The imperial administration placed special importance on the colonization of the Mil'skaya and Mughan steppes. One of the major projects was the irrigation and development of Mughan, which the authorities planned to turn into a center for industrial cotton cultivation. By 1916, it was expected that irrigation of the entire area would be completed and up to 100,000 people would be settled. Government efforts and the special law of 1912 "On the Allocation of State Irrigated Lands in the Mughan Steppe" were protective in nature, providing settlers with significant benefits in land use and property rights.

However, the government's economic interests were closely tied to political ones. When the office of the chief commander in the Caucasus received information about the intentions of some wealthy Muslims to invest in the creation of cotton factories instead of the oil industry, concentrating cotton cultivation in the Mughan steppe, it was decided to inform the governor of Baku that the settlement of this steppe by the Muslim population was politically unacceptable. For political purposes, the steppe was to be settled by Russians. A similar situation existed in the Mil'skaya steppe. A report on the state of the Elizabethpol province in 1901 noted that the settlement of the Mil'skaya steppe by Russians would meet state-economic demands and have serious political significance, creating a broad strip of Russian population between the Transcaucasian provinces and Persia, which was populated by Shiites.

Photo: Russian settlers in the Mughan steppe (early 20th century) by Prokudin-Gorsky.