The article is devoted to the consideration of the spiritual and moral foundations of the formation of the educational tradition in Russia, established in the process of the formation and development of the ancient Russian community. It is shown that the educational and upbringing activities of the Orthodox Church ensured both the unity of efforts of the family and the state in the matter of spiritual and moral education, and the spiritual integrity of the people. The educational tradition that took shape in the era of the Russian Middle Ages did not at all assume that the goal of education was to form a person who knows a lot. The matter of upbringing was associated with the affirmation in the minds of an individual and an entire people of the Christian worldview and the ideals of Holy Russia. Artifacts of the culture of that time and works of Old Russian literature, imbued with the ideas of collegiality, patriotism, Christian asceticism, have a huge educational potential not only in the upbringing and education of the personality of medieval culture, but also in the formation of the spiritual experience of modern man. The article emphasizes that today, in the context of the total transformation of the Russian educational tradition, turning to the sources of spiritual culture and cultural identity of past historical eras is especially relevant and timely.