The Office of the Minister of National Education and the Chief Superintendent of Ecclesiastical Affairs of Foreign Confessions established

January 20 (February 1), 1825 under the "General Ministries Institution" was formed the Office of the Minister of National Education and the Chief Superintendent of Ecclesiastical Affairs of foreign confessions. It was charged with secret and personal correspondence of the Minister of Education, execution of his orders and correspondence on the most important and urgent issues that required instructions of the minister, as well as correspondence in foreign languages.

The Office reviewed memorabilia on current affairs which were submitted from local authorities and prepared them for consideration by the Minister; supervised the requests for presentation of essays and translations to the emperor and imperial family members; gathered information for the Address-calendar and the lists of holders of orders; notified the holders of various orders arriving to the capital about the meetings of their orders’ dumas. In addition, it was in charge of secret affairs that did not require special consideration of the Department of National Education (DNP), of domestic and foreign correspondence of the minister in German and French; compiled registers of the Main Board of schools and minutes of the Main Directorate of censorship, as well as the annual general report sheets about the activity of censorship.

The Office consisted of a director, three head clerks and three assistants including the necessary number of clerical officers.

April 25 (May 7), 1828 the appointment D. N. Bludov to the post of chief superintendent of Ecclesiastic Affairs of Foreign Confessions marked the final separation of the two departments.

January 21 (February 2), 1844 the Office of the Minister of National Education redistributed its duties to its four divisions.

The 1st division examined "major" cases upon the instructions of the Minister; secret affairs that did not require special consideration of the NPD; provided storage of original imperial orders and kept their registry; solved the issues of emergency cases, supervised scientific discoveries, travels, etc.

The 2nd division was in charge of the office work related to censorship: keeping the minutes of the Main Directorate of censorship; office work on the presentation of the Committees of domestic and foreign censorship, etc.

The 3rd division carried out internal and foreign correspondence in French; translated papers, etc.

The 4th division was in charge of domestic and foreign correspondence in German, translated papers into German, etc.

12 (24) April 1860, due to the separation of cases relating to the censorship directorate, and significant reduction in paperwork at the Office of the Minister of National Education, it was decided to charge the Office of the Department of National Education with the office work of the Academy of Sciences and scientific societies: in regards of the establishment of public libraries and their monitoring; the appointment of pensions and benefits for the entire department of the Ministry of National Education, etc.

In October 1917 the Office of the Minister of National Education ceased to exist due to the abolition of the Ministry of National Education, whose functions were taken over by the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR.

Lit.: Высшие и центральные государственные учреждения России. 1801-1917. Т. 3. СПб., 2002; Ерошкин Н. П. История государственных учреждений дореволюционной России. М., 1981; Рождественский С. В. Исторический обзор деятельности Министерства народного просвещения 1802-1902. СПб., 1902.