One of the tasks of modern higher education is to simultaneously provide students with the necessary minimum of humanitarian and social knowledge, which can serve as a guide or a kind of navigator in solving various life tasks. In the past, during the Soviet era, this task was solved by teaching a block of social disciplines, which had an ideological basis. They simultaneously formed the moral framework and subsequently largely determined the format of the highest category specialist behavior. In modern conditions of the changing educational paradigm and new technological challenges such as  digitalization of public life,  active use of artificial intelligence, increasing complexity of intergenerational dialogue, insignificant presence of ideological disciplines and training courses in curricula, the knowledge of history in various aspects is of the greatest importance. At the same time, the historical vision contributes to the formation of future competencies among highly qualified specialists. The authors summarize their experience of teaching the history of the twentieth-century Russia at practical classes with students of non-historical majors. The article presents the results of the students’ sociological survey, on the basis of which the author's pedagogical technology was built, combining elements of rational and sensory perception of the historical past, as well as the use of the new means of nurturing historical consciousness, including the use of artificial intelligence. Drawing on this technology, a package of practical tasks for the implementation of this goal was developed and tested in 2024–2025. The article presents the main components of these tasks, the results of their testing in the student audience of two higher educational institutions in Samara. In conclusion, the authors' final reflections on the qualities of a teacher-tutor able to direct students to the practice of self-knowledge through history are presented.