I have the code to create a shapefile programmatically, something like this [28310 - Create a new empty shapefile programmatically][1] moreover I am able to put the data from a layer in it. It works perfectly. Some client hands to me several layers that have data in Russian. When I export from my application to a shapefile I got the same behavior described here [esri - Character encoding support in geodatabases and shapefiles - Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange][2] . the fields with Cyrillic alphabet appears like ???????? . I found this article: [21106 - Read and write shapefile and dBASE files encoded in various code pages][3] but it does not apply to ArcEngine (ArcObjects) . Is there a way to change the encoding when I'm creating the shapefile using the workspace provided by the shapefileworkspacefactory? [1]: https://geonet.esri.com/external-link.jspa?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsupport.esri.com%2Ffr%2Fknowledgebase%2Ftecharticles%2Fdetail%2F28310 [2]: https://geonet.esri.com/external-link.jspa?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgis.stackexchange.com%2Fquestions%2F1461%2Fcharacter-encoding-support-in-geodatabases-and-shapefiles [3]: https://geonet.esri.com/external-link.jspa?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsupport.esri.com%2Fen%2Fknowledgebase%2Ftecharticles%2Fdetail%2F21106