The essay by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor R.V. Filippov, based on the Leninist concept of the genesis of the RSDLP, examines the Soviet historiography of the nodal problems of the emergence of Marxism in Russia (the predecessors of Russian social democracy, the transition of the country's revolutionary thought to a scientific worldview, the creative development of Marxist theory in relation to domestic conditions, etc.). The connection of the study of these problems with the socio-political struggle of the transition period is shown, the features and contradictory nature of the historiographic process are revealed.