The book of the famous historian, foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Andreas Kappeler was written by order of the Munich publishing house "Beck," the purpose of which was to acquaint Western Europeans with the people, history and modernity of Ukraine externally "made it possible to re-emphasize some of the accents and highlight the problems. Many years of experience in the study of ethnic minorities and national rukhs determined the features of the book. The author integrated Poles, Russians, Jews, Germans into the Ukrainian history. Vidmova from concentration on the history of ethnic Ukrainians should strengthen the concept of political abo of a huge sovereign nation, written in the Constitution of Ukraine. The turn towards a bagatoethnic political nation to the opinion of the author should be a way to achieve numerous random conflicts and strengthen the young Ukrainian democracy.