This three-story masonry building was constructed in 1914 (architect N. Nadarov).  For many years it housed the Society for Amur Regional Studies, founded in 1884, and in 1925 it became the home of the Primorye affiliate of the Russian Geographical Society.  Its first head was Fyodor F. Busse, who also directed the Migration Bureau which assisted settlers arriving from the western part of the Empire.  The Geographical Society’s reference library, one of the largest  in the Russian Far East, houses unique archives of rare documents, manuscripts, and books.  World-renowned scientists and scholars have found creative and scholarly inspiration for their work here.  For example, Vladimir K. Arsenyev (1872-1930), the brilliant ethnographer, writer, and explorer of the Far East, often pursued his research here.  In 1927, Roald Amundsen (1872-1928), the Norwegian explorer who reached the South Pole in 1911, also worked in this library.