[2] Priest Alexander Zhuravsky founded the first Orthodox church when he arrived at the site of construction in February 1898, which was located first in an abandoned fanza, and with the onset of cold weather in a specially built barracks.

On June 11, 1899, Harbin received the following dispatch from the Board of the China Eastern Railway Society: "To Chief Engineer Yugovich.

The next day Archpriest Alexander Zhelobovsky authorized the laying of a wooden St. Nicholas Church in the village of Sungari (so far still called the future Harbin) on the project approved by the Highest.

According to some data, the wood was delivered from Canada by special order, about what allegedly in the following years was evidenced by markings on the cuts of timbers.

[5] In Manchuria they began to destroy ready and under construction sections of the CER, to set fire and to plunder station settlements.

Also, Paderin states that "it was the father of all the churches of the diocese" and remarks that "the cathedral and the image of St. Nicholas were inseparable in the minds of the faithful.

The destruction of the temple during the Cultural Revolution was described by Vladimir Levitsky in his book Wharf on the Sungari: 18-го августа 1966 года в Св.

В то же время на площади между отелем «Нью Харбин» и Московскими рядами хунвейбины собрали многолюдный митинг, на котором, как потом стало известно, решалась судьба Собора и всех харбинских церквей.

Никто не думал, что это будет последней литургией в Соборе.Служил её о. Стефан У, последний настоятель Собора.

Отрекомендовавшись студентами Пекинского политехнического института, молодые люди попросили разрешения подняться на хоры, где они простояли всю литургию, с интересом следя за ходом богослужения.

<…> Чем ближе мы, однако, подходили, тем более явно убеждались, что тревога была не напрасной.

То, что пришлось видеть, вселило в душу ужас: гремели барабаны, слышались крики и завывания толпы, шёл дым… Ограда Собора была заполнена хунвейбинами.

На его месте был выстроен очень высокий памятник, посвященный «борцам культурной революции».

Через несколько лет, когда «культурная революция» уже потеряла свою популярность, он был разрушен.

Having been introduced as students of the Beijing Polytechnic Institute, the young men asked permission to go up to the choir, where they stood for the entire liturgy, watching the service with interest.

<...> On the morning of August 23, 1966, at the height of the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards, led by students of the Beijing Polytechnic Institute, burst into St. Nicholas Cathedral with drumming, dancing, and shouts of victory, with the clear intention of committing mayhem and leaving no stone unturned.The news of the Red Guards' actions quickly spread through the city, and those who could hurried to the Cathedral with the hope of settling the matter and preventing what still seemed to be a simple misunderstanding.

Some of them climbed to the roof of the Cathedral to put there red banners, others took out from inside our sacred things and threw them into the bonfires, where everything burned, glistening in the sun.

The church was rebuilt in late 2009 in the suburbs of Harbin on the private property of Chinese entrepreneur Huang Tzu Xiang, based on the project of Russian architect Nikolai Kradin.