An Institute for Noble Maidens (Russian: Институт благородных девиц) was a type of educational institution and finishing school in late Imperial Russia. It was devised by Ivan Betskoy as a female-only institution for girls of noble origin. Those were "Closed female institutes of the Office of the Institutions of Empress Maria". The first and most famous of these was the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg.