The translation began in 1813, after the establishment of the Russian Bible Society and by permission of Czar Alexander I.

The Most Holy Synod entrusted the completion of the translation to four Orthodox theological academies, in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan and Kiev.

Official permission to use the Masoretic Text as preserved by the Jews (rather than relying on the Septuagint and/or the Church Slavonic translations as preserved by the Christians) was granted to Filaret by the Synod in 1862, even though technically the translation was already mostly completed by that time.

An edition published 1988 was almost identical to the 1968 one, with the correction a few typographical errors and the inclusion of three new maps.

While the 1968 was almost exclusively for the internal use by the Russian Orthodox Church, the 1988 was sold publicly, and scans of this edition were uploaded to the early internet.

The first edition in digital typeset appeared in 2000, again with some normalization in spelling, punctuation and grammar.

This edition had very limited circulation in printed form but was published digitally on the website of the Moscow Patriarchate.