A lyceum is a secondary educational institution whose main purpose is the specialized preparation of upper-school students for admission to College.
In the Russian Empire, lyceums were elite educational institutions with a course of study lasting from 6 to 11 years, covering both secondary and higher education curricula. They were designed primarily to train government officials.
The understanding of the lyceum in pre-revolutionary Russia is well reflected in its definition in V. I. Dal's Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language: "a higher educational institution, sometimes equal to universities and academies, sometimes below or even above them, but not divided into faculties; a general higher school."
The curriculum of the most famous lyceum — the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum — was revised on numerous occasions, while retaining its humanities and law orientation. A lyceum education was considered equivalent to a university education; graduates received civil ranks from the 14th to the 9th class. Those wishing to enter military service underwent additional military training, after which graduates received the rights of those who had completed the Corps of Pages.
Several lyceums have opened in Nizhny Novgorod: Lyceum No. 40 ("School No. 40"), the M. Lomonosov Humanities Lyceum with Advanced Study of Foreign Languages, and NTL).