We give an overview of various results and methods related to information-theoretic distances of Rényi type in the light of their applications to the central limit theorem (CLT). The first part (Sections 1-9) is devoted to the total variation and the Kullback-Leibler distance (relative entropy). In the second part (Sections 10-15) we discuss general properties of Rényi and Tsallis divergences of order $α>1$, and then in the third part (Sections 16-21) we turn to the CLT and non-uniform local limit theorems with respect to these strong distances. In the fourth part (Sections 22-31), we discuss recent results on strictly subgaussian distributions and describe necessary and sufficient conditions which ensure the validity of the CLT with respect to the Rényi divergence of infinite order.