Almost all countries of the world found themselves at the end of the XX - beginning of the XXI century in a deep crisis in theory and practice of welfare state, concept of sustainable development and are forced to modify these concepts under the influence of globalization processes, information society’s development, environmental, demographic, educational, cultural and pandemic turbulences. The purpose of the study is to develop the prospects for modifying the welfare state in the context of a crisis of its meanings in the classical-industrial and postmodern-postindustrial models of capitalism. The objectives of the research are: to study the possibilities of interpenetration/convergence of the East-Western system of values and goals; highlighting the fundamental institutional role of the educational system in the modern society’s Enlightenment; assessment of the role of Russia as a bearer of the core human values and a new concept of the welfare state applicable for the Russian and international community.