Altay Territory is a subject of the Russian Federation, a part of the Siberian Federal District. The administrative capital of the Territory is the city of Barnaul, a rather big city with a population of 650, 7 thousand people according to the data from 2009. Altay Territory is bounded on the south and west by East-Kazakhstan and Pavlodar regions of Kazakhstan and by Novosibirsk and Kemerovo regions on the north and north-east. On the south-east it is bounded by the Altay Republic, which was a part of the Altay Territory till 1991.
The region is rich in mineral resources, so it was a centre of mining in the 18th – first half 19th centuries, later its economy was reoriented to the agriculture.
The territory is colonized by the Russians since the second half of the 17th century. Now they dominate in the population of the region.