The central theme of the book is the study of the causes and consequences of the tragic bifurcation of Ukrainian national democrats between the need to create an open, democratic society - contrary to the interests of the dominant post-communist oligarchy, and - forced by the need to protect and "develop" a weak, dysfunctional state as supposedly "its own," although in fact, rivatized in 1991 oligarchic nomenclature. Theoretical problems concerning various aspects of the formation of civil society, the formation of national identity and overcoming the legacy of colonialism are clarified on concrete examples of the political development of Ukraine in the last decade.