The terms "Harbin Russians" and "Russian Harbinites" describe several generations of Russians who lived in Harbin, a key city of the Chinese Eastern Railway, from around 1898 until the 1960s. In the Soviet Union, the words KVZhDist and Harbinites were used to refer to anyone associated with the KVZhD, regardless of their place of residence. Archbishop Nafanail (Lvov) noted that Harbin was a unique phenomenon of its time. Built by Russians on Chinese territory, it remained a typical Russian provincial city for another 25 years after the revolution. Harbin had 26 Orthodox churches, of which 22 were full-fledged temples, as well as a network of secondary schools and 6 higher educational institutions. By God's grace, Harbin preserved the pre-revolutionary Russian way of life for a quarter of a century. From the 1940s to the 1960s, a mass exodus of Russians from Northern Manchuria began, and as a result, the Russian population in Harbin virtually disappeared. However, despite the consequences of the Cultural Revolution, many buildings related to the Russian presence in the first half of the 20th century still remain in Harbin.