The article notes the lack of adequate identification of the history of Russian philosophy and its most prominent representatives, as well as themselves in philosophy – both as such, and in the context of «world philosophy». We are in thrall to old or new ideological patterns of interpretation and understanding of Russian philosophy and culture. For example, we try to deduce a «specific feature» of Russian philosophy, which is found in its «theocentricity», in «ethics-centricity», in «literary-centricity», or in some special «Russian problems» (the search for «Russian idea» or «a different way of Russia», as if the German philosophy at the time did not look for the same peculiarity of Germany). This is the case if we consider philosophy as a «form of knowledge», which is different both from theology, and from literature, and from the scientific form of knowledge. And the form is always grasped in the language and style of national philosophy. Every true philosophy is substantially universal and differs not so much in content (all philosophical themes and problems are «eternal» and universal), but in form. And the form has mainly linguistic and stylistic difference associated with self-understanding and understanding of other cultures and philosophies; it means that any established national philosophy is initially hermeneutical as a being in the Word.