The authors of this article have examined in detail the options for the use of the Russian-language newspapers and magazines published in the Russian Empire in the 18th century and in the first decades of the 19th century as an important source on the overall early history of Latin America and its largest regions - North, Central, South America and the West Indies. The article has examined the works of several generations of soviet and modern Russian Latin American researchers. Considerable attention has been paid to the papers of soviet (Russian) authors who wrote about the development of liberation trends and movements in North, Central and South America, tracked the course of revolutionary wars of Latin American peoples for freedom and independence and reported about momentous, revolutionary changes and transformations in the life of nations who von freedom and created new states. The article also characterizes the activities of the two major centers of American and Latin American studies that were established during the years of the soviet power in Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg), highlighted the contribution of several generations of historians and most active scientists in expanding the source base on historical research, including their efforts to use the Russian periodicals press as sources of information. The article identifies the reasons that complicated more extensive use of the materials presented by the Russian-language newspapers and magazines for coverage and in depth study of the history of Latin American nations and the history of international relations in the 18th-19th centuries. In conclusion the authors have compared the results, yielded by the specialists in the history of Latin American countries and obtained by their colleagues-specialists in the history of the USA, and outlined the prospects and directions of historical research that would beneficially use the materials of Russian periodical press.