The article examines the administrative functions of Sergey Uvarov's ministerial chancellery based on the materials of the clerical office of the Department of Public Education of the 1830-1840s. The functional features of the “special chancellery” of Alexander Golitsyn and the Chancellery of the Minister of Public Education in the studied period are compared. The author demonstrates the results of a statistical study of the reports of the Ministry of Public Education for 1833–1849, from which it follows that the highest burden on the ministerial chancellery took place in the years of crisis for the institution (1839 and 1849). For the first time, information about Uvarov clerks, their career trajectories and social appearance is introduced into academic sphere. On the basis of formulary lists and other sources, an attempt is made to prosopographically study the persons who served in the Office of the Minister of Public Education (1833–1849). The author also presents the results of a content analysis of the materials of the archival fund of the Office of the Minister (RSHA, fund No. 735), on the basis of which conclusions can be drawn about the main areas of work of this institution, fixed not legally, but de facto.