Olena Semeniaka

Occupation(s)Academic, political activist and philosopherOrganization(s)International secretary of the Azov Movement and head of National Corps

Olena Semeniaka (Ukrainian: Олена Семеняка; born 1987) is a Ukrainian far-right political activist, academic and philosopher who became the international secretary of the Azov Movement,^[1][2] and the head of the National Corps.^[3] She is also known as the "first lady" of Ukrainian nationalism.^[4]

Education

At the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Olena Semenyaka was a postgraduate student with an emphasis on religious studies and philosophy. Her areas of interest in study are diverse and include analytical philosophy, classical German philosophy, and critique of ideology/totalitarian studies. As part of her academic pursuits, she also explores the analysis of Ernst Jünger's legacy.^[5]

Career

The ideologist of the Azov Movement, Olena Semeniaka, presented the movement's main political platform in the early years of 2015. It centered on the idea of creating a racially homogenous pan-European state that would begin in Ukraine, expand into Russia, and ultimately cover all of Europe. Reconquista, as the movement's ideologists called it, was one of its central ideas.^[6]

The "Intermarium Support Group" is a non-governmental organization that was founded in 2016 with assistance from veterans of the Azov. This group is coordinated by Sviatoslav Yurash's assistant, Olena Semeniaka. Supporting the related geopolitical endeavor at the governmental level is its main goal.^[7]

Olena Semeniaka, the leader of the National Corps' international department, appeared alongside British neo-Nazi Mark Collett at the far-right Scanza Forum in Sweden in 2019 after attending a festival hosted by German neo-Nazis in 2018.^[8] She is a significant voice in the Pan-European Reconquista movement, the Militant Zone and National Corps groups, and the infamous Azov Battalion in Ukraine.^[9]

In addition to organizing several gatherings and conferences, Olena has aggressively established relationships and coalitions with far-right organizations around Europe. Interestingly, she has connections to groups like the National Democratic Party (NDP) in Germany and the CasaPound movement in Italy. In January 2019, an account under her management posted a message on social media about the development of a partnership of Croatian nationalist parties and the preparations being made by fans from Croatia and Ukraine for the next Intermarium conference.^[10]

Facebook acted to remove Olena's personal accounts in at least two instances that same year. In spite of this, as of 2019 she was still managing a group page and two more accounts under the names Lena Semenyaka and Helena Semenyaka, which were made using various spellings of her name. Olena voiced her viewpoint on April 11 in a post on the Lena account following the removal of her first account. She said that Facebook's actions demonstrated a rising tendency towards anti-intellectualism.^[11]

Reporters apparently got in touch with Olena, who verified that Joachim Furholm—a national socialist revolutionary from Norway—had attended a protest calling for the expeditious legalization of foreign volunteers. Olena claims that Furholm turned down Azov's invitation because he wasn't sure of his legal situation.^[12]

Olena, a graduate in philosophy, was just appointed as a junior visiting fellow. She will get 1,800 euros a month to support her studies. Her prominent involvement as the leader of the ultranationalist Azov organization has drawn criticism, nevertheless.^[13] Her planned fellowship at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) under the Ukraine in European Dialogue Junior Fellowship program—which is funded by a private foundation—has increased these worries. Her affiliation with far-right groups runs counter to the objectives of the fellowship program and the Institute's ideals, which is why the IWM strongly disapproves of and distances itself from her remarks and actions.^[14] In spite of this, Olena later refuted in an email to VICE World News that she was an extreme right-winger. She stated that the goal of her work in Europe was to promote solidarity in the face of Russian aggression.^[13]

Olena told Time in 2021 that Azov's ultimate goal was to "form a coalition of far-right groups across the Western world, with the ultimate aim of taking power throughout Europe."^[15]

References