Abstract The article gives a brief overview of Summer Schools in semiotics of the 1960s and 1970s that took place near Tartu, at Kääriku sports centre of the University of Tartu, and later in Tartu. These Summer Schools on secondary modelling systems were certainly the most important scientific events in the field of semiotics in Soviet Union. These meetings drew together the members of Tartu-Moscow Semiotics School. An unconstrained atmosphere of these conferences allowed a freedom of discussion that the participants had not experienced earlier and that they recall decades after.