At the beginning of the 21st century, the pedagogical legacy of Vasily Porfiryevich Vakhterov (1853-1924) continues to attract the attention of educational decision makers regarding the problems involved in improving the educational and formational work of elementary schools. His life’s work reflects a brilliant chapter of progressive development of pedagogy, elementary schools, and the democratization of the entire Russian national education system. Vakhterov, a Russian intellectual who came from among ordinary people, devoted his impressive life to the passionate promotion of knowledge and to a selfless devotion to the idea that “Learning is light; ignorance is darkness.” His name is inseparable from the highest achievements of the “silver age” of the pedagogical sciences. It is a component part of that entire cultural era.