Women's medical courses were opened in St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1872. Despite the successful activities of the Courses, in 1881, with the intensification of the reaction, the question arose of closing them under the pretext of lack of funds, and on August 5, 1882, a decree was issued to gradually abolish Courses. In this regard, a broad campaign began among the advanced circles of the Russian intelligentsia for their preservation, and monetary donations began to be collected to the Courses fund from different parts of the country from many people. Some of them were apparently addressed by students of the Courses, and Turgenev's letter is a response to such an appeal that has not come down to us.