Theoretical and experimental studies of the phenomenon of polytypisrn in silicon carbide obtained by the Lely method have been presented It is shown that the elementary theory of polytypism can be built on the basis of very general considerations, taking into account the physical and chemical parameters of the growth process, as well as the steric factor and the possible symmetry of elementary clusters involved in the growth process. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.