The article is devoted to the substantiation of A.S. Makarenko's pedagogical activity from the position of the modern concept of individual freedom. It is written on the basis of dialectical methodology, whose example is the research of one of the Frankfurt School leaders, A. Honneth, who studied the essence of freedom in its three inseparable components: negative, reflexive, and social freedom. At the same time, social freedom should be considered as a condition for the realization of the first two. It is proved that this concept of freedom can be used as a basis for theoretical understanding of A.S. Makarenko's pedagogical activity. The experience of the latter, in its turn, is also of interest for conceptualizing the phenomenon of freedom. The relevance of A.S. Makarenko's heritage for the development of the concept of democratic education is proved
