Youki

Right Sector is an ultranationalist paramilitary coalition founded in 2013 that took part in clashes with riot police during the Euromaidan Revolution. The novel’s explanatory note distinguishes that documented history from the charged image circulated by Russian state media, which repeatedly cast the group as fascist and neo-Nazi and accused it of antisemitism and hate crimes.

Formation and Political Role

Right Sector emerged in 2013 as a coalition and participated in many confrontations with riot police during the Euromaidan Revolution. In 2014 it became a political party. The note describes a group that moved from street-level paramilitary activity into formal politics, while specifying that it held no seats in the Verkhovna Rada and had roughly 10,000 members at the time described.

Media Representation

The novel’s footnote emphasizes the imbalance between Right Sector’s stated political footprint and the scale of attention it received in Russian state media. Those outlets gave it inordinate coverage and portrayed its members as fascists and neo-Nazis, alongside accusations of antisemitism and hate crimes. The note attributes those labels to state-media representation rather than presenting them as neutral descriptions, placing the group within the wider contest over how the Euromaidan Revolution and its participants were narrated.