The article investigates the problem of how xenophobia developed in the education system of the Russian Empire. The study focuses on the historical and educational context. The main sources of research were academic studies and archival documents from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that bear witness to the official position and views on the educational system for non-Russian ethnic groups. Some statements and definitions that are found in various sources show that the xenophobia that was characteristic of this historical period affected academic research, ideas about education, and the consciousness of the larger society. [Translated by Kenneth Cargill.]