The article presents a review of experimental modelling of hypertension with the purpose helping research on its pathogenetical mechanisms, its characteristic, its therapy and eventual prophylaxy. Both conventional and genetic experimental models of inducing hypertension are discussed. The paper comprises a short description of the methods, their possibilities, the form of human hypertension to which each model corresponds, as well as the most important peculiarities of the alterations which are induced by the corresponding method. Special attention was paid to the most recent models of genetically determined spontaneous hypertension including spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR-Okamoto-Aoki), the New Zealand strain of genetic hypertension (GH-Smirk), the stroke prone and stroke resistant substrains of SHR (SHRSP and SHRSR), arteriolipoidosis prone SHR (SHRLP), the obese SHR stain, the Milan hypertensive (MHS), Dahl's salt susceptible (s) and salt resistant (R) strains, and Smirk's genetic hypotensive strain of rats.