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Abstract: The author of the article introduces not only the history of Russian social novel of the 19th century, but also the theoretical approach to the genre and its varieties. The article presents the history of the generic form and the very term "social novel". The origins of the social novel are revealed at the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. Social novel in 19th century Russian literature became an important and developing genre through the evolution of realism in literature. The history of formation and evolution of the social novel are connected with the works by A. Izmilov, N. Karamzin, M. Lermontov, I. Turgenev, A. Hertsen, L. Tolstoy. The works by V. Belinsky, S. Dudyshkin, M. Bakhtin, N. Kozhinov, A. Veselovsky are cited in the article. From author's point of view, the relatively new term «sociological novel» are much more polemical than «social novel».