For a long time it was believed that the term private international law in Russia was first used by N. P. Ivanov in the monograph «Grounds of Private International Jurisprudence» published in Kazan in 1865. However, five years before this, in 1860, the term “private international law” was used with respect to transboundary relations of a private character by Nikolai Spiridonovich de Galet in a book on international law which he published in St. Petersburg. Although the book of N. S. de Galeta was sharply criticized by Dmitrii Ivanovich Kachenovskii, and we should pay tribute to the «discoverer» of private international law in Russia.