Preconditions of the formation of Ukrainian statehood are discussed in the article, with two factors singled out — the myth of the state (national idea) and the Bolsheviks’ national policy. Adverting to the contemporary Ukrainian state, the author demonstrates the role of the Republic’s nomenclature in the history of its emergence. He describes peripeteias of the formation, in the past several years, of a new ruling class - «red proprietors» — former party functionaries, semi-criminal elements. The article exposes tendencies towards the establishment in Ukraine, of a regime etatiste, non-ideological in its motivation (deideologized). The author claims that real Ukrainian state has definitely taken shape. Its identification strategies are being worked out in the course of redistribution of property in favour of new political and politico-economic corporations. It is these latter that demonstrate today the will to identity.