St. Petersburg, Russia -- Twelve-year-old Yegor Putra knows that someday he might just become president of the Russian Federation.

"There are three things I'd like to change in the country," the slim, dark-haired boy said. "First, I would combat crime, which is overloading the country. Second, I would introduce some censorship to reduce the violent foreign movies on Russian screens. And, finally, I'd change our education system and open up more schools like ours."

Together with 17 other boys and one girl, Yegor attends the Gorchakov Lycee in Pavlovsk, an experimental private school located just outside of St. Petersburg that is dedicated to educating the country's future leaders.

"The Lycee overall task is to prepare its graduates with the education, deportment and sense of responsibility that a society demands of its high-ranking leaders, including its president," said Sergei Gutzeit, a St. Petersburg businessman who founded the school two years ago.

Gutzeit's idea was to recreate precisely the legendary Lycee of Tsarskoye Selo, whose graduates, including poet Alexander Pushkin, helped write the country's history.

That original Lycee was the brainchild of prominent reformist politician Mikhail Speransky and was opened Oct. 19, 1811. Speransky's goal was to educate a generation of "new people" who would be able to implement the profound social and political reforms that he felt Russia needed.

Two hundred years later, a new-generation student, 12-year-old Dmitry Nikodyuk, says he wants "to become a man who will produce a positive influence on Russia."

"We teach them not just to know things, but to understand them, to feel and to think," said history teacher Boris Neupokoyev. "If we talk about Napoleon, for instance, we ask [students] to try on his shoes and suggest how they would act in his situation."

Like the original Lycee, the Gorchakov Lycee -- named after diplomat Alexander Gorchakov -- is a boarding school. Students spend three days at home every three weeks, plus winter vacation and a one-month holiday in the summer.

Otherwise, they follow a strictly regimented program, six days a week. They wake up at 7 a.m., have morning exercises outside, followed by breakfast. Then comes a full day of classes, symposia, physical education, dancing, music and library study.

"We don't have much free time, but that's good," said 12-year-old Vadim Meshcheryakov. "Instead, we have more time to learn something valuable."

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the school, though, is that it is free. Its students, all of whom come from the Leningrad region, are selected from educated, but poor families. In general, the school is for boys only, although the daughter of one teacher currently studies here.

"We have six boys who are the sons of teachers, librarians, actors and artists. These are people who are in the most vulnerable financial position, despite their education," said Yelena Kalakova, the school's headmistress.

In addition to the formal academic program, the school also tries to teach students independence, responsibility and how to handle money. Students are given weekly stipends of 50 rubles to 100 rubles.

"They should learn how to earn money, how to distribute it correctly or to save it for some purpose," Kalakova said, adding that some of the students send their "salary" home to support their families.

The school is financed by Gutzeit and by the Gorchakov Lycee Guardian Club, which boasts such members as President Vladimir Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and Pulkovo Airlines general director Boris Demchenko.

"To my mind, education is the most profitable investment for our country, and our club is open to any who want to make such an investment," Gutzeit said.

Because the school has very limited space and teachers, it enrolls a new class only once every four years. It is currently located in the reconstructed dacha of 19th-century St. Petersburg architect Alexander Bryullov. Gutzeit is currently renovating other nearby historic buildings for the use of the school.

Privately, Gutzeit acknowledges that he thinks the chances of one of his students becoming the president of Russia are low.

"However, even if they just become good people, willing to help others, our aim will have been achieved," he said.