The article summarises the experience of prescriptive description of abbreviations in the Dictionary of Abbreviations of Russian as the State Language, which is being developed at the Russian Language Department of Donetsk State University. The difficulties of prescriptive description of this linguistic material are related to the absence of clear recommendations on the normative use of abbreviations in codifying sources (textbooks, grammars, dictionaries, etc.). D.I. Alekseev described the peculiarities of the pronunciation and inflection of abbreviations in the Russian language, but he did not propose uniform and obligatory rules. The absence of prescriptive recommendations on the pronunciation and inflection of abbreviations has led to the formation of a linguistic situation where abbreviations, which have become widespread among speakers and entered the language as independent lexemes, are used in speech according to their own rules, which are based on spontaneous speech practice. The compilers of the Dictionary of Abbreviations of Russian as the State Language attempted to solve the problem of integrating the general linguistic norm described by D.I. Alekseev and the established speech tradition of pronouncing lexicalised abbreviations. The recommendations proposed in the article relate to the pronunciation of initial, syllabic, mixed abbreviations and complex abbreviated words, the placement of stress in them, the determination of the gender of abbreviations and the possibilities of inflection. These recommendations are used in the lexicographical description of abbreviations, but they can also be used to form a set of rules for the use of abbreviations, the number of which is growing every day in modern Russian. The author separately considers the issue of lexicographical description of lexicalised abbreviations and the present-day tendency of stylistic neutralisation of inflected forms of lexicalised abbreviations. The author declares no conflicts of interests.