Abstract: The article is devoted to interpretation of ideas and values of liberal democracy in Russian science, political essays and political nation-building. By analyzing opinioins of Russian political leaders about the essence, problems and prospects of democracy in Russia, the authors of the present article define the reasons and consequences of inevitable distortion of liberal democracy concept in political mentality of Russians and offer ways to overcome such 'chimerization'. According to the authors, simplified evaluations of democratic ideas typical for Russian mentality before the Revolution, are now continued as the 'liberal idolization' in modern Russia. This phenomenon can be viewed asone of the archetypes of the Russian culture of government. Proving the fact of the tradition of democratic idolization in political culture of modern Russia, the authors of the article focus on the content and style of discussing a famous concept 'sovereign democracy' developed by V. Syurkov, in the Russian mass media. Based on the analysis of common indicators of democratic character of a modern state institution, it is concluded that modern Russia cannot be called a true democratic state.