Abstract. The book under review Civilisational Identity in the Transitional Epoch: Culturological, Sociological, and Art History Approaches (Moscow, 2011, 1024 p.) is written by Igor Kondakov, Konstantin Sokolov, and Nikolai Hrenov. The review evaluates both merits and demerits of the publication. The author underlines that a huge volume of the book is justified by the extremely deep examination of the identity issues, especially of those concerned with the establishment of the diverse identity types in human culture. The stress is put on the particular relevance of the identity issue for Russia and especially in this era of globalisation. However, to counterbalance such an extended approach, the author provides an example of contemporary Russian literary works that access the same topic and, according to the reviewer, accurately and briefly diagnosticate the “Russian civilisational identity.”