Almost 40 years ago, audiences first saw the film about Indiana Jones, the fearless and clever archaeologist who made unique discoveries and found mysterious artifacts. This fictional character captured the hearts of many, overcoming difficulties and always emerging victorious. However, in the Russian Empire, there was a real 'Indiana Jones', Petr Kozlov.

From childhood, he dreamed of travel, although it seemed unattainable, as he grew up in the family of an ordinary livestock trader from Smolensk. But fate led him to his dream: one day, Przhevalsky noticed him and invited him to his expedition. Gaining experience there, at the age of 36, in 1899, Kozlov led his own research mission. His route began at an Altai postal station and passed through the Mongolian Altai, Central Gobi, and nearly unexplored areas of eastern Tibet. He crossed the valleys of the great Asian rivers Huang He, Yangtze, and Mekong, collected rare herbariums, and delivered wild stallions and mares to Askaniya, where for the first time in the world, Przhevalsky's horses bred in captivity.

Kozlov's research took place under dangerous conditions: due to humidity, guns rusted and often jammed, and he had to defend himself against the warlike Tanguts, sometimes resorting to cunning to take villages. His most astonishing discovery was made in the Gobi Desert, where he uncovered the ruins of the ancient Tangut city of Khara-Khoto, buried by sands nearly 700 years ago. Here, traces of the vanished state of Xi-Xia were found, almost unknown to science before the excavations. Among the finds were up to 2,000 volumes of ancient books and a dictionary of the Xi-Xia language, which allowed for the study of the history of the state and the city of Khara-Khoto.