The article reflects the dynamics of key values of the Russian linguocultural community. The research presents a comprehensive analysis of the data of a psycholinguistic experiment aimed at explicating the real content of the value of self-devotion marked by precedent names. Actual content modeling of the value of self-devotion was carried out with the help of semantic gestalt method and then compared with the semantic gestalt constructed in compliance with dictionary data.The research suggested that the minds of young people possess that meaning of self-devotion stands that contrasts the traditional one. According to the majority of respondents, self-devotion is not considered a moral law, moreover, a significant part of participants (25%) defines such an action as stupidity.The change in the list of precedent names that personify this value in the linguistic consciousness of a modern person was experimentally proven. It was revealed that one of the main factors determined by changes in the cultural code are history textbooks used today in the educational process. In the course of psycholinguistic text analysis of these textbooks, it was proved that they do not meet the main criteria that enable a directed transmission of cultural meanings. As a result, there is a gradual disappearance of precedent names traditional for culture, and there is also a tendency of including the values of Western culture into the content of the cognitive base of the Russian linguocultural community.