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.