In the 21st century, former colonial cities on all continents have become objects of theoretical understanding thanks to new approaches to the study of urban history and urban environment, conditioned by the development of the concept of postcoloniality as one of the basic features of the modern social world. The demographic strategies of the Russian Empire found their most visible expression in the urban planning practice and architecture of new settlements that emerged in the second half of the 19th century in the so-called Russian Turkestan. Their appearance not in an uninhabited desert, but in close proximity to the centuries-old traditional residential environment of this part of Asia gave rise to the phenomenon of the so-called double, or two-part cities and meant the transition to a new society that was formed according to European patterns. In fact, this was a global modernization project, implemented already in the Soviet period. The Transcaspian region became the last Russian frontier. Over the course of 35 years, thousands of settlers from indigenous Russia and the Caucasus were involved in the expansion of the empire in this southernmost direction, stopping at the border with Afghanistan, in Kushka. The article characterizes the ethno-confessional appearance of such Russian cities of Transcaspia as Krasnovodsk, Kizyl-Arvat, Askhabad, Merv, Bayram-Ali, as well as resettlement settlements and military fortresses, in which, first of all, Orthodox churches were erected as the most important symbols of the culture established in the conquered territory. The architecture of Christian churches, the features of their design and construction in the Turkestan region are considered.
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