The author of this article believes that in the Russian philosophy of the XIX century, only in the work of V. Rozanov do we see the premises of philosophical hermeneutics in the proper sense of the word. For Russia of the 19th century, hermeneutics was primarily the art of working with the Bible. The dictionary of V. Dahl gives such an interpretation of this word: “science that explains the Holy Scriptures”. However, according to the author, Russian “literary studies”, in the form that it acquired in the 19th century, was already based on the ancient medieval tradition of hermeneutics. The article substantiates the idea that this fact allows us to see the elements of the philosophical approach in the framework of hermeneutic activity much earlier than G. Shpet, M. Heidegger and even W. Dilthey. However, when Russian scientists of this century take up the work of translating classical philosophical texts, the literary side of their activity is not the only one. It was supplemented by reflection both on the nature of translation and on hermeneutic procedures of understanding. We give as an example of such conceptual hermeneutical work contributions of V.N. Karpov (1798–1867), who expressed his attitude to the translation process: first of all, in the preface to the publications and in the introductory articles to individual dialogs.