The book of the military writer and teacher Konstantin Abaza acquaints the modern reader with the history of the accession of vast territories of Central Asia to the Russian Empire. The process of Russian penetration into these ancient lands began under Peter I. The campaign in the Khiva Khanate of the Bekovich-Cherkassky detachment was unsuccessful, and after that, for almost a hundred years, active advancement to this region ceased. Starting from the 30s of the XIX century, the Russian Empire began to operate actively in Turkestan, where there were three main states - Khiva, Kokand Bukhara, and by 1881 the main lands of Turkestan became part of the empire in the form of seven regions. The book vividly draws the history of the conquest of the region, on the territory of which five independent states have now appeared, the active development of which was facilitated by their entry into both the Russian Empire and the USSR.