Abstract: The subject of this article is the tobacco cultivation in Tauride Province in the late XIX – early XX centuries. The author provides information on the amount of land allocated for tobacco cultivation, types of tobacco, tobacco plants and their owners, manufactured tobacco products, as well as retail of tobacco products. An overview is given to the factors that affected the demand for tobacco products in this historical period and uneven level of tobacco production. The article leans on the vast array of sources, including archival materials from the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea and the Russian State Historical Archive, statistical data, as well as reference material. The scientific novelty consists in the attempt to give a broader picture of tobacco production in the territory of Tauride Province, as this topic did not receive due attention within the Russian historiography. The conclusion is made that the second half of the XIX century marks a breakthrough in the development of tobacco cultivation in Tauride Province, associated with the legislative acts on taxation, as well as construction of new transport routes. This turned tobacco cultivation into one of the leading segments of agriculture in Yalta, Simferopol and Feodosia Uyezds, which have the most favorable natural and climatic conditions for the development of this industry. However, significant decline in the number of tobacco farmers was observed by the beginning of the XX century, as well as the acres of land allocated for tobacco cultivation. This was caused by unfavorable conditions for retail of tobacco products, decrease in yield capacity, quality of tobacco, as well as excess of supply over demand for tobacco products.