N.F. Katanov is an outstanding turkologist. A whole epoch of studying the Turkic peoples' history, culture, and languages is associated with his name. His works on the Turkic peoples' history, culture, and languages are still invaluable from a scientific point of view—the diverse scientific and pedagogical activity of N.F. Katanov is vivid evidence of the development of Turkological science in Russia and the national humanities research and scientific school in this direction. Unfortunately, his phenomenon and heritage in the history of the culture of the peoples of Russia and Oriental studies have not been fully investigated. The stages of his biography and his remarkable creative legacy are full of interesting, vivid, instructive, tragic examples. He personifies the images of two worlds – European and Asian. In the context of modern historiography, the scientific heritage of                           N.F. Katanov is a substantial personal contribution to the development of Turkology at the junction of the XIX and XX centuries. His biography and creative legacy are vital in the classical heritage of the Turkic peoples.

The article's authors classify the scientific heritage and creativity of the outstanding Turkologist N.F. Katanov into stages of research, separately considering issues related to the Turkic peoples, including the Kazakh people.