It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection with research programs in fields including oceanography,[citation needed] ethnography, ecology and statistics.

The Society pioneered the systematic exploration of the Northern Urals in 1847–1850, of the farthest reaches of the Amur River in 1854–1863, of the vast areas of Kashgaria, Dzungaria, and Mongolia from the 1870s onward.

The founding members of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society included:[4] The Society's official presidents were Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia in 1845–1892 and Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia in 1892–1917, but it was actually run by the Vice-Presidents: Fyodor Litke (1845–1850, 1855–1857), Count Mikhail Muravyov (1850–1857), Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky (1873–1914), and Yuly Shokalsky (1914–1931).

It was established and named after the Society’s first chairman, Great Duke Constantine and was awarded from 1849 to 1929 to explorers who had made a significant geographical discovery or to authors of outstanding publications in geography, ethnography or Russian statistics.

After Shokalsky its presidents were geneticist Nikolai Vavilov (1931–1940), zoologist Lev Berg (1940–1950), parasitologist Evgeny Pavlovsky (1952–1964), glaciologist Stanislav Kalesnik (1964–1977), and polar explorer Aleksei Treshnikov (1977–1991).

During the 1850s and 1860s the ethnographic division gathered and published material such as works of folklore and the byt or "way of life" which they regarded as reflecting the "essence" of the indigenous people of the Russian Empire.

In 1909 Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin, Vladimir Bogdanov and Vsevolod Miller convened the ethnographic sub-section of the Twelfth Congress of Russian Natural Scientists and Physicians held in Moscow.