Origins of professional technical education in Irkutsk go back to the establishment of a Geodesic School in 1745 which was transformed into the School of Navigation and Geodesy in 1754. School graduates were highly qualified and broad-minded specialists.  

Later on Irkutsk Navigation School was affiliated to the Main National School (1789), an educational institution of a higher level where students studied general subjects, architecture, geometry, mechanics and physics. It is worth mentioning that there was an excellent library and a museum in the School with a collection of tools, technical devices, mineralogical, botanic and zoological samples.  

In 1805 the Main National School was attached to the newly opened Irkutsk gymnasium for boys whose graduates had the right to enter a university.