The authors of the article turn to the study of a little-studied topic devoted to donations in the Tobolsk province of the Russian-Japanese war. According to the All-Russian Census of 1897 in Tobolsk province, one of the largest in the Russian Empire by territory, there were 1,443,043 inhabitants. From the first days of the Russo-Japanese War in the Siberian outback, people began collecting donations for the war. The authors focus on how the mass charity movement was reflected in the unique sources of factual material - the printed editions of the Tobolsk Provincial Gazette and the Siberian Trade Newspaper. A study of the newspaper chronicle allowed the authors to identify the key areas of charitable gatherings, the dynamics of cash contributions and material assistance, and to calculate the total amount of donations received from the population of the Tobolsk province.