The article discusses the debatable issues of the history of the right-wing political parties of the Russian Empire. Particular attention is paid to such acute problems as nationalism and anti-Semitism of the Russian right, the Black Hundred terror, the question of the responsibility of the Black Hundreds for the Jewish pogroms. Attention is also paid to the relationship of right-wing parties and alliances with government, the program of the right, to counter the impending revolution in 1917 and the reasons for their rapid defeat. Based on the achievements of modern Russian historiography, the author shows how over the past decades, ideas about the right camp, its composition, number and place in the political history of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century have changed.