Social-National Party of Ukraine

Social-National Party of Ukraine Соціал-національна партія України
Idea of the Nation
Founded	October 13, 1991 Registered as political party on October 16, 1995.
Succeeded by	Svoboda
Headquarters	Lviv, Ukraine
Membership  (2004)	less than 1,000
Ideology	Ukrainian nationalism National Socialism Ethnic nationalism
Political position	Far-right
Politics of Ukraine Political parties Elections

The Social-National Party of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Соціал-національна партія України) (SNPU) was a far right party in Ukraine that would later become Svoboda. The party combined radical nationalism and neo-Nazi features.

According to Andriy Parubiy, the Party was co-founded in 1991 by Parubiy himself and Oleh Tyahnybok, both of whom played major roles in the 2013 Maidan demonstrations that brought down the government of Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. The party was registered on October 16, 1995; although the original movement was founded on October 13, 1991, in Lviv. It was founded by the Student Fraternity of Lviv city, public organization of the Soviet Afghan War veterans, a youth organization "Spadshchyna" (Heritage) and the Rukh Guard. Its ideology was based on theoretical work of the OUN politician Yaroslav Stetsko Two revolutions. According to Der Spiegel the "Social-National Party" title was an "intentional reference to Adolf Hitler's National Socialist party." Another echo was the use of the Wolfsangel logo, a symbol popular among neo-Nazi groups. The Ukrainian political scientist Vitaliy Kulyk however stated that while similar to signs used by Neo-Nazi organizations in Europe the sign Idea of the Nation has nothing to do with Wolfsangel and there were no actions that confirmed the party's Nazi image. Although there was an incident when on 21 September 1993 its people's formations came to the Verkhovna Rada building dressed all in black to differentiate themselves from woodland camouflaged UNA-UNSO activists.

Membership was restricted to ethnic Ukrainians, and for a period the party did not accept atheists or former members of the Communist Party. In the internet could be found an information that in the second half of 1990s the party also recruited skinheads and football hooligans. Media was accusing the party in criminal fighting which resulted in physical elimination of criminal elements of the Caucasus region from the West Ukraine. The SNPU's official program defined itself as an "irreconcilable enemy of Communist ideology" and all other parties to be either collaborators and enemies of the Ukrainian revolution, or romanticists. According to Svoboda's website, during the 1994 Ukrainian parliamentary elections the party presented its platform as distinct from those of the communists and social democrats. SNPU did not win any seats to the national parliament, but managed to receive some seats in the Lviv Regional Council.