The school diary from the collection of the Mamin-Sibiryak House-Museum belonged to the writer’s younger sister, Yelizaveta Mamina (married name — Udintseva). Inside, there are ruled sheets on which school subjects, homework and grades were written.

In 1878, after a long and serious illness of Yelizaveta Mamina, Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak moved his family to Yekaterinburg. Quickly, “in ten days”, according to his own expression, he prepared his sister for the entrance examinations to the Yekaterinburg Women’s Gymnasium. In August of the same year, she was immediately enrolled in the third grade.

The diary is a notebook in a cardboard cover. There is an inscription on it:

The sheets inside yellowed, and the writing ink on some of them faded over time.

The first sheet contains a class schedule. On Monday — four classes: Geography, Penmanship, Arithmetic and German. The same number of classes are planned on Tuesday: Law of God, German, French and Handcraft. On Wednesday, there were only three classes: History, Russian, Geography.

The sheet for Thursday is poorly preserved: the first class is Arithmetic, the second line is not filled in, the title of the third cannot be read, and the fourth is Law of God. On Friday, there were five lessons: Handcraft, French, Drawing, Russian, and Geography. Saturday was also a school day, on this day, Yelizaveta Mamina had French and Russian classes, as well as Geography.

The first entries in the diary are made in August: in the Russian Empire, children began school in the last month of summer, since school days during the year often fell on church holidays. On the second spread, the following days are marked: August 29 and 30.

Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak monitored his sister’s progress, helped her, and sometimes signed in the “Parents’ Signature” column. From recollections that Yelizaveta Mamina was a diligent student with neat, beautiful handwriting. She received only “good” and “excellent” grades.

Yelizaveta Mamina graduated from high school with a gold medal in 1884, and in 1885, after the teacher’s course, received the title of class teacher. At first, she gave private lessons, and in 1903, she began working as a teacher of Russian Language and Pedagogics in the Second Yekaterinburg Women’s Gymnasium.