The authors consider the problem of separation from the mother culture in the conditions of forced emigration of officers of the tsarist army during the period of increasing Russian influence in the Chinese provinces of the Russian Empire before its collapse. The awareness of one's own mission and acceptance of one's destiny reflected in the way information was presented in the film and newspaper discourses of the Russian diaspora in China at the beginning of the twentieth century. Understanding the historical, cultural, psychological, and linguistic significance of Harbin's Russian culture is important in the context of the formation of the diaspora mentality, the viability of cultural values, ties with the historical homeland, and overcoming depressive moods caused by ethnic trauma and the loss of the homeland. a lever for managing ethno-cultural identity. Russian emigrants were able to record the Russian language in subtitles, as well as daily life and incidents, and discuss world and Russian news. This allows us to trace the evolution of the Russian diaspora in Harbin. Ethnotrauma due to the distance from Russia, the fall of the Tsarist Empire, the First World War forced us to look for new forms of preserving ethno-confessional, socio-cultural identity. Copyright © 2021 by Cherkas Global University.