This volume brings together a selection of papers presented at the 12th International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS XII) held in St. Petersburg, Russia, 28 August – 2 September 2011. It begins with contributions on 17th-century rationalist ideas and practical grammar writing, and then covers a great variety of 18th and 19th century topics from Western grammars of Chinese to Saussure’s remarks on semiology of the years 1881–1891. The most noteworthy feature, however, is an entire section devoted to linguistics in Russia from the early Soviet period until the 1950s, including attempts to establish a Marxist view of language as well as phases to critically adapt Western ideas and at times efforts to participate successfully in international linguistic scholarship, both in phonetics and semantics.