry and fabrics:
“And the Caesar called his boyars to the chamber, and said to them: “What shall we do? After all, we can’t stand up to him”. And the boyars told him: “Send him gifts. We ask him, if he’s greedy for gold”. Therefore, they sent to him gold with a wise man, and said to him: “Follow his gaze, his face and his thoughts”.
He (the man of Caesar), taking the gifts, came to Svyatoslav. And when the Greeks came with gifts he said: “Bring them here”. And they came and worshiped him, and laid before him gold. And Svyatoslav said, looking away: “Hide it”. So everything was hidden and the ambassadors returned to their Caersar.
So the Caesar called the boyars, and then the ambassadors said: “When we came to him and presented the gifts to him, he did not look at them, but ordered them to be hidden”. And one (boyar) said: “Speak with him one more time. Send him weapons”. They obeyed and sent him a sword and other weapons.
And they brought him a sword, and he took it, and began to admire and to praise, and to thank the Caesar.
And they came back to Caesar, and told him all that had happened. And the boyars said: “This man will be furious because he neglects property and takes up arms. Agree to the tribute. And the Caesar sent (ambassadors to Svyatoslav), saying: “Don’t go to my city, but take the tribute, even so big as you want” – because he was almost at the gates of Tsargrad (Constantinople). When asked to retreat from occupied Bulgaria, Svyatoslav replied: “We are not some artisan who earn a living by the work of their hands, but men of blood who defeat the enemy with weapons”.
The greatest sacrifices were made to Perun to get his help before the battle. The continuation of the cult of struggle within the state religion of Kyivan Rus allowed prince Oleg to conquer the capital of the most powerful state in the world – the Roman Empire, and his grandson Svyatoslav – to destroy the surrounding powerful rival states – Volga Bulgaria, Khazar Khaganate, Bulgarian Empire. The struggle as the meaning of life clearly passes through Ruthenian epics – stories about heroes of Rus. They did not stop after performing 1-2 feats – they continued to look for the enemy and victory. This unbridled desire for glory and self-affirmation through victories expanded the borders of Kyivan Rus’ state from the outskirts of Kyiv to the Baltic and Black Sea coasts.
In the 8th century our state elite was enriched by the wives of northern Scandinavian warriors – Vikings, in Rus they were called Varangians. The basis of their worldview was to gain a place near the supreme God Odin in Valhalla – the afterlife for chosen best warriors. They are taken from this world by Valkyries – virgin warriors who serve Odin. Here is how the Elder Edda (a collection of Scandinavian mythological stories) depicts his home:
“It’s easy to guess where Odin’s house is, looking at the wards: the rafters there are spears, and the roof is made of shields and laths on benches”.

Valhalla itself is built of gold and is in the palace, which belongs to Odin and can be translated as “the home of joy”: “Valhalla shines magnificently with gold; there Hroft (one of Odin’s names) gathers brave soldiers fallen in battle”.
Valhalla has its limits, it and contains 432 thousand einherjar: “Five hundred doors and forty more in Valhalla, right; eight hundred soldiers will come out of each for the battle with the Wolf”.
All the time they are either fighting (preparing for Ragnarok – the battle of the end times) or feasting and then falling asleep. The next day they wake at cockcrow of Salgofnir, who lives in Valhalla and everything continues again: “Einherjar are always fighting in the palace of Odin; they enter battle, and when it is finished, they peacefully feast”.
The best warriors are taken not only by Odin, but also by goddess Freya, who gives them a place of eternal life in the Folkwang (army field – from Old Norse):
“… There Freya decides where the heroes will sit; she equally shares soldiers killed in battles with Odin”.

At the end of Ragnarok, the Einherjar from Valgalla and Folkwang will unite under the leadership of Odin and go to the final battle against the forces of darkness. And they will all perish, and Odin will be killed by the huge wolf Fenrir, who will break the chains with which he was chained by the Gods of Asgard.
Odin was also called the Father of Victories – by his own will he could sway military success towards those who impressed him with courage or faithfully honored him.
Ragnarok became the end of the old world and the beginning of the new – the cycle repeats again.
Thus, the meaning of life of the Vikings, who replenished the Kyiv’s army and the state elite from the 9th to the 11th century, was a struggle both in this world and in the afterlife.

The introduction of Christianity in Rus by Grand Duke Vladimir Svyatoslavovich in 988 did not lead to radical changes in the cult of struggle, which continued to dominate within the state elite. Just as before, the higher power that helped in the war was respected. Only now, it was the Intercession of the Virgin, which became a kind of “Goddess of War”.
The adoption of Christianity did not abolish the cult of struggle that prevailed among the Ruthenian elite, among which was the spiritual demand for a higher power that would be the embodiment of this struggle. The cult of Perun was banned, but the spiritual need and nature of the marital elite did not disappear. Therefore, the place of Perun was not formally, but actually replaced by the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Archangel Michael. If before the Ruthenians “when they are threatened with death, illness or war, promise that when they are saved from death, they will immediately sacrifice to God for saving lives – and when the danger is over, they make a sacrifice and believe that they bought their salvation”. After the adoption of Christianity, the Mother of God was asked to win, her intercession was “bought” by promises of future donations – but no longer people and animals (as for Perun), but architectural – the construction of a temple in her honor.


Let’s look at the actions of Prince Mstislav of Tmutorokan, son of Vladimir the Baptist, which reflected the religious consciousness of that time. In 1024 he went to war against the Kasogs, led by Prince Rededa:
“And they came together, and Rededa said to Mstislav:” Do not fight with weapons, but wrestle. “And they began to fight hard, and for a long time they both fought, and Mstislav began to grow weary, because Rededa was great and strong. And Mstislav said: “O Most Holy Mother of God, help me! For if I overcome it, I will build a church in your honor. “And when he had said this, he struck him on the ground, and taking out the knife, he struck him in the throat with this knife, and Rededa was slaughtered there. And entering into his land, he took all that he had, and his goods, and his wife, and his children, and tribute. And when he returned to Tmutorokan, he founded the Church of the Holy Mother of God and built it, which still stands today in Tmutorokan”.
As we can see, the prince asked her for intercession (not from a Christian God or Jesus Christ, or some archangel or angel) and after receiving it, he built a temple in gratitude.
Mstislav the Brave’s brother, Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, built the Pokrov Church directly above the Golden Gate so that the Mother of God would guard the main gate of the capital of Rus.
Here is how the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Duke of Kyiv Volodymyr Monomakh, mentioned the Mother of God in his prayer, which complements his “Teaching to Children” of 1096:
“Preserve your castle [Kyiv], pure virgin-mother, that reigns invariably under your [protection]! May it be strengthen by you and hope in you, wins all battles, defeats opponents and forces [them] to submit”.
As we see the Protection of the Blessed Virgin in the minds of the Grand Duke of Kyiv, like his predecessors, is not just a protector but a patroness of soldiers and war, which not only helps to defend, but and defeat the enemy and rule over him – this is far from her image as a defender of the defenseless that was widespread in Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

The Zaporozhian Cossacks adopted the flag of the Rus-Ukraine elite from the Kyiv warriors and also adopted the cult of the Mother of God, who protected the Cossacks during the battle. Cossack icons illustrate the Mother of God, who covers the Cossacks with her divine protection (in particular, the last Kosh Ataman Peter Kalnyshevsky commissioned the icon). Skalkovsky, a researcher of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, wrote in the History of the New Sich:
“The Cossacks especially favored the Blessed Virgin Mary, because she was considered the patron saint of the army, and wherever Sich was, they immediately built a temple in the name of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin”.
The Church of the Intercession stood in the center of the Zaporozhian Sich. After every campaign, the Cossacks brought their military trophies. During the New Sich (1734-1775) the Cossacks planned to build the Church of the Virgin from the stones of Tatar and Turkish mosques. A similar church was built in 1653-1656 by order of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky in his native village of Subotov – its foundation was laid from the stone of ruined mosques. It was dedicated to St. Elijah, who absorbed the functionality of the God Perun – rule over thunder, lightning and rain. The Church of St. Elijah in the village of Subotiv became a tomb for the Khmelnytsky family, and Bohdan Khmelnytsky himself found his eternal peace in it. Pavlo Alepsky mentions the construction of the Khmelnytsky temple in his description of the journey of the Patriarch of Antioch Macarius to Rus on August 2, 1654:
“We arrived in a village named Subotiv, where Timothy, the son of the hetman, usually lived. Residents came out to meet us in a procession and led us to a large new church in the name of St. Michael. It collected the treasures of Armenian churches, which were looted and destroyed by the Timothy in Suceava… In this church is the tomb of Timothy. His wife, the daughter of Vasily, the ruler of Moldavia, visited our patriarch several times… On Sunday morning, in her presence, we commemorated her husband, over whose tomb, according to their custom, hangs a large banner with a very similar portrait. A hero on horseback with a sword in his right hand and a mace in his left and with an image in the foreground of Moldova as the country he set out to conquer. His poor wife lives in the palace of her husband, around which he built fortifications, and now the hetman, his father, wants to increase the splendor of the palace, and builds in front of him, on a hill, a stone church of St. Elijah the prophet. We noticed in its construction several huge stones, the size of which surprised us. When asked, we were told that the stones were brought from a city that belonged to the Tatars five miles from here, where the Tatars had a large mosque. The hetman destroyed it and removed the stones to build this church from them”.
Interestingly, Timish Khmelnytsky brought shrines from the Armenian churches he destroyed to the Church of the Archangel Michael, as once Ruthenian warriors brought trophies from campaigns and sacrificed some of them to the god Perun. After the Christianization of Rus his cult was transformed into the veneration of the holy prophet Elijah, who absorbed the natural part of Perun (lightning, thunder, rain), and the veneration of Archangel Michael as saint patron of soldiers who overthrew Satan in battle.
Especially interesting was the understanding of the Zaporozhian Cossacks entering to paradise. In Volume 2 of the History of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, Yavornytsky writes that the Cossacks believed that the more Busurmen someone killed, the more likely he was to enter the kingdom of God; Sirk’s faith was even stronger than anyone else’s. In one of his letters, Ivan Sirko wrote: “Without bragging, I am telling the truth, all my worries and efforts are aimed at harming our eternal enemies Busurmans”. It is to the Kosh Ataman of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, Ivan Sirko, that the saying goes: “Slaves are not allowed into paradise”. So the Cossacks adopted from the Rus militia the belief that captivity is worse than death.
Here is how Ivan Sirko wrote to Hetman Petro Doroshenko:

“… I consider the main enemy to be the one who takes our lives and our blood… the horde fights with fire and sword, it fills its deserts with our women and children, and look how many Tatars destroyed or sold from the Cossack people to the galleys”. Sirko clearly saw that the main enemy was the non-ethnic, non-religious, non-cultural Islamic world.
After the death of Ivan Sirko, the Zaporozhian Cossacks cut off his right hand and for many years went with it on campaigns against the enemy. They believed that the invincible right hand of the Kosh Ataman would bring them victory in battle, they believed that during the battle the power of Sirko will be with them. The Cossacks filled the mound of Ivan Sirko before entering the Zaporizhzhya Sich (Chortomlytska) and all foreign delegations had to salute the mound before entering the Sich to pay their respects to the famous ataman.

In 1621, Kyiv Metropolitan Yov Boretsky wrote in a letter to King Sigismund III about the Cossacks that they were God’s punishment for Muslims, that is, they fought at God’s command:
“The Lord God directs them, who himself knows what the remnants of that old Rus are and keeps their right hand and strength at sea and on land long, wide and far. God holds them and orders them. In the same way, the Lord laid down the Cossacks, the lower Zaporozhian and Don, as the second lightning and thunder living on the sea and on the earth, to frighten and destroy the infidel Turks and Tatars”.
Based on the militant worldview of the Cossacks, their understanding of law, described by Ivan Mazepa, is absolutely logical: “We have the right to use the sword”.

Thus, even after the adoption of Christianity, God continued to be perceived by our ancestors as the supreme force of struggle. Armed with faith in their destiny as defenders of the Rus land and faith, the Cossacks under the command of Kosh Ataman Peter Sagaidachny burned the capitals of the largest states of the time – Istanbul (1615) and Moscow (1618), and Kyiv Cossack Colonel Anton Zhdanovich stormed Warsaw (1656).
Thanks to the perception of all life as a struggle for their Nation and State, Ukrainian nationalists were able to successfully resist the Polish, communist Russian and German occupation regimes, because the first rule of the Ukrainian nationalist says:
“Accept life as a heroic feat and acquire the rank of indomitable will and creative idea” (44 rules of the Ukrainian nationalist authored by the regional leader of the OUN Dmytro Myron Orlyk). It is a complete revival of the psychology of Rus heroes – every day to assert itself in new victories and thus gain the status of “hero” in the IX-XII centuries and “nationalist” in the XX-XXI century.
About half of the 44 rules of the Ukrainian nationalist in one way or another concern the struggle as the basis of the nationalist’s life:

  1. Know that the world and life are a struggle, and in strugle the one who has power wins.
  2. Then You are a full man, when you conquer yourself and the world and constantly strive for the top.
  3. Know that the one who does not break through failures, but has the courage to rise from the fall and fight hard for the goal, wins the fight.
  4. Victory requires endurance and constant effort in action and struggle.

The philosophy of life of both Royal Skolots (Scythians), Rus warriors, and Zaporozhian Cossacks was based on the same eternal truths.

Commandments from the Decalogue of the Ukrainian Nationalist (author Stepan Lenkavsky), a symbol of the OUN faith:

  1. You will gain the Ukrainian State or die in the struggle for it.
  2. You will compete to spread the power, wealth and space of the Ukrainian state, even by enslaving foreigners.

It was thanks to such life credo that the UPA fought against the USSR for another 15 years. The last militia was destroyed near the village of Lozy in the Ternopil region on April 14, 1960 – the insurgents Oleg Tsentarsky “Ivan the Younger”, Petro Pasichny “Black” and Maria Palchak “Stefa” were killed. In April 1965, in a battle with the NKVD in Ulashkivka, Ternopil region, the insurgent Petro Basyuk was killed by firing all his ammunition and blowing himself up with a grenade. Due to their complete devotion to the ideals of struggle, the insurgents created insurgent republics in the forests of Polissya (Kolkiv, Antonivtsi, Sich), Galicia (Halych and Pidhayets) and the Carpathian Mountains (Kosmatska), despite enemy attacks. Wherever possible, the insurgents established national power, whether 1 village, 10 villages or 100 villages. Every small victory is the way to the bigger one. Every small victory is possible only through daily work and struggle.

Being the elite of society is a born minority – the majority will never understand the cult of struggle and will not accept it. “I believe that those who feel an inner need to fight should fight. After all, there are people who have to work, help us in the cities, follow the government that came, because we can’t do that. So better let them stay and benefit the people in another way,” said Serhiy Ambros, a 24-year-old Azov regiment fighter who died on February 18, 2015 from a head injury while defending the newly liberated village of Shirokino.
He understood that struggle is not for everyone, only for those born for it.

All periods of greatness of our states were during the domination of the cult of struggle among the national elite – paralats (Royal Scythians), princes and their warriors, Cossacks, underground members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. When their worldview began to be dominated by the desire for personal enrichment over the idea of ​​glory – then our states declined, sometimes even disappeared. This was the case with the Skolots, whose elite became Hellenized over time and began to value comfort more than military victories. This was the case with the Rus princes, who instead of marching on foreign lands, began to fight among themselves for the redistribution of Ruthenian cities, which were trade and industrial centers, and allotments. This was the case with the Cossacks, who had vast wealth, lands, crafts, flocks of cattle, but could not unite the Cossacks to protect their rights and the state (in the case of the Cossacks, the cause of decline was unnaturally large amount of Cossacks, resulting in a catastrophic decline in the Cossacks and officers in particular).
The result was the absorption of a more aggressive people / state each time – the Scythian kingdom was destroyed by the warlike Goths, Rus almost disappeared during the Mongol invasion, the Zaporozhian Army was conquered without a fight by the Russian Empire.

Only with the triumph of the cult of struggle among our elite will the Ukrainian nation be reborn after deep downfalls. Now is the time. The newest national elite is being formed right before our eyes in frontline chances and street confrontations. First of all, we are grateful to our Leader – Andriy Biletsky. His whole life is a struggle. It began with a small fire of national feeling, which was ignited in the soul of little Andriy by Anton Lototsky’s book “History of Ukraine for children”. The university’s work on the UPA inflamed the flames of the soul even more – Andriy Biletsky’s master’s thesis on the UPA was recognized as the best in Ukraine. Andriy’s scientific supervisor was the legendary historian Yaroslav Dashkevych, the son of the legendary artillery commander of the Sich Riflemen Roman Dashkevych, the military brother of the future OUN leaders – Yevhen Konovalets and Andriy Melnyk. Biletsky could make a fantastic career as a historian of the Liberation Struggle of the Ukrainian Nation of the twentieth century. But he wanted not just to write about nationalists, but to create a nationalist movement in modern Ukraine. This was especially difficult in Russified Kharkiv. In 2001, he joined the Stepan Bandera Trident Organization and began his career. In 2005 he founded the Patriot of Ukraine Organization. In 2008, he united a number of nationalist organizations around it into the Social-National Assembly. As of 2011, the Assembly was the largest nationalist organization in Ukraine, illustrated by the 2011 anti-migration march in Kharkiv, which has long been the largest Ukrainian march in the city.
People gathered around Andriy Biletsky, because they saw in him the burning fire of eternal struggle. He was always ahead, especially during the battle of October 18, 2008, when the Patriot of Ukraine, the Brotherhood, the UNTP and St. Andrew’s Cossack hut tried for the first time to cross Khreshchatyk in honor of the UPA and the Cossack Protection. Then Berkut didn’t give the chance to go the registered route and there was a fight. Biletsky was at the head of the column and led it into battle. He was also not frightened when, in the midst of the Yanukovych regime’s repression against the Patriot of Ukraine in December 2011, he was shot in the jaw. But he did not deviate from the path of struggle. He was then taken to a pre-trial detention center, where he was held without a sentence until the Revolution of 2013-2014. He could have paid for this decision, but continuing the struggle was above all for him. After the Epiphany on January 19, 2014 and the revival of public activity of the Patriot of Ukraine, Biletsky was transferred to the Kholodnohirskaya colony without a court sentence, where he was thrown into a cold cell. But it did not break the Leader. He continued to fight against the enemy system, giving them no reason to tarnish his name, which was an example for hundreds of patriots. And here he leaves the colony on February 26, 2014. He has not seen his wife, son, parents for more than 3 years. But he did not spend a day with them. He was called to a sacred struggle. On February 27, he announced a right-wing mobilization to the East in Kyiv, followed by hundreds of Right Sector fighters. On February 28, 2014, he captured the Oplot Club, the center of separatism in Kharkiv. On March 1, 2014, he took part in the failed defense of the Kharkiv Regional Administration. The leader does not give up. He is temporarily taking people out to Poltava. Defeat only adds to the fervor of the struggle. A partisan detachment Black Corps is being formed in the forests near Poltava. He returned to Kharkiv and began to clean the streets from pro-russian forces, uniting Ukrainian forces at the Cheka headquarters. Biletsky traveled to Luhansk, where on March 10, 2014, he detained the main separatist of the Luhansk region, Klinchaev, who was later released by police. Then there was the Battle of Rymarska 18 from March 14 to 15, the defense of the Cheka headquarters, a demonstration of strength of spirit – 32 people led by Biletsky repulsed the assault on 500 separatists with automatic weapons. Under the threat of assault by police special forces, Rymarska’s defenders surrender, they are transported to regional police stations. Biletsky is taken to the SBU himself. From there he fled and called for armed help from Kyiv. After that, he went to the GUMVD in the Kharkiv region and under threat of assault seek the deportation of soldiers to Poltava and their release. Instead, he could go to Kyiv, give a high-profile press conference, and start a political career. But he did not give any interviews. He devoted all his time to struggle.
His example charged with resistance to resistance in other areas, including Zaporizhia, where Right Sector fighters did their best to disperse the separatist march on April 13, 2014.
After the defeat of separatism in Kharkiv region, the leader led so-called “black men” to the South, where they became Azov-battalion. All the biggest battles – the liberation of Mariupol on June 13, 2014, Marinka on August 4, 2014, the Ilovaysk operation on August 10-20, 2014, the defense of Mariupol on September 4-5, 2014 – everywhere Biletsky led the battle personally. He did not send the boys into battle, he led them there and he himself repeatedly went on reconnaissance.
The liberation of Mariupol was due to the pushing of this decision by Andriy Biletsky and taking full responsibility. A similar thing happened in Operation Ilovaysk, where he did not throw fighters at the hands of the Russian army, but withdrew the battalion from the cauldron. He did not retreat from Mariupol, as all army units did on September 4, 2014, but organized the defense of the city and won. In many ways, the image of invincible Azov is the result of the fire of struggle that burns in the soul of the Leader.
Having switched to political activity, having won the elections to the Verkhovna Rada in the Obolon district in Kyiv, Andriy Biletsky transferred the heat of life-giving fire to the activities of the Civil Corps, from which the National Corps party emerged.
That is why our party is the fastest growing of all political forces, that is why we have helped to create a lot of social projects – National Druzhina, Youth Corps, Landmark, Flame, One Blood, Memory of the Nation, Intermarium, School of National Corps Activists, School of Corporals Axion and Khoma of the National Corps, School of Leaders of Axion and Khoma, Sports Corps, Medical Corps, Our Future, Ukrainian families, etc.
The hearth warms, soothes, gives confidence, but needs constant support with firewood. In the same way, the hearth of the struggle is supported by our ranks and is growing from the constant maintenance of the pace of the struggle. The meeting with the fire changed the course of human history. In the same way, the struggle inflames people’s hearts. We are reviving the cult of struggle, which gave strength to our ancestors – the Royal Skolots, Ruthenians, Cossacks. Strength and struggle against the enemy are the most unifying factors for any team – from guys from the hood to the Nation. Experiencing defeats and victories, deaths and losses, gains and triumphs together is the key to true brotherhood. Svyatoslav spoke about it, calling his druzhina and himself “men of blood.” Not everyone understands the meaning of the cult of struggle, but it is not necessary. We need the struggle to settle as the meaning of life only in the hearts and minds of the passionaries – the natural elite, active and clever by nature, natural leaders. By nature, they are predators and we must make them remember the famine for victory, to fan this fire, which will require more and more in return. There are types of people designed for this. No wonder the Royal Scythians called themselves paralats – appointed. They were destined to lead, because they had this hunger for victory, this unquenchable fire in their hearts and souls. The ability to surrender completely to the king and the state, they received the right to be the elite. If we revive this militant spirit of our ancestors among the Ukrainians, then we will again become invincible as a Nation and build a millennial state, as the Kingdom of the Skolots once did. The majority will follow us because all they were born to follow someone.
There are only 2 options – to victory, or to stagnation and defeat. Without a cult of struggle among the national elite, the Nation is doomed to second option only. The second option does not suit us nationalists, because the future belongs to us for one simple reason, because we want it so.