It was created by Palladius Kafarov, a Russian sinologist and monk who spent thirty years in China in the nineteenth century.
The names of the cities of Beijing and Nanjing are transcribed as Пекин (instead of Бэйцзин) and Нанкин (instead of Наньцзин), much as Peking and Nanking were still used in English speaking countries until recently.
[1] Older documents contain variants мэн — мын, мэнь — мынь, фэн — фын, фэнь — фынь, пэн — пын, hence Aomen (Macao) is traditionally spelled Аомынь in Russian.
Prior to the reform of Russian orthography in 1918, the system differed in a few respects, as can be seen in Palladius' 1888 dictionary:[2] In composites, coda ng is transcribed н' when the following syllable starts with a vowel.
{Traditional:} 你 好 嗎？ 這個 是 一段 用 西里爾 字母 寫 的 中文。{Simplified:} 你 好 吗？ 这个 是 一段 用 西里尔 字母 写 的 中文。{Pinyin:} Nǐ hǎo ma?
Чжэгэ ши идуань юн {Сили эр} {цзы му} се дэ Чжунвэнь.
Џеге ши јидуан јонг {Шјили ер} {ѕи му} шјие де Џонгвен.
Џеге ши идуан јунг {Сили ер} {ци му} сје де Џунгвен.English translation: How are you?