The paper is timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the birth of Valery M. Mokienko, Doctor of Letters, Professor of Slavic Philology, Philology Department, St Petersburg State University, Honorary Chairman of the Phraseological Commission of the International Committee of Slavists. The paper reviews focal areas of the scholar’s research, lists his academic interests, the main of those being phraseology and phraseography. V.M. Mokienko proposed to detect dynamic interactions of contradictory properties of the phraseological system, to reveal the mechanism of phrase formation involving broad genetic and typological parallels to determine the nature of a phraseological unit. The method of structural and semantic modeling based on a detailed comparison of dialectal, Slavic and non-Slavic European idiomacy is the basis of modern theoretical and practical studies of the scientist’s followers. The trilogy of dictionaries edited by V.M. Mokienko distinguishes precise certification of units, references to syn