The author dwells on the specific quality and the stages of the genesis and initial formation of post-industrial society whose progress depends and relies on the development of theoretical knowledge. It is concluded that the world of the 21st century is shaping as a split civilization with one integral power centre as embodied in the community of post-industrial countries. In this connection, the reasons of the failure of the attempted «catching-up» development of the South East Asian countries are being cleared up in the article. The main among the reasons, in V.L.Inozemtzev’s opinion, has been the rupture of the fundamental reproduction proportions. In the context of post-industrialism, issues of Russia’s development - technological, economic, social, humanitarian ones - are also discussed. The problem of her making her appearance among the post-industrial countries, in the author’s opinion, has no solutions either in the near, or even in the medium-term prospect. What ought to be currently realized in Russia is doing maximum possible to create anew all the necessary conditions of industrial progress.