View on the history of electromagnetics of metamaterials: Evolution of the congress series of complex media

•Provides a view on the main developments of understanding of electromagnetics of chiral media over two centuries.•Discusses the series of bianisotropic and complex materials congresses over the past 20 years.•Discusses the Bokut–Fedorov school and electromagnetics research in the former Soviet Union.

This article describes some of the paths through which electromagnetics research of complex media and metamaterials has reached the present active state. In particular, events of a period in 1990s will be illuminated during which new scientific contacts between Former Soviet Union and the West were established. The series of chiral and bianisotropic meetings between 1993 and 2006 appear as a precursor to today's series of metamaterials congresses.