In the paper, the proceedings of the VII International conference on chemistry and physical chemistry of oligomers (September 4-8, 2000, Perm') are considered. In the conference, the reports on synthesis of new types of oligomers, natural and biologically active oligomers, kinetics and thermodynamics of chemical and structural transformations of oligomer systems, and oligomer-based materials were presented. In the plenary report by S.M. Mezhikovskij, the evolution of the notion 'oligomer' was discussed on the base of theoretical and experimental data.