The research traditions and the main directions of the pedagogical activity of the department, which until September 2007 was called the Department of the History of Russian and Foreign Literature, have been developing for many years. This is the oldest department of the Faculty of Philology, since the date of its foundation is 1935, when the Department of Language and Literature was established at the Kazakh State University. In 2011 Russian and World Literature Department was transformed into the Department of Russian Philology, Russian and World Literature by merging three departments of the Faculty of Philology into one structural unit: Russian and World Literature, Russian Philology and Russian Language. These departments, having considerable scientific, research, pedagogical and methodological experience, have occupied one of the key places in the history of the development of philological science for many years.

     In 2015, the department was transformed into the Department of Russian Philology and World Literature.

From 2008 to 2020, Dzholdasbekova Bayan Umirbekovna Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Doctor of Philology, Professor headed the Department of Russian Philology and World Literature.

From 2020 to the present, the department is headed by PhD, Acting Associate Professor Tattimbetova Kuralai Omirlanovna, the graduate of the Faculty of Philology of KazNU. In 2019 she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic "Theoretical and methodological aspects of the analysis of the poetics of Ivan Shchegolikhin's prose at the university". In 2020, K.O. Tattimbetova became the holder  of the state scientific scholarship for talented young scientists of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.