At the end of the 19th century, a gold rush swept through the Russian Far East and northern territories of China. Tens of thousands of free prospectors rushed to numerous mines to extract gold – often illegally. Sometimes, around these mines, "states" would even form with their own president, legislative and judicial bodies, police, and army. One of them was the Republic of Zheltuga, also known as the Amur California, founded by Russians in 1883. The republic was located in Chinese Manchuria, where unauthorized gold mining was punishable by death. However, the nearest large city, Aigun, was hundreds of kilometers away, and the Chinese authorities simply did not know about it. The population of Zheltuga quickly grew from a few hundred to nine thousand people. Here, under the "national" black-yellow flag (unity of land and gold), not only Russians but also Chinese lived. The president of the republic was a native of Austria-Hungary, Karl Johann Fasse. The republic had courts, shops, baths, jewelry workshops, taverns, gambling houses, hotels, a theater, a photo lab, a menagerie, and a circus. All of them regularly paid taxes that went towards public needs. Eventually, the Chinese authorities learned about the "state" on their territory. In January 1886, a large military detachment of one thousand five hundred soldiers approached Zheltuga. The local police force was too small to oppose such a force. To avoid straining relations with St. Petersburg, the Russians were granted free passage back home. However, the Chinese residents of the republic were mercilessly slaughtered by the soldiers. Sources: MSU Museum of Earth Sciences; Agnesa Dines, State Historical Museum of Southern Urals MAMM/MDF/russiainphoto.ru