The book is devoted to little-known, or even hushed up pages in the history of Russian-Japanese and Soviet-Japanese relations of the first third of the 20th century. In his study, the author shows how relations between the two countries developed before and after the revolution in Russia. Why did Japanese Russophiles support intervention in the Far East? How did the Bolsheviks try to normalize relations with Japan? Why did Tokyo refuse to buy North Sakhalin, and the Japanese "ultra-right" were in favor of improving relations with the "Reds"? Why did a certain elderly Japanese, who arrived in Moscow on the eve of 1928 with a purely private visit, receive all the first persons, including Stalin? To answer these and other questions, the author used Russian, Japanese, European and American sources, but most importantly - materials from the archives of Moscow and Tokyo, thus becoming public for the first time.