Аннотация:The article deals with the genesis of “memory studies” – a relatively new interdisciplinary area of research. The authors emphasize two main consequent stages in the formation of modern memory studies. The article is focused on the analysis of the first stage of the conceptual formation of memory studies, since the end of XIX and up to the 1980s, based on psychology, sociology, and history research. The authors demonstrate the trajectory of evolution of the scholarly understanding of “memory” – from purely psychological interpretation of the phenomenon to socio-psychological concept (‘group memory’) - and, finally, to a broad sociological theory (social-cultural-historical memory). The second part is after the 1980s till the present time, its main content is the memory research introduction into actual social practice is planned to be reviewed in the future. The present article underlines a rich heuristic potential of the concept of “social memory” for the development of modern social sciences and humanities.