The paper traces the historical and pedagogical outlines of promoting ethnic tolerance in military pedagogy. The philosophical and socio-political prerequisites for developing the attitudes on ethnic tolerance are revealed. The views of national teachers and the periodization of the development of attitudes on ethnic conflict and tolerance of military personnel in national military pedagogy are systematized. The study of the process of promoting and developing tolerance of Russian military personnel of the XVIII - beginning of the XXI centuries was carried out from the standpoint of extending the worldview principles to the spiritual activities and practices of all participants in the pedagogical process. At the same time, historical and pedagogical conditions and factors that influenced the process under the study and the degree of its development in the corresponding period were taken into account. The study has showed that the idea of the conditioning ethnic tolerance in Russian military pedagogy, its implementation in theoretical thought and practical activities underwent a certain evolution. The study of historical and pedagogical experience has made it possible to formulate the main trends in the emergence and development of the process of conditioning ethnic tolerance among military personnel at various historical stages in order to take into account the positive and negative experience of promoting ethnic tolerance. The experience of educating military personnel in various historical periods is undoubtedly useful for conditioning and promoting ethnic tolerance among cadets. At present, the development of ethnic tolerance among military personnel is no less relevant than in the considered historical periods.