The authors focus on the history of the famous sociological work The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, as well as on the biographies of both authors, William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki. The combination of biographical analysis with socio-political context and the work in the genre of scientific biography makes it possible to understand not only the background of the creation of this major sociological project, but also to clarify the role of the sociologist-intellectual in social life. The appeal to the nonlinear fate of this work was stimulated by the drama of its realization and perception by the scientific public. The authors, relying on contemporary scientific commentaries, reconstruct this process from the description of the socio-political context, the strategies of the scientific careers of both authors till biographical facts, and the result of their common work. Discussing the process of transition of scientific knowledge, the authors consider the reception of the ideas of W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki during the process of perception and rooting of qualitative-interpretive sociology in Russia. Here, the ways of concepts and ideas transitioning themselves acquire significant interest, i.e., not only the translation of certain scientific works, but the very order of embedding ideas in the context of the ‘host’ scientific environment. More specifically, we consider the phenomenon of asymmetry (more Znaniecki, less Thomas), which accompanied the further scientific fate of both authors in the context of various national scientific schools, and primarily in Russia.