The canon of the future for the territories of Central Asia conquered by the Russian Empire and associated with the "Russian World" is examined, using material from the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the foundation of such a canon lies the work of writer Nikolay Karazin. His prose reflects the stages and nuances of the imperial civilizing project in Turkestan, the intention of which is replicated in literature, propaganda, and the mythology of everyday life. The memory of the colonial project in the East deposited itself into Russian consciousness in the form of a justificatory stereotype, which fuels the feelings of "patriots" to this day. Using examples from the 21st-century Russian literature (Andrei Volos, Vladimir Medvedev, Sukhbat Aflatuni, Sanjar Yanyshev) the rethinking of this canon, as well as the results of the colonization process itself, is considered.
