History shows how most ordinary things, like unwillingness to grow potatoes, may give an impetus to social and educational reforms which, in the long run, appears to prepare the ground for democratic government. It is the irony of history that in most cases people, who were the most eager proponents of reforms, had little or no interest at all in republican ideas. Leaning on historical material I want to illustrate one specific line of cultural evolution, ending to democratic mode of governance, and the role that education has played in it. As an example is used the emergence of democratic attitudes in Finland during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.