The litter is one of key units of forest ecosys-tems and playing an important role in biological circulation of substances, has impact on efficiency the of forest plantings in general. The formation of litter in forest biogeocenoses is caused by a num-ber of factors, first of all climatic conditions, soil type, specific structure of vegetation and conditions of receipt and decomposition of a vegetable litterfall. The study is devoted to the research of the main characteristics of forest litters of pine woods within the Arkhangelsk Region, i.e. its power, densi-ty of addition and a stock. It is actual and low-studied for this region subject. A research objective was studying the influence of a live ground cover, various structures, accumulation and properties of the forest litter of pine woods of northern subband of taiga. For this research two sampling sites in two types of pine forests were chosen: one in the bilber-ry pine forest and another in shrub-Sphagnum pine forest. At the laying of the trial areas and for their forest tax characteristic standard techniques were used. As a result, it was found out that the type of living soil-plant cover, combined with climatic condi-tions, had significant influence on the formation and structure of forest litter. For shrub-sphagnum pine forest, the thickness (28 cm) and stock (92.83 t/hectare) of forest litter were bigger in comparison with the forest litter in bilberry pine forest (10.4 cm and 68.87 t/hectare). It was found out that the forest litter of shrub-sphagnum pine forest was characterized by higher relative moisture (87 %) and greater ability to store and retain water (2477.5 g / cm3) than forest litter in bilberry pine forest (77 %, 916.8 g / cm3).