The Tambov Real School opened on November 24, 1876. The bourgeois city required specialists with technical knowledge for work in various industries and trade. The education at the school lasted six years and included two departments in the additional class; besides the core courses, there were commercial and mechanical-technical departments. The school was located in a two-story brick building at the corner of Bolshaya and Dvoryanskaya streets, which belonged to the City Administration and was built according to model projects of the 19th century (now it is School No. 1). The funding for the school was provided by the city budget and donations from Tambov benefactors: L.V. Vysheslavtsev, V.M. Anosov, G.V. Khitrov. E.D. Naryshkin was a long-time honorary trustee of the school.

Thanks to an excellent teaching staff, the school contributed to the development of talented individuals whose careers began right here. Among its students were merchants the Patutins, entrepreneurs the Anosovs, Tolmachevs, Nosovs, manufacturers the Aseevs, and builders the Zamyatins. Outstanding personalities such as David Burliuk, mining specialist A.M. Terpigorev, architect and artist V.A. Shchuko, and film director and educator L.V. Kuleshov also studied here. The school educated not only the children of merchants, petty bourgeois, and clergy but also the descendants of famous Russian noble families: Arnoldi, Benkendorf, Boratynsky, Bartenyev, Vysheslavtsev. The Tambov Real School played a significant role in training personnel for a new stage of economic development in the region during the period of bourgeois reforms.