Nikolai Nikolaevich Karazin (1842-1908), very popular during his lifetime, revealed to the reader the newly conquered Central Asia: the way of life, customs, and culture of its peoples. The presented novel duology - “On the Distant Outskirts” and “The Pursuit of Profit” - realistically returns the reader to the era of the 19th century, when not only ascetics and altruists, but also adventurers and nouveau riche headed to Asia. Karazin, being a participant and eyewitness to the colonization of Central Asia, was one of the first to capture those artifacts, mentefacts, and landscape features unusual for the European eye, which became components, or patterns, of the Turkestan text of Russian culture. The volume is equipped with historical, literary, cultural and ethnographic comments and illustrations by the author. For a wide range of readers.