The author in this article for the first time conducted a concrete historical reconstruction of the customary legal regulation of educational activities on the part of the Don Cossack communities in the villages and farms of the Don Army Region in the second half of the 19th century. The author analyzed in detail how the Don Cossack communities, village and farm authorities solved all issues of educational activities in the villages and farms, i. e. issues related to the creation, maintenance and provision of all necessary educational institutions and control over the quality of education, as well as all issues related to the life of the teachers themselves and their families. © 2021, Rossiiskaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut Istorii (Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of General Hist. All rights reserved.