The question of the possibility of analyzing texts to identify their axiological content based on keywords is considered. It is argued that linguistic units characterized by high frequency denote axiologically important concepts and form cultural attitudes in the reader. The characteristic features of the common cultural code for the nation and its unique features in a particular era are determined. The poetic texts of anthologies on literature of the 19th - early 20th centuries that have survived many editions, as well as textbooks of the 1930 - 1940s and 1970-1980s for primary school are analyzed. The research showed that the keywords of the lexical-semantic groups “Nature” (forest, land, field, sea) became common for the poetic texts studied in the elementary grades; “Light” (light, sun, day), “People” (person, child, people, country); that is, these are the words that are leading in the formation of the cultural code of the Russian people of the XIX-XX centuries. The “key words of the era” for the Russian Empire are the words soul, tsar, god; for the 1920s - labor; 1930s - song, Stalin; 1970s - mother, spring. The relevance of the study lies in its focus on identifying the basic concepts, meanings and values that form the cultural code of the nation, as well as on describing the dynamics of the cultural code in different historical eras.