In the book, the author presents a general picture of the development by Russian people of the Far East, the islands of the North Pacific Ocean and Northwest America. The book includes historical essays about Dezhnev and Popov, Khabarov, Kozyrevsky, Bering, Khmetevsky, Basov and Nevodchikov, Krenitsyn and Levashov, the Shmalev brothers, Daurkin, Billings and Sarychev, about Zagoskin.