俄國學術在文獻考證方面，雖然未經歷西方自文藝復興以降的經典考證，卻在十九世紀編年史研究中，藉由運用西方考證方法，產生了考證理論。此來自十九世紀聖彼得堡史學的傳統，至二十世紀中期由學者李哈裘夫延續，結合蘇聯早期形式主義出版編輯的理論，成為文本學。史料考證和出版著作本無相關，但因文本為兩者共同研究對象，也均借用西方考證法，使得能夠兩相結合。然而文本學的目的不僅止於考證字句，更重要的是文本之下的訊息，如關於作者、創作動機、問題意識等等，都是文本學之目的。其宗旨在於讓文本反映真實的歷史文化，也因此發展出不同於蘇聯馬克斯教條的歷史論述。文本學除了對抗政治意識型態，還因主張作者為中心的文本，再和形式主義、結構主義、符號學等劃清界限。

Differences in Geographic locations between Russia and Western Europe resulted in different historical developments and academic achievements. Even though Russian scholars had never experienced the biblical criticism in Western Europe since the Renaissance, another critical theory arose from the Russian chronicle study in the nineteenth century. This tradition of St. Petersburg historiography was inherited by Soviet scholar D. S. Likhachev, who combined it with editing works on methodology of formalism. After that, a new theory of textologiia was born. Chronicle study and editing publications could be combined, because text was the common object for both diaciplines, and both of them had long been using the Western textual criticism method. The purpose of textologiia is more than analyzing the wording, understanding the messages under the text to inderstand author's background, creative motivation, and central ideas are more crucial. The goal of textologiia was to make the text reflect the true history and culture, and a historical discourse different from the Marxism doctrine of the Soviet Union which had also been created. In addition to opposing the dominant political ideology, textologiia emphasized the author as the centere of the text, which further separating apart from formalism, structuralism, and semiotics.