Also notable for settling at Zheltuga were deserters from other private gold mines on the Amur, as well as Old Believers from Transbaikal.

[2]: 239–41  The "International California" comprised, according to one source, "Koreans, Orochons, Jews, Germans, French, Poles, Americans, Siberians, and many various adventurers who mostly arrived from America and became the leaders of the masses".

In spring 1885, a visiting journalist counted eighteen hotels and multiple entertainment services such as a billiards saloon and a photography atelier.

Businesses within the settlement paid tax to a common treasury, the funds of which were used to maintain the local church, the public bathhouse, and the hospital, as well as to pay high-ranking executives.

The looming danger of a Chinese attack meant that the miners were constantly in a rush and wanted to find as much gold as possible.

Once it was established that the settlement was relatively safe from Chinese attack, the leaders of Zheltuga decided to bring order to the community.

The miners established a law between them, written down in a "statute" of twenty clauses, mainly focused on the distribution of punishment.

One of the last leaders of Zheltuga was a lawyer by the name of Pavel P. Prokunin, who was related to the House of Golitsyn.

[1] Inhabitants of Zheltuga also likely used different signs and notches to communicate with each other when there was a language barrier, a practice common in the general region.

The common punishment for open drunkenness was one hundred lashes with a whip, and traders were generally not allowed to sell alcohol, leading to the use of underhanded tactics – some spiritonosy would buy land near a mine and disguise their workers as miners who would secretly trade diluted vodka for gold.

[6]: 137–8 Zheltuga grew so fast that within a few years of its founding, the settlement had a theater, two orchestras, a menagerie, and a full troupe of circus performers.

[1] The Casino Chita, nicknamed "Monte Carlo" by locals, was also founded, and at its height, miners would lose up to 4,000 rubles at a table.

Across the settlement, high-quality hotels sprung up, with names like "New China", "Russia", "Marseille", and "California", reportedly not at all inferior to European ones.

Later on, Empress Dowager Cixi personally sent a letter to the Russian Tsar, Alexander III, in protest.

The decision to allow the Russian settlers free passage home was to ensure that a worsening of relations with Russia would not occur.

The Russian survivors, most of whom moved to different parts of the country, attempted to replicate Zheltuga, but failed.