Kniga prednaznachena dlya shirokogo kruga chitateley, interesuyushchikhsya organizatsiey protsessa obucheniya i vospitaniya v privilegirovannykh obrazovatel'nykh uchrezhdeniyakh Rossii v XIX-nachale XX vv. Osoboe vnimanie v rabote udelyaetsya elitarnym uchebnym zavedeniyam Smolenskoy gubernii, kotorye rassmatrivayutsya kak vazhnoe zveno v gosudarstvennoy sisteme obrazovaniya v issleduemyy period. Krome togo, v ney predstavlen material o pedagogakh, posvyativshikh svoyu zhizn' delu vospitaniya i obucheniya vysshego sotsial'nogo sosloviya dorevolyutsionnoy Rossii.