Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations

Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN). A co-ordinating center for anti-Communist émigré political organizations from Soviet and other socialist countries. The ABN attributes its existence and its ideological foundations to an underground conference of representatives of non-Russian peoples that took place on 21-22 November 1943 near Zhytomyr on the initiative of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and at which a platform of joint revolutionary struggle against Russian communism was formulated. The goal of the ABN was the dismemberment of the Soviet Union into national states. Given an organizational structure in Munich in 1946, the ABN extended its scope of activity to include the Eastern European emigration. The following organizations were members of the ABN from its inception or for varying periods of time: ‘Free Armenia’ Committee, Bulgarian National Front, Belorussian Central Council, Cossack National Liberation Movement, Croatian National Liberation Movement, Czech Movement for Freedom (Za Svobodu), Czech National Committee, Estonian Liberation Movement, Union of the Estonian Fighters for Freedom, Georgian National Organization, Hungarian Liberation Movement, Hungarian Mindszenty Movement, Latvian Association for the Struggle against Communism, Lithuanian Rebirth Movement, Slovak Liberation Committee, National Turkestanian Unity Committee, United Hetman Organization, and the OUN (Bandera faction). In the 1970s two anti-Communist organizations, For the Freedom of Vietnam and Cuba Libre, joined the ABN. Some local émigré organizations also belong to the ABN. In several countries (the United States of America, Canada, Great Britain) national ABN and ABN support groups, such as the American Friends of the ABN, were active; in others (Belgium, Italy, Australia, Argentina, etc) the organization was represented by branch offices and groups. Youth sections of the ABN were active in Great Britain and the United States.

The ABN was headed by Yaroslav Stetsko from the time of its inception to 1986, the year of his death. He was succeeded by his widow, Slava Stetsko. The chairmen of the ABN Peoples' Council included V. Berzins, V. Kajum-Khan, F. Ďurčanský, F. Farkas de Kisbarnak, and R. Ostrowski. The long-time general secretaries were N. Nakashidze and C. Pokorný. The ABN disbanded in 1996 following the dissolution of the USSR.

The ABN conducted information-propaganda activity through its periodical and non-periodical publications in various languages, including the bimonthly ABN Correspondence (1950–96; initially in English, German, and French, later in English only), and Resistencia y Liberación (Buenos Aires). Also associated with the ABN was the journal L'est européen (Paris).

The headquarters and cells of the ABN organized mass anti-Soviet rallies, protest demonstrations, press conferences, and international congresses, and the distribution of various memoranda. The ABN co-operated with the World Anti-Communist League (WACL) and the European Freedom Council (EFC). Representatives from the ABN and related organizations participated in the congresses of the WACL and EFC.

Ukrainians formed the most active group in the ABN (specifically, the OUN (Bandera faction) and organizations of the Ukrainian Liberation Front) and were also the main financers of its activities. The headquarters of the ABN were, from the start, in Munich.

Vasyl Markus

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]