In this article, the authors try to reveal the formation and development of historiography in the context of the Imperial experience of agrarian colonization of the steppe region in the second-half of the XIX-early XX centuries. During this period, new challenges arose for the colonization of the Steppe region, and the Russian Empire began to conduct agricultural colonization and scientific examination of territories in order to carry out administrative, territorial, and socio-economic reforms. Attracting officials, employees of the West Siberian Department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (WSDIRGS), as representatives of resettlement agencies, they contributed to the colonization of the Steppe territory and argued for the imperial aspect of the region's development.