The article is the result of the analysis of historiographical development of the history of Altai, a significant region of modern Siberia. The paper presents the main directions of studying Altai history of the 18^th – early 20^th centuries, as a part of Siberia and Russia, and scientific and methodological approaches used by historians in the last two decades.

The authors consider, for example, 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 in Altai during this period.

Consequently, the historical study of Altai in the modern (post-Soviet) historiography shows the importance of modern history-oriented regional studies.

Moreover, the development of the history of such a large and significant region as Altai in the last 20 years shows the formation of a multidimensional regional-oriented scientific school in Russian historiography.