Vavilova, Moscow, 119334 Russia, e-mail glandularia@yahoo.com Acknowledgements: The authors thank A.V. Kuz’mina, the agronomist of Kropotovskaya biostation (N.K. Kol’tsov Institute of Developmental Biology RAS), who kindly provided us with seeds of variety Bol’shevik 4. <...> Supported in part by Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant ¹ 14-04-01742 A b s t r a c t A unique feature of higher plants is the capacity to form phenolic compounds, the substances with high antioxidant activity. <...> These secondary metabolites play an important functional role, including cell and tissue protection against stress factors. <...> It is especially important at the initial stages of plant ontogenesis. <...> Buckwheat ( Moench) is the major cereal crop for which the formation of various phenolics, particularly rutin, a biologically active compound of plant origin successfully used in pharmacology, is characteristic. <...> In the young seedlings (at the age of 14 days) of 10 buckwheat varieties mostly bred in Russian research centers during recent decades we studied the morphophysiological parameters and the accumulation of phenolic compounds, including phenylpropanoids and flavonoids, in the hypocotyls and cotyledons. <...> Particularly, the highest level of phenylpropanoids was found in Bol’shevik 4 and Bashkirskaya krasnostebel’naya varieties. <...> Accumulation of flavonoids was higher in the Dialog variety, somewhat lower in Bol’shevik 4 and Bashkirskaya krasnostebel’naya varieties (by 10 and 17 %, respectively), and 35 to 40 % lower in the other studied forms. <...> The highest content of anthocyanins was shown in the Bashkirskaya krasnostebel’naya plants, while in other studied buckwheat varieties it was lower. <...> Particularly, in Devyatka, Bol’shevik 4 and Temp plants a decrease was about 50 %, and in Batyr, Dialog, Chatyr tau, Ilishevskaya, Dizain, and Dikul’ varieties 70 to 80 % decrease was found. <...> It was shown that recently bred buckwheat varieties have a very rapid growth and development of seedlings, which is important for their better adaptation in the early ontogeny. <...> The most promising varieties, along with Bashkir krasnostebelnaya, are Bolshevik 4, Nine, Dialogue and Tempo. <...> They are characterized by a high capacity for accumulation the phenolic compounds, the important components of the antioxidant defense system in plants <...>