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The author considers the case of Ukraine as the post-socialist transformative society, through the prism of political culture. The research question about the changes in political culture since 1991, under the institutional shifts resulted in introducing of market economy, private property and electoral democracy, is under scrutiny. The empirical analysis in comparative perspective based on a set of international and national research data allows proving the conclusion about persistence of post-socialist legacy in values and behavior models of post-socialist Ukrainian citizens. Other important hypothetic conclusion deals with understanding of principal role of the 'cultural matrix' of a society in definition of possible corridors for social changes. ; Автор рассматривает случай Украины как постсоциалистического трансформирующегося общества сквозь призму политической культуры. В фокусе изучения – исследовательский вопрос об изменениях в политической культуре, произошедших с 1991 года под влиянием институциональных смещений, которые привели к введению рыночной экономики, частной собственности и электоральной демократии. Эмпирический анализ в сравнительной перспективе, основанный на данных нескольких национальных и международных опросов, позволяет сделать вывод о сохранении постсоциалистического наследия в ценностях и поведенческих моделях постсоциалистических украинских граждан. Другой важный гипотетический вывод связан с пониманием принципиальной роли "культурной матрицы" общества в определении возможных коридоров социальных изменений1 . ; Автор розглядає випадок України як постсоціалістичного суспільства, що трансформується, крізь призму політичної культури. У фокусі вивчення – питання про зміни у політичній культурі, що відбувалися з 1991 року під впливом інституційних зсувів, які привели до введення ринкової економіки, приватної власності та електоральної демократії. Емпіричний аналіз у порівняльній перспективі, заснований на даних кількох національних і міжнародних опитувань, дозволяє зробити висновок про збереження постсоціалістичної спадщини у цінностях і поведінкових моделях постсоціалістичних українських громадян. Інший важливий гіпотетичний висновок пов'язаний із розумінням принципової ролі "культурної матриці" суспільства у визначенні можливих коридорів соціальних змін.

The analysis of the major societal trends and outcomes of Ukrainian post-socialist development is provided in the article. The author's focus is directed towards revealing of interconnection between the market shifts, changes of social mood, consciousness and structure, institutional quality and political accountability. The social dynamics during the post-socialist epoch, from reversing displacement in social and political institutional matter at the end of 1990s towards explosion of social expectations at the line of 2004-2005 and the following mass disappointment which accompanies the increasing contemporary political deregulation is considered from the point of view of search for answers in regard to the perspective features of Ukrainian development.

The article is dedicated to discussion of the main features of political regime transformation in post-soviet Ukraine. In definition of political regime the au thor follows the actor-centered neo-institutional approach that allows focusing on individual and collective social practices determined by an actor's interests, situation, and strategy of action, as well as limited by his/her habits, social skills, resources, and rules. The author argues an illiberal democratic character of former political regime, which was embodied at the end of 1990s in Ukraine, and discusses the zigzags of its future development. The question about social and political factors of the Orange Revolution explosion is also examined.

"Disintegration of the USSR, formation of the new independent states onto the post-Soviet space became a significant event in contemporary history and human biographies. Majority of these states have begun market and democracy reforms, which pushed dramatic system transformation of their societies. It was expected, that reforms would provide the economy growth, increase of welfare and life chances of citizens unlimited by the centralized economy and authoritarian state. However already from the mid 1990th sharp social polarization (Gini coefficient was multiplied almost in 2 times, except for Belarus and Georgia), decline of life chances for most citizens, considerable reducing of life expectancy (above all things, capable of working men) showed up in these countries. The daily life of the people living in the former USSR has been transformed, with the certainties of everyday life being eroded as the bureaucratic redistributive order has taken on the guise of the market. In parallel, vertical social integration has been undermined alongside a significant increase in social inequalities; at the same time increase of social integration within strata has been showed up. What vectors of social inequalities are most strong? And what reasons of these phenomena are? In spite of the wide-spread opinion that age, gender and ethnicity are the independent factors of increasing of inequality; the author argues significant dependence of these factors on the objective class positions. Investigation of objective medium shows the expressly structured allocation of resources and life chances belonging to 'new' and 'old' social classes. On a base of survey data on Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and Kazakhstan, the paper concludes with some tentative projections concerning future social inequality development in these societies, in which relations of power, appropriation of property, social capital and high-quality education entail deep distinction in life chances of people. The author underlines that post-Soviet societies now mirror elements of traditional class societies with acquisition classes being not numerous, and in which a significant proportion of the population is social excluded. The paper is based on a data source of the EU-founded project on living conditions, lifestyle and health (LLH, with project leading by Ch. Haerpfer) as a multi-level survey conducted in 8 post-Soviet states during 2000-2002 years." (author's abstract)