Abstract: The subject of the research is the scientific and pegagogical heritage of Moisey Pistrak in the sphere of teacher education. For a long time the name of a repressed teacher and scientist Moisey Pistrak who had made a great contribution to the teacher education in Soviet Russia was very little known by the broad pedagogical community. The purpose of the present research is tho extend and clarify our concept of the processes happening in the sphere of teacher education of the 30s - 40s of the 20th century in Russia and near the Don River. In her research Melnikova describes the scientific biography of Moisey Pistrak and analyzes his scientific achievements from the point of view of contemporary issues of teacher education. The author's research based on the restrospective and biographical methods on made it all possible. In her research Melnikova has summarized and presented data obtained from state archives such as the Scientific Archive of the Russian Academy of Education, Archive of the Federal Security Service for the Rostov Region and Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Most Recent History. Most of these documents are studied and published for the first time in the academic literature. According to the author, the system of teacher education of the 1930s established the grounds for fundamental preparation of teachers based on the combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience, provided the basis for experimental innovation activity aimed at creation of the labor school and developed programs for overall preparation of teachers, those programs forming the basis of the concept of pedagogical culture as well as the theory of personality-oriented education.