For the first time in historiography, the presented monograph comprehensively analyzes the economic aspects of the policy of the Russian Empire in the Central Asian region - the Steppe and Turkestan governorates. At the same time, the team of authors considered it necessary to overcome the one-sided interpretation of this policy and abandon only its negative or exclusively positive evaluation connotations. The monograph is intended for scientists, teachers and students of humanitarian faculties of universities, as well as all those interested in the history of Russia and the modern Republics of Central Asia.