This article discusses the contribution of Professor A.N. Shchukin in the study of the history of Russian as a foreign language teaching, textbooks, methodologists. The most significant his works on the history of the linguodidactics are described: articles 1967-1969, textbooks 1988, 2005 and monograph 2013, a work on textbooks theory, as well as his contribution to the creation of biographical dictionaries.