Abstract: The subject of the study is the existing classification of graphic art of anarchist periodicals of the turn of the XIX–XX centuries. The object of the research is publications devoted to the problem of compiling a classification of works of graphic art of anarchism. These are the works of R. and E. Herbertov, A. Dardel, L. Litvak, J. Godard-Davant, K. Ferguson - foreign experts in the field of anarchist graphics. There are no domestic publications on this topic. The author of the article pays special attention to the similarity in approaches to the classification of different authors and the existing gaps in this field of art criticism in order to determine further prospects for the study of the issues under consideration.   The scientific novelty of the work is to clarify the classification trends not systematized in Russian historiography, proposed in the literature in English, French and Spanish, on the basis of which a methodological basis for the analysis of the topic is being developed. The methods used in the work are as follows: analysis of historiography in order to identify existing approaches to the study of graphics of anarchist periodicals; comparative analysis, which allows us to compare the two main trends (according to the thematic-iconographic and figurative-thematic principle) with each other, finding further perspectives of interpretation and existing gaps. The results of the study reveal the existing tradition of classification, the authors of which promote their methods, preventing the emergence of other approaches and types of classification that can shed light not only on the image of an anarchist, but also on the peculiarities of the dialogue between anarchist graphics and the artistic avant-garde.