The author states that an increasing number of authors now describe the hypothesis of the polysystem and its applicability in various fields. This is an encouraging phenomenon for the development of the historical poetics within the framework of the semiotics of literature. However, in order to describe the complex literary phenomena better than the old models, it is necessary to constantly re-evaluate the most important concepts of the polysystem. In this article the author does not discuss all the relevant problems, but examines a number of concepts that were not yet sufficiently explained or understood.