Did Czech rock musician Michael Kocab propagate Nazi doctrine? No, that's not true: He was called a Nazi on TikTok for yelling Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine) to the crowd during one of his concerts. According to academics and historians, Slava Ukraini was already mentioned in the 19th century by the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. It was also used by various Ukrainian revolutionaries and activists well before the events of World War II.
The claim originated in a video (archived here) on TikTok where it was published by @paralelne.cz on August 18, 2023. It opened, translated by Lead Stories' staff:
Singer of the band Prazsky Vyber, Michael Kocab openly propagates nazism.
There was also a TV News graphic in the video that read:
Crazy Michael Kocab propagates nazism.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Aug 22 15:43:11 2023 UTC)
Michael Kocab is not a Nazi and is not propagating Nazism. Kocab is a rock musician of the band Prazsky Vyber and an activist, who played a key role in democratic movements that let to the Velvet revolution. He also served as an advisor to the first post-communist president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel.
Slava Ukraini is today seen as a symbol of Ukrainian sovereignty. It is also the battle cry of the Ukrainian army. The slogan provoked some discussion because the right-wing Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) made it its own in the 1930s. But the slogan is today commonly used as the sign of resistance to foreign aggression according to Dominique Arel, a professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in Ukrainian studies.
