The article gives an overview of the history of limnology - science about lakes, in Russia since the early 19th to the mid-20th century. Some biographical details about great sci­entists who have founded Russian limnology, information about the biological research stations that have played a major role in the education of limnologists and the establish­ment of the main fields of limnology in Russia are provided. A retrospective of the evolu­tion of limnology from the first geographical descriptions of lakes, hydrographic and mor­phometric measurements, studies of the fauna and flora of individual lakes to integrated surveys comprising hydrological, hydrochemical and hydrobiological observations is giv­en. Limnology has been developing from the understanding of the unity and interaction of a lake and its catchment to studies of the production and balance dimensions of or­ganic matter cycles. The history of G. Yu. Vereshchagin's limnological school and estab­lishment of the Limnology Laboratory, later transformed into the Institute of Limnology of the USSR Academy of Sciences is related.