M.'s work ‘Religions in China’ is a part of the collection of articles titled ‘China’ and prepared by the staff of the Chinese Chamber of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. under the direction of V.M. Alekseev. This collection was completed in 1939 as an encyclopedic guide to China. The collection contained articles on agrarian history, geography, health care, as well as on the revolutionary activities of the peoples of China, but most of the articles were on the history, culture, philosophy and religions of China. Unfortunately, almost all printed copies of the book were lost during the WWII, and only 200 proof copies have survived.

M.'s article consists of two main parts: ‘The Religion of the Ancient Chinese People’ and ‘The Religions of Contemporary China’. Describing the ‘religion of the ancient Chinese people’, M. begins with a description of the sources (written ones – five books of Wu Jing and archaeological ones), and notes that the religion of the ancient China was built on two principal basements: animism and the cult of ancestors. Briefly describing the cult of heaven and earth, and mentioning a connection between the lord of heavens Shang Di and the rulers of China, he proceeds to the cult of ancestors and a description of peculiarities of cult practices.

The second part of the article consists of four sections: ‘San-jiao – Three Religions’, ‘Buddhism’, ‘Islam’, and ‘Christianity’.

Describing the system of ‘San-jiao’, M. writes that “their conglomerate is the essence of the Chinese folk religion”. The emphasis on folk religious beliefs and practices in this work is most likely due to the fact that the author was to perform a real picture of Chinese religiosity, with an emphasis on “living religion”.

Characterizing Confucianism, he notes that it was an ancient Chinese religion, which, in addition to traditional cults of nature and the cult of ancestors, also included the cult of heroes (primarily Confucius himself and his disciples). Analyzing the religious theories and practices of Taoism, M. notes that Taoism was “Shamanism, witchcraft, astrology and demonolatry”, and originally arose as a philosophical doctrine, gradually passing the stages of alchemy and magic, and later having turned into a religious system, eclectically combining the principles of ancient Taoist philosophy with folk religiosity.

The subsection ‘Buddhism’ gives a brief history of Buddhism in China from the moment of its introduction up to the early twentieth century. In connection with the ideological requirements, the author gives a negative description of the activities of Japanese missionaries in the twentieth century (up to 1937). Then, he makes a brief outline of dissemination of Islam on the territory of China.

The subsection ‘Christianity’ includes a fairly complete outline of the spread and activity of Roman Catholic Church in China (up to 1938); one paragraph is on the work of Protestant organizations (including statistics on the number of shelters, schools, hospitals). Orthodox organizations in China are not mentioned at all, which is understandable: the majority of believers and clergy in Chinese parishes in 1938 were emigrants from Russia.