The gymnasium was founded in 1838 with the aim of providing a unified and continuous educational process beyond the Ural Mountains. It was intended for the training of civil servants and school teachers. The curriculum included Religious Studies, Russian language, ancient languages, Latin, and until 1901, Greek, as well as history, mathematics, physics, geography, cosmography, logic, French and German languages, law, taught by a member of the Tomsk District Court, and philosophical propaedeutics, a subject that seems somewhat unclear to us today. The gymnasium library had up to 15,000 volumes and was one of the best in the city. The gymnasium also had its own church.

After the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War, in 1920 it was decided to transform the gymnasium into the Tomsk Artillery School. In 1965, it became the Tomsk Higher Military Command School of Communications.

Currently, the building houses Gazprom Transgaz Tomsk LLC.