The article analyses the cultural, political and religious phenomena which could be regarded as the roots of tolerance in the Lithuanian national consciousness and considered as educational factors in the upbringing of new generations. As an example of religious tolerance, one can remind the polemics not only between the Catholics and Protestants but also between Orthodox and Jews. As an example of political and economic freedom, one can regard the possibility given to Ivan Fiodorov to print books in Vilnius while it was prohibited in Moscow. These many other facts of multifarious tolerance should not be forgotten and could be used in the process of moral education.

Over the short period of independence, Lithuania gained considerable achievements in all cultural areas and in education as well. In 1918-1940, the education science was developing under the complicated national and international circumstances; it was nothing less than indiscrete but shaped by many factors. First and foremost, the education science of those times was a natural follow-up of the national pedagogical thought which was unfolding together with the national school at the end of XIX century and also, at the beginning ofXX century, when the Lithuanian national movement grown up again and the Lithuanian printing was legalized after 1904.The educational science of Lithuania of that period was influenced not only by the Eastern pedagogical thought but by that of Western as well, which was based on a diverse philosophical, ideological — political and pedagogical motivation; an attempt to cover educational aspirations of various Lithuanian people was made then. The years 1918-1940 signify the creation of a national education science in Lithuania for the first time; it ranged over the researches of wide educational problems — starting from the analysis of separate pedagogical ideas and finishing with the development of a whole educational system. Isolated problems of education, school and teaching were examined by a fair number of pedagogues of that period.