The article notes that when implementing a new state policy in the field of education of the younger generation, it is advisable to take into account the historical experience of organizing educational activities in educational institutions of the State Labour Reserves of the USSR in the 1940s and 1950s. The paper identifies and structures the fundamental principles of the organization of ideological, military-patriotic and physical education of young people: the presence of a core educational idea; the continuity of educational efforts throughout the entire period of training; the complex nature of educational activities; allocation of a limited range of priority tasks; active involvement in educational work in the system of State Labour Reserves of the Komsomol. The analysis made it possible to conclude that some principles and some content elements of the model of education of students in the system of State Labour Reserves can be used today in the development of a modern concept of education of Russian youth.