In the article, the author analyzes the development of the idea of the unity of Ukraine, contradictions and heterogeneity in interpretive and normative approaches, which were explicitly or latently aimed at forming the value orientations of the Ukrainian nation, starting from 1991 until 2014, when the Revolution of Dignity took place. It was revealed that the specified period was characterized by the relentless search and production of new meanings, which had a contradictory nature, on the one hand, they were aimed at the rehabilitation of national history, and on the other hand, they served as a manipulative tool for the formation of public opinion and had a disintegrating effect on Ukrainian society. Special attention was paid to the issue of highlighting the idea of unity in normative and legal acts, in particular those that regulated the rehabilitation of national history and the restoration in the public field of the country of the discourse on the Day of Unity of Ukraine as an event that directly symbolized the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for the establishment of a sovereign and independent state. The article also reveals modifications of the concept of unity in the context of the ideological foundations of the work of a number of public organizations at the national and local levels. It was revealed that the period 1991–2014 was fundamental for the production of new meanings and orientations in nation-building, which ideologically prepared the ground for the events of 2014, the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, as well as the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of part of Donbas, which marked a new stage a test of the stability of the Ukrainian nation, in particular its unity not only in the symbolic dimension, but also in the practical plane of a direct military conflict, when the context of previous worldview contradictions was removed for the sake of preserving the political unity of the Ukrainian nation, which was subjected to a direct external attack from кussian federation. It was stressed that speculative discussions, discriminatory rhetoric surrounding the concept of the unity of the Ukrainian political nation over time transformed into a political technology of undermining the unity of Ukraine, in particular at the level of popularizing the idea of „incompatibility” and „mutual exclusivity” of the West and East of Ukraine, their economic, cultural, and foreign policy orientations. Political manipulations, multiplied by significant financial and organizational resources, led to the emergence and strengthening of regional political regimes, the actualization of disintegrating separatist political projects.