Ideals and idols: such consonant, but different words. Striving for transcendental ideals, we sometimes create earthly idols for ourselves, the worship of which becomes an end in itself, replacing the very idea, the goal. The hero of the story “Leaving Babylon” by Domenico Giovanni faces this. The author gives the reader the opportunity for a short time to be the arbiter of destinies and determine for himself whether the hero will remain with his idols or let them go and start living again. But among the idolaters, the author persistently tries to discern not a character, but an entire people. One guiding star guides a person and a country: the political arena of Ukraine, unwilling to change, is skillfully disguised by the old regime. With the sounds of revolutionary calls it rushes from one decade to another, and in this the fate of man and country is similar.