Russian Science Foundation

The article analyzes the content of the era of Peter the Great monument «Youth's Honest Mirror» in relation to the issues of teaching speech communication that are relevant today. Unlike the generally accepted assessment of this 18th-century work as the first textbook on etiquette in Russia, the authors of the article emphasize the components of the «code of speech behavior» that are necessary for the social success of young noblemans. This allows us to view it as the first step in creating a training manual on speech etiquette that meets the needs of the time. The purpose of this article is to trace the history of the formation of the goals and objectives of teaching new communicative behavior, to identify the components that the authors of the Petrine era included in its content, and to relate them to the modern principles of communicative pragmatics. The authors conclude that the teaching of communication according to the rules of Peter the Great's time is based on the same principles that can be found in modern textbooks on speech etiquette and speech culture. In the language of its time, «The Honest Mirror of Youth» presents the principles of cooperation and politeness, which involve the ability to adapt one's speech behavior to the interests of the interlocutor, and teaches the ability to choose a communicative strategy and tactics that align with the communicative goal, as well as providing examples of normative communicative behavior.