Caused by the integration of the domestic education system into the European space, so it is important to study and analyze the experience of formation and change of previous, pre-Soviet educational systems in Ukraine.The purpose of the study is to analyze the process of the formation of commercial education in the Right Bank of Ukraine in the post-reform period and to determine the factors that influenced its development.The research methodology is based on the application of the principles of scientificity, objectivity, historicism, and systematicity. The use of historical-systemic, functional, and historical-comparative methods allowed to study the process of establishment and functioning of the first commercial schools.The genesis of the historiography of the problem had the following stages: 1) the work of pre-revolutionary authors (second half of the XIX century - 1917), which depended on censorship restrictions and in which moderately complementary guidelines prevailed; 2) research of representatives of Soviet historiography (1917 - 1991) years), which operated in conditions of ideological constraints dominated by the relevant critical paradigm; 3) works of modern authors (since 1991 - till now), in which attempts are made to develop a balanced position taking into account both positive and negative trends in the development of secondary education in the Russian Empire in the relevant period. However, the field of research of scientists left the facts that contributed to the development of commercial education as a holistic system of training entrepreneurs for the country in the second half of the nineteenth - early twentieth century.Results. The reforms of the Russian Emperor Alexander II in the second half of the XIX century led to the rapid industrialization of the country, as well as gave a powerful impetus to the development of industry, trade, banking, and exchange. All this raised the need for new qualified personnel and gave impetus to the solution of a long-overdue educational issue.In the 1860s and 1990s, the development of commercial education on the Right Bank was carried out on the initiative and at the expense of the region's industrial and merchant circles. In an effort to remove Poles and Jews from power in the province and to limit their influence on the population, the imperial authorities were reluctant to support initiatives to establish commercial schools. Even with permission to open a school, various bans were imposed on the content and organization of education.At the turn of the century, the situation changed somewhat. Polish influence in the right-bank provinces weakened, which allowed the introduction of zemstvos and a revision of educational policy. The government is now more willing to establish commercial institutions, although quotas for Polish and Jewish children remain. Zemstvos provided significant financial support to schools and their low-income students.Conclusions. Under the influence of qualitative state-building changes and active activity of the new elite, which sought further financial prosperity through professional education and establishment of educational institutions at its own expense, a network of commercial educational institutions was formed in the Right Bank Ukraine in the post-reform period. The effectiveness of this process was greatly influenced by the state, exercising its own legislative, supervisory, and regulatory functions in order to limit the political ambitions and influences of the Polish and Jewish minorities.