A brief historical essay is presented on the leading Russian scientific school on plant environmental physiology, which has for over 60 years been studying the issues of plant adaptation to adverse environmental factors (low and high temperatures, excessive lighting, heavy metals, etc.). The essay tells about the main sources and prerequisites for its foundation, about the development of this scientific school and the key scientific results and achievements since 1970. The most important among the latter are data on the phenomenology of plant responses to stress factors and the results of studies on the underlying physiological, biochemical and molecular genetic mechanisms.