This article provides a historical and linguistic analysis of the origin and evolution of compound words in the Russian language. Key stages in the development of compounding as a productive word-formation method in the Old Russian, Old Russian, and Modern Russian periods are examined. Using comparative historical and etymological approaches, primary patterns of compounding, their functional load, and semantic types characteristic of different eras are identified. Particular attention is paid to the influence of contacts with other languages-primarily Old Church Slavonic, Turkic, and Western European-on the expansion of the word-formation potential of complex structures. Changes in the morphological organization of compound words, as well as the transition from syntactic phrases to lexically integral units, are analyzed. It is shown that the development of compound words reflects broad cultural and historical processes and is an important indicator of the dynamics of the Russian linguistic system.