This article discusses the new draft of the Federal State Standards of General Education which designates spiritual and moral upbringing as a key task of present-day education. In accordance with the Standards' requirements, the structure of the basic educational program shall, in addition to the fundamental nucleus of the content of the education, the basic syllabus, model programs for particular school subjects, and other sections, call for a Conception of the Spiritual and Moral Upbringing of School Students and a model program of upbringing and socialization. The designation of spiritual and moral upbringing as a key task of present-day education substantially changes a perception that has become established in the past few years, that the school is an institution that provides educational services and new information, and after that a diploma certifying an education. The school has to be seen as a most important social institution that, in collaborative interaction with other entities of socialization, creates the conditions necessary for spiritual, moral, intellectual, social, and esthetic development. The authors stress that the new schools of Russia have to serve as a very important, structure-forming component of the general national space of the spiritual and moral development of the personality of the citizen of Russia, the focus not only of the intellectual life of the school student but also his/her civic, spiritual, and cultural life. (Contains 1 note.)