Edification of Catherine II for the noble youth sent to foreign lands for training

The paper deals with an analysis of a unique undated historical source stored in Russia’s State Archives of Ancient Acts, namely: “Edification, with the autograph of Catherine II, in the form of rules for the noble youth sent to foreign lands for training.” The Empress’s contradictory pedagogical views on upbringing and educating the young representatives of Russia’s noble families are shown. Europe’s democratic morals of that period of history proved to be incompatible with the image of a law-abiding subject of the state with absolute monarchy.