The modern Soloneshensky district is located in the south-eastern part of the Altai Territory of the Russian Federation, where the low mountains border the steppe; on its territory of 3,529 km2 there are now 32 settlements; at the beginning of 2006, there were 12.4 thousand people in them. out of more than 2.6 million people in the Altai Territory (http://www.altairegion.ru/ras/territory/regions/solonehrain/). Today, the area is inhabited by Russians, Belarusians, Germans, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Tatars, Chuvash, Altaians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis-old-timers and immigrants of the XIX, XX and already XXI centuries. The origins of the formation of this multiethnic community go back to the XVIII century, when after the inclusion of Altai in the Russian Empire, the development of its territory began. It was determined by the peculiarities of the departmental policy of the Tsarist Cabinet, the owner of the Altai lands, which restricted the movement of the population to the Altai Mountain District. However, the spontaneous migration flow that emerged already in the first half of the XVIII century gradually gained strength; from the North of European Russia, from the Volga region, from the Urals, from Siberia, migrants left for the Altai; Cossack villages were formed, peasant villages and zaimki of Old Believers appeared. In the XVIII century, according to experts, there were 17 settlements within the boundaries of the present Soloneshensky district, in the XIX century-105, and in the XX century - about 130; villages appeared on the administrative map one after another: Sibiryachikha, Soloneshnoye, Peschany, Topolnoye, Korozhikha, Tumanovo, Berezovka, Lyutaevo, etc. [Vladimirov, Koldakov]. The first mention of the village of Soloneshny dates back to 1828; Emelyan Nagibin, Gavriil Grebenshchikov, Osip Bulatov, Klementiy Shadrin, and others from Barnaul parish were attributed to it. In 1834, there were 226 people in Soloneshny, in 1893 - about 800, in 1917 - 2146 people; 57% of ... Read more