The article substantiates the role of the period 1970-1980s. in the history of Soviet / Russian didactics and linguodidactics, when many linguodidactic theories were born, in particular the theory of the textbook. The main Soviet works on the theory of a foreign language textbook (Inessa Bim, Marc Vyatyutnev, Artem Arutyunov) are considered. Based on these works, a number of provisions are put forward that must be taken into account in the preparation, writing and testing of the textbook. An assessment of these provisions is given based on author’s own experience of writing a Russian language textbook for foreign students.