From its roots in revolution and war, Ukraine’s Azov movement has grown from a militia of fringe far-right figures and football hooligans fending off Russian-backed forces into a multipronged social movement that has become the envy of the global far right. In this first English-language book on the Azov movement, Michael Colborne explains how Azov came to be and continues to exploit Ukraine’s fractured social and political situation―including the only ongoing war on European soil – to build one of the most ambitious and dangerous far-right movements in the world.
Author(s): Michael Colborne
Series: Analyzing Political Violence
Publisher: ibidem
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 198
City: Stuttgart
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Roots of Azov
Kurgans to Cossacks
Ukrainian nationalism’s slow birth
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and World War II
Independent Ukraine
Maidan
War in Donbas and Azov’s birth
Chapter 2: Ideologies and Inspirations
Ukrainian nationalism: domestic influences
The Conservative Revolution and non-Nazi fascisms
The Nouvelle Droite and metapolitics
Neo-Nazism, violence and terror
What do we call Azov?
Azov’s core sentiments
Chapter 3: Azov in Action
The Azov movement: an overview
The core: Azov Regiment, National Corps and Centuria
Official affiliates
Unofficial affiliates
Independent organizations
Beyond Azov
Chapter 4: In the Shadows
Friends in high places
Who funds Azov?
Mysteries and suspicions
Chapter 5: Mainstreams and Extremes
Doublespeak
Branding and visuals
A wartime media climate
The long march through institutions
Chapter 6: International Ambitions
Azov’s first foreign friends
Networks and ‘new nationalism’
Foreign fighters, facts and fiction
Mission unaccomplished?
Chapter 7: The Future of Azov
Radicalization or entropy?
Shifting the discourse
Dismantling the structure
Ukraine’s international allies
Final thoughts
Acknowledgments
References
