Tobacco Consumption in Siberia and the North Pacific

What is it about?

Russia transitioned from enforcing the world’s longest ban on importing tobacco in the seventeenth century to legalizing the product at the beginning of the eighteenth and ultimately becoming one of the world’s largest producers of tobacco by the nineteenth. A neglected part of this process is the way in which Russia distributed tobacco among the indigenous communities in Siberia, Kamchatka, and Russian America, creating new consumers where none had existed. This article discusses both the process by which Russians exported tobacco to its frontier and the manner in which tobacco consumption “localized” among its diverse populations.

Featured Image

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Tobacco was not a single product experienced the same way throughout the empire, but rather became a marker of difference, demonstrating the multiple communities and trade networks that influenced the nature of Russia’s colonial presence in Asia and the North Pacific.

Perspectives