The article concerns Irkutsk provincial administration’s arrangement of police surveillance of political exiles, settled in Irkutsk province in 1860–1870s. The author considers the administrative structures responsible for settlement of exiles, details of registration and control for their relocation and correspondence. The author concludes that Irkutsk provincial administration did not succeed in developing of a well-functioning system of surveillance of political exiles that can be explained by local natural, geographical and social factors of the development of the region, as well as by the drawbacks of the penal legislation.