How did it become possible that in the southern African continent the white minority separated itself from the indigenous majority with the help of color barriers and racial laws? Why did South Africa have the highest standard of living for the European population, while Africans ended up in reservations and bantustans? Why did the segregation regime collapse in the early 1990s? D. Zhukov’s work analyzes various aspects of the formation and development of the apartheid regime, proclaimed by the ruling National Party in 1948 and which actually existed until the election of the first black president, Nelson Mandela.