Ukraine

Tradition and Order

**Tradition and Order** is a far-right conservative organization that positions itself as an advocate of Christian values. Tradition and Order was founded in 2016 on the basis of another far-right organization, **Revanche**. Tradition and Order members are responsible for numerous attacks on public events organized by the LGBT+ community, feminist initiatives, and left-wing activists, which the organization predominantly targets. The leader of the organization until the fall of 2021 was **Bohdan Khodakivskyi**.

Revanche, on the basis of which Tradition and Order was founded, professed classical Italian fascism. Tradition and Order partially adopted the aesthetics of the Years of Lead after its rebranding. Members of Revanche did not accept the new government after the victory of Euromaidan in 2014, and quickly moved on to action against the country’s new leadership, in particular the business of the newly elected President Petro Poroshenko. At that time, Revanche members were close to Dmytro Korchynskyi’s **Bratstvo (Brotherhood)**, Mykola Kokhanivskyi’s **OUN Battalion**, and **Radical Party** member Ihor Mosiychuk. Several members of the organization were arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine in May 2015.

The founders of Tradition and Order initially announced a plan to make a political party on its basis and invited **Ihor Shchedrin**, co-founder of Petro and Mazepa website, to join the organization. Since the latter professes a nationalist ideology and is loyal to the previous president, attacks on Poroshenko’s property stopped after the rebranding, and the organization refocused on defending conservative values through violent actions.

Beginning in 2018, Tradition and Order became the key street organization working in this field. Members of Tradition and Order have repeatedly attacked the offices of LGBT+ organizations, disrupted public events, and tried to block marches on March 8 (International Women’s Day), as well as Equality Marches (the main event of the LGBT+ community) in various cities. The victims of the attacks were often members of subcultural youth, whom the ultra-rightists considered to be members of the LGBT+ community or anti-fascists. Such attacks peaked in 2020, when the far-right staged a so-called safari in Kyiv’s Podil district.

Tradition and Order actively cooperates with other right-wing and conservative organizations, such as Bratstvo, Freikorps, the National Corps, the Basics of Future (former C14), and the National Resistance.
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Members of Tradition and Order are the founders of the **Conservator** website. They also published the only issue of the eponymous magazine.

After an attempt to disrupt an LGBT rights march on August 28, 2021 in Odesa, the police detained 61 activists. Criminal cases were filed against 15 of them. After that, the activity of the organization decreased considerably. In the fall of 2021, there was a split in Tradition and Order. **Christian Udarov**, responsible for the power wing of the organization, launched his own project **Ukrainian Flag**, which attracted many Tradition and Order members. Subsequently, information about a “reformed Tradition and Order” appeared. Bohdan Khodakivskyi, the organization’s chairman, who had disappeared from social networks for several months, announced his plans to launch a new conservative party. The Telegram channel of Tradition and Order, its main propaganda resource, has been deleted, as well as the organization’s website.