Modern Approaches to the History of Altai in the 18th – Early 20th Centuries

Abstract

This article is the result of the historiographical analysis concerning the history of the Altai development, Altai being a significant region of modern Siberia and Russia. The authors present the main directions of studying the Altai history of the 18th – early 20th centuries, as well as scientific and methodological approaches used by historians in the last two decades. The examination includes such directions of studying Altai history, practiced in the last two decades, as frontier development, history of management, socio-economic development, agrarian colonization, history of entrepreneurship, social and gender studies, etc. The general state of historical science associated with the growth of public interest in history, review of theoretical and methodological foundations of historical research determined the development of historical Siberian studies concerning Altai in this period. Consequently, the historical study of Altai in the modern (post-Soviet) research shows the importance of modern history-oriented regional studies. Moreover, the development of the historical studies regarding such a large and major region as Altai in the last 20 years evinces the existence of a multidimensional regionaloriented scientific school in Russian historiography