It was the book by A.V.Lukin «Ignorance versus Injustice. Political Culture of Russian ‘Democrats’ (1985—1991)» that gave rise to the author’s reflections. The author states that Russia has already twice in its history got a chance to make the process of development of democracy legal – in 1917 and in 1991; yet, in his opinion, even in the late 20th century, just as before, both the key factors – political culture of the «democratic» elite and the need of democracy, as displayed by the people – proved unfavorable for the process of democratization. The author analyzes problems of Russian democrats of the 1990s and contradictions in their strategy and tactics, as well as the gap between proclaimed political purposes and the results obtained by the country.