This paper is devoted to the early period in the history of documentaries and the first attempt at creating educational films in Russia. It is traditionally believed that the Russian educational films (initially, it was mostly scenic films) had not begun to be shot before 1907 when the Russian film-making companies were created. There is some evidence, however, of educational cinema’s emerging in Russia somewhat earlier, in 1899, when the first four educational films about the main devices used in beekeeping were shot at the Izmailovsky Experimental Apiary of the Russian Society for Animal and Plant Acclimatization under the guidance of F. S. Mochalkin. In 1890, the copies of these films were donated to the Academy of Sciences but none of these survived to this day.