The article deals with dialogue of cultures, the most topical issue in the modern interdisciplinary field. Due to the native "literary centricity" of the Russian culture, the authors have studied the role and significance of Russian-Swedish literary contacts in the cultural cooperation of the two countries, which directly influences the formation of the scientific world outlook of contemporary Russian students during the last centuries. While studying the issue the researchers used the analytical methods of historical and philological sciences. They give a brief description of a long history of literary contacts between Sweden and Russia within the period from the last decades of the eighteenth century to the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. They analyze the literary world events with due regard for the political context of rivalry and cooperation in the Baltic-Scandinavian region. According to the authors the most active time of the two countries’ cultural ties dates back to the period of 1830s - 1840s, including the so-called "Scandinavomania" (1880s - 1890s), and some decades in the Soviet State history. Within their study, the researchers have established that the Russian literature (especially its "Golden Age" time) invariably was one of the ways for Swedes to get knowledge about Russia and the Russian national character in its best and most characteristic manifestations. In its turn, Russians also discovered Sweden for themselves reading works of its outstanding writers (F. Bremer, A. Strindberg, S. Lagerlöf, etc.).The authors believe that the established Russian-Swedish literary contacts will guarantee peaceful and good-neighbor relations of these border states in the future by forming students’ tolerant and respectful attitude to the culture of neighboring countries and peoples.