Very little information has been preserved about the author of this book. It is only known that Sergei Nikiforovich Shchegolev, a doctor by training, was actively engaged in political journalism. He was the largest researcher of "Ukrainian" separatism and the author of two capital studies devoted to this problem: "The Ukrainian movement as a modern stage of South Russian separatism" (Kyiv, 1912) and "Modern Ukraine. Its origin, growth and tasks" (Kyiv, 1914). In 1919, for his Russian convictions, he was shot along with a group of Russian patriots.