The challenges that domestic and foreign policy of the Russian state is facing today make it urgent to find the means by which it would be possible to direct the civic education of Russian youth, in general, and to instill in them respect for the traditional values of Russian statehood and public life, in particular, in a constructive way. The article analyzes problems, the unresolved nature of which makes the eff orts of government institutions to defi ne and legally consolidate the meaning of the very concept of “traditional values”, as well as concepts denoting specifi c values, insuffi ciently eff ective today.