History museums, their narratives of a nation’s past and their construction of collective memory are important but oft-neglected dimensions in international relations analyses. This article examines three border history museums on the Chinese side of the formerly contested Sino–Russian frontier. It argues that their nationalist representations of Sino–Russian history challenge assessments of the recent level of rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing on the international stage and the robustness of a possible future alliance or semi-alliance. Hence, this article raises the question of the role of historical memory in the evolution of the Sino–Russian partnership since the fall of the USSR.