The book by Canadian historian David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye describes the contribution of the imperial imagination to the policy of Russia's Far Eastern expansion in the first decade of the reign of Nicholas II. Drawing on an array of diverse sources - travelogues, diaries, memoirs, diplomatic correspondence - the author shows how symbolic geography, geopolitical ideas and cultural myths about China, Japan, and Korea influenced the adoption of specific decisions that strengthened Russia's presence on the Pacific coast. Russian “Easternism” and the fear of the “Yellow Peril”, “Conquistador” imperialism and the project of “peaceful penetration” - these very different images and forecasts of Russian fate in East Asia are analyzed both through the prism of the consciousness of extraordinary politicians, scientists and publicists, and in the context of mass sentiments and emotions of that era.