The Ukrainian army of 2022 emerged on the foundation of the phenomenon of the volunteer movement of 2014-2015. It is not surprising that many of the attributes of that time are now officially recognized at the state level. One such element is the tradition of soldiers publicly reciting the Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist.
The text of the Prayer appeared in the twentieth century. It was written by the OUN underground member Osyp Mashchak. Legend has it that he wrote it in blood. This is true in a symbolic, not literal sense. Mashchak and his associates were serving a 15-year prison sentence. He was accused of murdering the Russian commissar Mylov, one of the organizers of the Holodomor, the genocide of 1932-1933. His experiences were written down on paper, but torture and repression give reason to call the ideologue's ink "bloody."
Ukrainian political prisoners read the Prayer aloud every morning and evening. Each from his or her cell, in a chorus, to strengthen their spirits and demonstrate national unity, despite the prison guards.
The power of this text led to its special status among the Ukrainian passionate society of the time. The prayer was recited by UPA soldiers at formations, with it they went into battle against the occupiers, and with these words on their lips they died in the war. Since then, the Prayer has become mandatory in the OUN. Everyone who joined the organization had to know it by heart.
It is the actions of the brave that explain the sacredness of the Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist for future generations. With the restoration of Ukraine's independence in 1991, the words of the Prayer began to sound again on Ukrainian lands. In the Patriot of Ukraine organization, it was recited in front of the ranks, on one knee. Thus, in front of witnesses, they swore to fight for the Idea of the Nation to the last drop of blood.
In 2014, a volunteer battalion of the Azov Army was formed on the basis of the Patriot of Ukraine. Nationalist traditions got a second wind here. Since not all the recruits knew the Prayer by heart, at the initiative of the unit's ideologist, Mykola Kravchenko "Kruk," it was customary to say it collectively at formations. The leader would say it, and the formation would repeat it.
At first, this ritual was internal. The public learned about it in the summer of 2014, when Azov soldiers were leaving for the front from St. Sophia Square. In the center of Kyiv, the volunteers solemnly read the Prayer, swearing allegiance to Ukraine. They emphasized that the events in the East were not an "ATO" for them, but a Russian-Ukrainian war, a war for the survival of Ukrainians as a nation. Unfortunately, only a passionate minority understood this truth at the time.
At the same time, it was this minority that preserved the state and held the front. Following the example of the Azovs, other volunteer battalions began to recite the Prayer in a similar way, such as the Sich, the Legion of Freedom, the DUK PS, and others. A specific military volunteer tradition - this is how this ritual was perceived at the time.
In 2017, the "March of the Ukrainian Army" was presented, a song that later became the official anthem of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Its authors placed phrases from the Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist between the second and third stanzas. Specifically, from the audio version of its performance by the Azov soldiers.
Today, the Prayer is known and respected in dozens of combat units, among various units of the Ukrainian army. In the National Guard and the GUR, the Special Forces and the Ground Forces, in the terrorist defense, the National Police and even the SBU.
In his official address after the creation of the 3rd Separate Special Forces Brigade, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, paid special attention to the symbols of the new unit. The reason is simple: the main banner of our brigade contains the full text of the Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist.
Despite its widespread distribution, the Prayer itself is quite difficult to learn by heart the first time. In the ranks of the AZOV regiment, this was solved very simply: the soldiers received their own copies of the text in the form of pocket calendars. They can be conveniently kept inside a military ID card or in the breast pocket of a uniform, near the heart.
Today, not only the soldiers of the Azov units, but also servicemen of other formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have similar copies of the Prayer. On the initiative of officers, they are given to mobilized soldiers at recruitment centers as part of ideological and educational work with new recruits.
At the beginning of the Russian invasion, the invaders openly stated that one of the goals of their war was to "destroy the Azov movement." A year later, even an idiot can see that this has had the opposite effect.
Instead of a single Azov regiment, in 2023 Ukraine has a whole network of Azov units. The ideas of nationalists resonate with different segments of the population, and I alone personally approved the printing and sending of more than 10,000 copies of the Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist to various combat units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that are in no way connected with the Azov. Each of these copies bears the symbol "Idea of the Nation," an Azov sign that is an emblem of organized Ukrainian nationalism in general.
Russian propaganda calls such processes of ideological education of soldiers "satanization" of the Ukrainian army. We have already seen this in our history more than once, just remember the "anathema" against Hetman Ivan Mazepa. The answer to such hysteria is simple. If we do something that causes Russians to hate and fear us, then we are doing the right thing!
Full text of the Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist:
Ukraine, holy mother of heroes, come down to my heart, come with the storm of Caucasian winds, the noise of Carpathian streams, the battles of the glorious conqueror father Khmel, the triumph and roar of the guns of revolutions, the joyful sound of St. Sophia's bells.
Let my soul be reborn in you, illuminated by your glory, for you, O Holy One, are my whole life, for you are my happiness.
Ring for me the clanging of chains, the creaking of gallows on gloomy mornings, bring me the cries of those tortured in cellars, prisons, and exiles.
So that my faith may be granite, so that my strength may grow with zeal, so that I may go boldly into battle, as heroes did for you, O Holy One, for your glory, for your holy ideas.
To avenge the shame of captivity, the trampled honor, the mockery of your executioners, the innocent blood of your tortured children, the majestic death of the heroes of the Ukrainian nation and thousands of others unknown to us, whose bones are scattered or secretly buried.
Burn away all the faintness in my heart with your life-giving fire, so that I may know no fear, and know not what hesitation is.
Strengthen my spirit, harden my will, dwell in my heart, raise me to clear ranks, in ranks may I find death, a sweet death in agony for you, and may I melt into you and live in you forever.
Eternal Ukraine: holy, powerful, united!
