Based on rare foreign sources (mainly the Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco and prints from the Northeast Asian collection of the Uni-versity of Hawaii), the publication is dedicated to one of the first Russian scientific and public institutions in China – the Society for  Studies of the Manchurian Region (OIMK, 1923–1929) and its local history museum (now the Museum of Heilongjiang Province, China), founded by the Rus-sians and the Chinese in Harbin, in connection with the anniversary of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). The article represents a brief analysis of its collections, which were divided into the following main departments: ethnographic with archaeological, paleontological and geological collec-tions; natural history with ornithological, biological and botanical collec-tions, commercial and industrial with agricultural and forestry subdivi-sions, also the Experimental Agricultural Field, Botanical Garden and the Sungaria River Biological Station. The OIMK included the Society of Rus-sian Orientalists and the Manchurian Agricultural Society. The OIMK workers paid great attention to studies of the cultural development of Northeast China, made numerous expeditions and trips for scientific pur-poses to little-known regions of China, carried out an extensive publishing program in four series A. – E. and a large international exchange program of literature and exhibits. Particular attention was paid to the collection of bibliographic information about China. The article also provides biog-raphies and characteristics of researchers, analysis of their. The article summarizes the activities of OIMK and the reasons for its closure, traces the fate of the most famous figures.