The novelty of the article is connected with consideration in it an issue that has not previously been separately studied by domestic and foreign scholars. This is an issue of popularizing the first Russian emperor Peter the Great in the fiction of China and Vietnam in the first decade of the 20th century. The authors found two poetic works and a novel in Chinese, as well as two poems in Vietnamese, that were published during this period and were dedicated to Peter I. Data on three of the five works are made public for the first time. Full and partial translations of these compositions into Russian are presented by the authors. Their texts are analyzed, the circumstances and purposes of their creation are found out, the issue of their authorship is considered. The specificity of perception and attitude of Chinese and Vietnamese writers to Peter I at the beginning of the XX century are determined. It was found that the compositions were created by national patriotic educators who were familiar with the history of Russia through third languages (“intermediaries”). These people were delighted with the reformatory deeds of the Tsar, sought not only to acquaint compatriots with them, to infect their national monarchs with a positive example of successful ruling, but also to express their respect for Peter I. The article is relevant in connection with the rapid growth of imagological research on problems of intercultural communication. It can attract the attention of specialists interested in the history of the evolution of the image of Russia in China and Vietnam.