American studies have been developing in Russia as a university discipline for more than a hundred years. During this time, about five generations of Americanists have changed. At the same time, it is difficult to talk about direct succession and the formation of sustainable scientific schools. Political upheavals and ideological transformations often disrupted the natural course of development of scientific thought; scientists found themselves dependent on the state and were forced to adapt to the rapidly changing environment. This led to the emergence of a number of specific features of American studies in Russia. Firstly, the tendency of researchers to avoid discussing fundamental problems, limiting themselves to issues of applied importance, mainly related to Russian-American relations and US foreign policy. Secondly, the spread of the so-called “popular American studies” – mythologemes and stereotypes that exist among ordinary people, based on an exaggerated assessment of the influence of the United States on all aspects of Russian life. Thirdly, the desire of some Americanists to isolate themselves from the public discourse about the United States that dominates the social consciousness by choosing secondary historical themes as the main topic of their research. Fourth, the extremely insignificant role of American scholars in the development of Russia’s foreign policy. The expert knowledge of scholars has been used mostly for informational support of governmental decisions that were already made.