Bone fragments of the Denisova hominin originate from the Denisova Cave in Altai Krai.

This area is part of a great crossroads in the ancient world.[1] Nomadic tribes crossed through the territory during periods of migration. These nomadic tribes consisted of different peoples. Archeological sites reveal that ancient humans lived in the area.[2] The Altay people are a Turkic people, some of whom settled here, who were originally nomadic and date back to the 2nd millennium BC.[3]

The territory of the krai has been controlled by the Xiongnu Empire (209 BC–93 AD), the Rouran Khaganate (330–555), the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), the Golden Horde, the Northern Yuan (1368–1691) and the Zunghar Khanate (1634–1758).[4]

After the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the policy of war communism was imposed on the rural population of Altai Krai, destroying the livelihood of many local farmers. In response, the peasant rebellion of Sorokino broke out in 1921; this uprising was quickly crushed by the Red Army. Many locals who had taken part in the rebellion were later put on trial and convicted to hard labor or execution, in accordance with NKVD Order No. 00447 in 1937.[5]

During the interwar period, the Soviet state collectivised the livestock and husbandry activities of the Altai population within Altai Krai, resulting in local resistance to the measures and their subsequent migration, with their herds, to China and Mongolia.[6]

In June 1942 Altai Krai was one of the territories to which the families of men deported from Eastern Europe, in particular "foreigners" and "other ethnicities" such as Kola Norwegians, Lithuanians and Latvians, by Soviet Russia to hard labor camps.[7]