中文 | Русский | "Kitaiski Blagovestnik", Jan 15, 1914 issue, insert between pages 24-25.
English translation by Nina Tkachuk Dimas

Diagram of Beijing and its environs, indicating properties of the Beijing Spiritual Mission

  1. Mission
  2. School
  3. Embassy
  4. Office(s)
  5. Shops
  6. Chinese Orthodox cemetery
    1. New one
    2. Old one
  7. Russian cemetery
  8. Almshouse
  9. Exaltation of the Cross Skete
  10. Mentoucun (school)
  11. Brick factory

Handwritten at the top is a letter (C in Russian) for North. At the bottom there is a "yu" indicating South. The handwriting at the top is typed at the bottom.


Property of the Beijing Spiritual Mission

Plan of Mission at Beiguan

  1. Hierarch's apartment and the Church of St Innocent
  2. Wing (of a building) or outbuilding
  3. Office, library and icon workshop
  4. Mechanical workshop
  5. Bakery
  6. Soap factory
  7. Foundry
  8. Warehouse
  9. Artesian well
  10. Workers' homes
  11. Site for the Library
  12. Belfry
  13. Church of the Dormition
  14. Male monastery building
  15. Offices
  16. Steam boiler (for heating)
  17. Printing press
  18. Bindery
  19. Lithograph press
  20. Russian printing press
  21. School
  22. Workers' dining room
  23. Pupils' facilities
  24. Carriage (coach) shed
  25. Site for the Cathedral
  26.   "   for the seminary
  27.   "   for the hospital
  28. Homes for "white" (non-monastic) clergy
  29.   "   for visitors
  30. Weather station building
  31. Meteorological instruments
  32. Technicians' homes
  33. Church of All Holy Martyrs
  34. Bee house
  35. Nunnery
  36. School for females
  37. Workers' homes
  38. Cattle yard
  39. Priest's home
  40. Mill
  41. Carriage (or equipment) storage
  42. Employee housing

The above diagrams, evidently done by the same hand, were first published in 1997 in Russian book about the History of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in China, co-editted by Fr Dionisy Pozdnyaev, was found among the documents kept by Vladika Viktor. The diagrams were incorrectly identified as drawings of Vladika Viktor.

The book's scientific editor Prof. Ipatova of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Moscow, was notified by Vladika Viktor's niece Ksenia Kepping shortly after the book was published and more recently by her son Boris Aleksandrov that this was not Abp. Viktor's handwriting. Prof. Ipatova confirmed that this plan originally was in the attachment to the magazine "Kitaiski Blagovestnik", issued in 1914.

Boris also noticed that in the plan of the Beijing Mission, location 11 was labeled as "Place for future Library". This implies that that there was no library at the moment this plan was drafted. The library was built in 1916. Location 38 was labeled as "Place for future Cathedral". In 1914, they gave up the idea of building the big Cathedral - all the Mission's money were directed to Military Papers. With this internal evidence, the plan was done between the years 1906-1915. Vladika Viktor first arrived in China in 1921, and it is highly unlikely that he would draft a plan to mark a library that was already built when he arrived as "Place for future Library". These diagrams may have been done by the hand of Archim. Figurovski in the early 20th century.