The article is devoted to the history of the Russian film studies andmethodology of film history as science using the example of the Introductionof History of the Soviet Film Art by Nikolai Iezuitov (1899–1941), one of thefounders of the national film studies. Since the manuscript of History of the SovietFilm Art — the first history of the Soviet cinema — has not yet been publishedand introduced into scholarly use, the author pays special attention to archivalsources.Despite a number of essays and discussions about film history and itsmethodology, a fundamental scholarly work on the historiography of the historyof Soviet and Russian cinema has not yet been written. The relevance and noveltyof the article is that it is based on the study of archival manuscripts of NikolaiIezuitov. The exploration of early approaches to the study of the history of theSoviet cinema is important both historically and pedagogically.One of the most important sources of the concept of film history at an earlystage of the national film studies is Iezuitov's Introduction to History of the SovietFilm Art. The Introduction is valuable because: 1) it is a rare evidence of reflectionon the foundations of film history as scholarship and its methodology; 2) it isgiven by the author of the first history of the Soviet cinema; 3) it is representedby the author not as a separate “abstract” essay but as a part of the history itself.The Introduction defines the scholarly tasks and content of film history;overviews foreign books on the history of cinema; emphasizes specific periodsof Soviet film history; and indicates the principles of work with relevant sources.Iezuitov’s main principles in relation to film history are established inconnection, firstly, with Soviet history scholarship; and secondly, with the visionof film history as the history of film art. Thus, film history, according to Iezuitov,is the unity of Marxist understanding of history and art-historical (stylistic)analysis of films and the main film movements in Soviet cinema.