The journal was established in 1941 and is published quarterly by Wiley-Blackwell for the Contact Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas.

The Russian Review was founded by a small group of Russian émigrés, including geologist George de Mohrenschildt, and American historian and journalist turned anti-Soviet advocate William Henry Chamberlin, who were looking to establish the first American academic journal focused on the history and society of Russia and the Soviet Union.

[2] The journal's first issue was published in November 1941 during the wake of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union.

The first issue of the magazine included texts by the author Vladimir Nabokov, activist Hélène Iswolsky, and historian and "father" of Slavic Studies in the United States, Michael Karpovich.

[3] Early issues of the journal were interested in portraying an accurate historic and sociocultural image of Russia and the Soviet Union to the United States.