The work presents and describes various mechanisms for the formation of a conductive channel in bipolar memristors of the vacancy and ionic types: in the first case, due to the generation and growth of conductive threads, and in the second, due to segregation processes with the formation of spatial associations of ions from the material of the active electrode. The current—voltage characteristics for both types of memristors are presented and a comparison of the design features of these memristors is conducted.