Russia from time immemorial lived side by side with the nomadic peoples of the Great Steppe and the North, gradually including “nomadic” regions within its borders. The culmination of this process was the accelerated modernization of “nomadic” territories, implemented in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Most of the nomads were “planted on the ground” almost overnight. Cities, towns and collective farms grew in the endless steppes. Many of yesterday's free herders became farmers and went to work in factories and mines. What were the reasons for the accelerated, forced “tying” of nomadic peoples to the land and what were the historical results of this process? These and other questions will be answered in the book by Doctor of Historical Sciences F.L. Sinitsyn.