The term "anecdote" was used for the first time in Byzantine in the book "A secret story" (550) by the historian Prokopy Kesarisky. It was a scandalous chronicle of emperor's court. From the point of view of Prokopy's contemporaries, anecdotes were town gossips, rumours, and whispers. Later, they turned to stories about outstanding historical personalities, famous people, their extraordinary behaviour, or funny situations they found themselves. In Russia anecdote appeared as a genre by the middle of the XVIIIth century; during Pushkin time it began to be understood as a valuable part of culture, later enriched with jester's folklore.

There are Series of funny stories about Balakirev, a jester; Suvorov, a marshal, Prince Potyomkin, and Pushkin. Being not only a genius of verbal but also visual joke, Pushkin himself was a character of numerous anecdotes until Soviet times (e. g. stories by D. Kharms).

There are peculiar anecdotes about different imaginary regions where the inhabitants are extremely stupid. In the Vth century a philologist Hieroclus wrote short stories about unlucky and clumsy settlers of Abdera. The silliest English used to live in Norfolk; French fools Ч in Plombiere; Bulgarian oddities Ч in Gabrovo, etc.

Nowadays, anecdotes are considered to be stories about unusual events with unexpected and funny endings. For years anecdote's positive energy gives a person not only a chance to communicate, but also power, and demolishes evil and sadness.

Every epoch has its own type of anecdotes. Under the Soviet power political anecdotes were like a verbal strip of cartoons with well-known characters. They reflected the horror of reality, its "black humour".

Anecdotes symbolized political oppression, they were a kind of passive resistance.

The most favourite characters were Chapaev and Petka; chukcha; Armenian radio and Jews; later Stirlitz and "new Russians". Obscene words are widely used in anecdotes, they strengthen the laughing effect and lower the dull pathos of official speeches. Numerous anecdotes were devoted to every Soviet leader. In 1990s political anecdotes partly disappeared but caricatures of political leaders and up-to-date cartoons were reborn.