This paper honours Associate Professor Oleg V. Sokolov, one of the leading experts in the military history of the Napoleonic era on the occasion of his 60th birthday by tracing back the traditions established and innovations introduced in Modern French Studies at the Modern and Contemporary History Department of St. Petersburg State University. Special attention is paid to the valuable contribution to research into the history of the Great French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire made by such renowned historians as Nikolay I. Kareyev, Yevgeniy V. Tarle and Vladimir G. Revunenkov. Having adopted the best of their methods and with a basis in their groundbreaking works, Oleg Sokolov managed to improve and to expand the existing range of historical research by adjusting it to the information age, thus adding a new chapter to the history of Modern and Contemporary History Department. Refs 15.