The article examines the factors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda: the main economic, political and ideological prerequisites for the mass extermination of the country’s population are briefly described, the causes of the events that were the main milestones of the genocide are revealed, and the main beneficiaries of that process are identified. For comprehensive coverage of the events, the author uses not only materials confirming the initial version of the general course of those events, but also publications of recent years showing the one-sidedness of the old version of the Rwandan genocide. The materials published in recent years allow us to determine the role of American imperialism as the first most important factor, and French imperialism as the second most important factor in the events of 1994 in Rwanda. Those materials also clarify the connection between, on the one hand, the clash of positions of the United States and France and, on the other hand, the clash of radical circles of Hutu and Tutsi in the course of both the preparation and implementation of the genocide, and the subsequent clarification by historians and lawyers of the truth about it.