SUMMARY:

The article is based on research in the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East and focuses on how the trans-imperial opium economy influenced the unfolding of the Civil War and of Japanese occupation policies in the Russian Far East. It investigates the role that opium played in propping up regional quasi-states and shows that while none managed to control the flourishing opium production and cross-border trade in which Cossacks and Russian, Chinese, and Korean peasants actively participated. These regionals powers tried to implement all the possible state policies in relation to opium: taxation, monopoly, prohibition, and tax farming.