On the desk in Ilya Ulyanov’s study, there is a copy of the brochure “Report on the State of Public Elementary Schools in Simbirsk Governorate in 1879, made by the Director of public schools, I. Ulyanov.” This is the fifth annual report, which Ulyanov wrote as the Director of public schools in Simbirsk.

Each year the principals made a large report on the affairs and situation of the schools and other educational institutions under their care. It usually consisted of statistical tables and comments to them. As a rule, everyone involved in the control over education participated in the preparation of the annual report. Ilya Ulyanov had more than 400 accountable schools in 1879. Inspectors compiled the data received from them into handy tables.
Zhores Trofimov in his book “Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov” from the series “Life of remarkable people” wrote about Ulyanov’s relations with his subordinates:

The most important indicators of the reports were considered to be the dynamics of the construction of new schools and the repair works of old ones, their financing, the quality of teaching and the qualifications of teachers, the number of pupils of ‘both sexes’ — boys and girls.

When the annual report was ready, it was printed in the printing house, bound, and then sent to the trustees of the school districts.

Peter Shestakov, a teacher and scholar of ethnography, reviewed the report on the state of governmental public elementary schools made by Ilya Ulyanov and his inspectors, presented at the exhibition. In 1865–1883, he was a trustee of the Kazan school district, which included educational institutions of the Simbirsk Governorate. In 1869, at the request of Shestakov, Ilya Ulyanov was appointed the Inspector of public schools of Simbirsk Governorate. Shestakov lived in Kazan, as the heads of school districts were supposed to stay at the imperial universities.