The article highlights a little-studied page of Russian history - the creation of the Zheltuga Republic at the end of the XIX century on the basis of an illegal settlement of gold prospectors on the Zheltuga River (Amur basin). In a short period of time, the multinational mining community managed to create a proto-state entity based on Russian principles of state-building, with its own legislative, executive and judicial power, coat of arms, flag, army and punitive bodies. The settlement with more than 10,000 inhabitants has become the economic and cultural center of Transbaikalia. Keywords: Zheltuga Republic, Zheltuga, Amur Region, Zheltuga River, gold rush, gold diggers, gold mining, gold mine, gold-bearing rivers, Zheltugintsy. Introduction In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Siberia and the Far East experienced a "gold rush". Thousands of people of different nationalities in search of quick profit rushed to the mines, created spontaneous prospecting settlements. The abundance of unrecorded gold and the thirst for enrichment led to the formation of a highly criminalized environment. A sense of self-preservation forced the settlers to take measures to restore order. One example of a successful settlement of interpersonal relations is the Zheltuga Republic; it existed for about three years and rapidly evolved from a community of escaped convicts to a kind of democratic entity, a kind of cultural and industrial center. In this study, we will try to answer the following questions: what was the national composition, social status and cultural affiliation of the inhabitants of the self-proclaimed republic? what language did they speak? who managed the settlement and how? was there a separation of powers? what was the basis of the economy of Jaundice? To answer these questions, we studied the materials of the Russian State Archive of the Far East. Independent field studies were also conducted in the north-east of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region ... Read more