The polymerizations of the diepisulfides 1,2:5,6‐diepithio‐3,4‐di‐O‐methyl‐D‐mannitol (1a), 1,2:5,6‐diepithio‐3,4‐di‐O‐methyl‐L‐iditol (1b), and 1,2:5,6‐diepithio‐3,4‐di‐O‐methyl‐allitol (1c) were carried out with ZnEt2/H2O, ZnEt2/alcohol, and ZnEt2/(S or R)‐1,1′‐bi‐2‐naphthol (BN) as the initiator systems. All the polymerizations proceeded without any gel formation and gave white, powdery products. The number‐average molecular weights of the obtained polymers were changed in the range of 5300–33,600. The polymerization of 1a using the ZnEt2/H2O (1/1) catalyst in tetrahydrofuran proceeded through a regio‐ and stereoselective cyclopolymerization mechanism to produce thiosugar polymers mainly consisting of 2,5‐anhydro‐1,5‐dithio‐D‐glucitol as the five‐membered ring units. The polymers obtained from 1b and 1c with ZnEt2/H2O exhibited lower stereoregularities than that from 1a. For the polymers obtained from 1a with the ZnEt2/alcohol systems, the molar fraction of the five‐membered ring units depended on the alcohol used as a ligand. On the other hand, the polymerization of 1c using ZnEt2/(R or S)‐BN asymmetrically proceeded, and optically active polymers consisting of desulfurized acyclic units were obtained. When ZnEt2/(R)‐BN (1/1) was used in toluene, the polymer with [α]D23 = +56.9° was obtained in an 88.6% yield. The resulting polymer had an isotactic‐rich structure consisting of about 90% (R)‐configurational units and about 10% (S)‐units. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 4118–4125, 2005