The author shows his specific understanding of the Russian language on the cover, using the old spelling Толковый словарь живаго великорускаго языка. However, this is a unique spelling deviation from the standard grammar, on which Dahl insisted. In his speeches at the Russian Geographical Society Dahl opposes the "illiterate" distortion of words in vulgar parlance. However he distinguishes between these distortions and regional dialectical variations, which he collected meticulously over decades of travel from European Russia to Siberia. Another principle on which Dahl insisted rigorously was the rejection of transliterated/transcribed foreign-language roots as base words, in favour of Russian roots. However certain loanwords like "проспект" were included.
The editors of the posthumous second edition expanded it using the author's words cards, but, following the norms of Russian public morality, abstained from adding entries with the obscene words of the Russian mat.
In 1903, linguist Baudouin de Courtenay insisted as editor of the third edition on including obscene words. Although this was criticised, this version sold well. There was a fourth edition in 1912–1914.
1935
The fifth edition was supported by Joseph Stalin and had a high cultural significance, since it was printed in the old "spelling", thus providing continuity in the perception of pre-revolutionary literature by new generations. This edition was based on the second edition. The Baudouin de Courtenay edition was never reprinted in Soviet times.
1955
In 1955, the dictionary was reprinted in the Soviet Union again with a circulation of 100,000. This sixth edition relied also on that of 1880–1883. Copies of the second edition were used as the source for the stereotype reprint. However, this was not an exact reproduction of an original: derivatives of the root жид were removed from page 541 of volume 1. This ambiguous censorship stems from controversy over the use of two roots used concurrently in Russian and in many other European languages. Although Russian жид is equivalent to žid, English: jew; while links=no corresponds to links=no and English: hebrew, the first form was later considered an expletive with a tinge of antisemitism. To ensure "political correctness", the 1955 editors decided to remove the entire entry, keeping the original page numbers by increasing the line spacing on the censored page.
