In the paper we consider canonical almost geodesic mappings of spaces with affine connection onto m-Ricci-symmetric spaces. In particular, we studied in detail canonical almost geodesic mappings of the first type of spaces with affine connections onto 2-and 3-Ricci-symmetric spaces. In either case the main equations for the mappings have been obtained as a closed mixed system of PDEs of Cauchy type. We have found the maximum number of essential parameters which the solution of the system depends on