Annotation

Purpose: to use archival data to illuminate various aspects of the drug situation in China's northeastern provinces at the beginning of the 20th century; to examine the historical aspects of Russian police efforts in Harbin to combat drug trafficking. Methods of research: the article utilized a dialectical method of cognition, as well as analysis and synthesis of empirical data. Conclusions: China's limited sovereignty—the existence of settlements and concessions in the northeastern provinces, corruption at the lower levels of government, and a developed culture of recreational opium smoking—has led to a rapid increase in the number of users of illegal substances, posing a large-scale threat to public health and public safety. Scientific and practical significance: new archival sources from the collections of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire are introduced into scholarly circulation, supplementing historical and legal scholarship with new data on the state of the drug situation in China at the beginning of the 20th century.