The objective of the article is to consider the historical experience of formation and successful functioning of the institution of trusteeship in the educational sphere of the Russian empire in the nineteenth-beginning of the twentieth centuries. Historically Russia faced the necessity to speed up the paces of developing and raising the quality of public education. With this purpose the system of 15 educational districts headed by trustees was formed, which comprised 14 university complexes with composite educational infrastructure. The principles of historicism and dialectic materialism, objectivity, scientific reliability and chronological sequence are the methodological base of the research. The method of interdisciplinary integration, use of knowledge of such sciences as sociology, psychology, pedagogy, political science and law has also been efficient. The following sources have been used: legislative acts, reference and statistical materials as well as materials of periodical press have been used. The necessity of reviving the institution of trusteeship and educational districts headed by trustees at the beginning of the nineteenth century as a governmental initiative in solving the state policy in the conditions of reforms in the educational sphere has been substantiated. The significance of a state official-Trustee of an educational district, who had legal status, has been shown. It allowed to reform the educational sphere in a short period of time. All the above mentioned was the power and force of the state system of administrating educational institutions both in central and regional systems.