The paper provides a historiographical analysis of the points of view of modern Russian authors regarding the understanding of the problems of the reformation of the education sector in the era of late Imperial modernization. The variants of using various interpretive models used in the study of the last attempt in the Imperial history to reorganize the education system are analyzed. Conclusions are made about the ambiguity of interpretations of the transformations of the system of public education system in Russia in the late XIX - early XX centuries, and the presence of significant historiographical gaps necessitating further study of the identified topics in order to conduct a more thorough analysis of the transformations of the governments of S.Yu. Witte and P.A. Stolypin in the sociocultural sphere.