The purpose of the review is to study the essence of the concept “Russian North” in the available written sources and in various branches of scientific knowledge. The historical process of the article is localized in a vast space from the Velikiy Novgorod, the Novgorod Veche Republic to Karelia, the coasts of the White and Barents Seas — the Arkhangelsk and Kola North, the NorthEast (Komi). The Russian North is un-derstood as a hybrid concept that requires interpretation of economics, politics, society, culture, archeology, history, geography, ethnology, ethnography, philosophy, philology and other branches of scientific knowledge. The conceptual content is associated with modern understanding of historical evolution from the past to the present as a result of the thesaurus of knowledge accumulated over centuries.