|Алтайский край (Russian)|
|— Krai —|
|Economic region||West Siberian|
|Established||September 28, 1937|
|Government (as of August 2010)|
|- Governor||Alexander Karlin|
|- Legislature||Altai Krai Legislative Assembly|
|Area (as of the 2002 Census)|
|- Total||169,100 km2 (65,289.9 sq mi)|
|Population (2010 Census)|
|- Density||14.31 /km2 (37.1 /sq mi)|
|Time zone(s)||OMST (UTC+07:00)|
Altai Krai (Russian: Алта́йский край, tr. Altaysky kray, IPA: [ɐlˈtajskʲɪj kraj]) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders with, clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Oblasts, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative center is the city of Barnaul. Population: 2,419,755 (2010 Census).
Altai Krai has rolling foothills, grasslands, lakes, rivers, and mountains.
The climate is severe with long cold dry winters and hot, usually dry summers. The region's main waterway is the Ob River. The Biya and Katun Rivers are also important. The biggest lakes are Lake Kulundinskoye, Lake Kuchukskoye, and Lake Mikhaylovskoye.
Altai Krai has huge reserves of raw materials, especially materials used for building, as well as significant mineral reserves. These include nonferrous metals, lead and iron ores, manganese, tungsten, molybdenum, bauxite, and gold. Forests cover about 60,000 km² of the krai's land. See also Geography of South-Central Siberia.
This area is part of a great crossroads in the ancient world. Nomadic tribes crossed through the territory during periods of migration. The nomadic tribes were composed of different peoples. Archeological sites reveal that ancient humans lived in the area. The Altay people are a Turkic people, some of whom have settled here, who were originally nomadic and date back to the 2nd millennium BCE.
During the Soviet period, the high authority in the Krai was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Altai CPSU Committee (who in reality had the most authority), the chairman of the Krai Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the Krai Executive Committee (executive power). Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Krai administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.
The Charter of Altai Krai is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Altai Krai is the province's regional standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Krai Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Krai administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the krai Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.
On August 7, 2005 the krai's then-head of administration Mikhail Yevdokimov died in a car crash.
The krai is situated in the southeastern part of Western Siberia and is part of the West Siberian economic region along with Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk, and Tyumen Oblasts and the Altai Republic. The krai is favorably located close to major sources of raw materials, has a well-developed infrastructure, especially in the area of heavy industry, and an abundance of natural resources. It is a major industrial and agricultural region of the country. As in the rest of Russia, the economic restructuring of the 1990s led to a marked economic decline in Altai Krai, particularly in industry and agriculture. However, there is now reason to believe that the krai's economy is stabilizing. Its present economic prospects are good due to the presence of abundant local raw materials, high scientific potential, leading technologies, skilled personnel, and a low-cost labor force. The sales market extends far beyond the borders of the West Siberian economic region. The krai administration is interested in foreign investments and is creating the necessary conditions for setting up joint ventures.
There are more than 2000 industrial companies operating in both heavy and light industry. The leading sectors are the power, engineering, chemical and petrochemical, building material, textile, and light industries. Output is currently increasing in certain industries for the first time since perestroika. This increase is particularly noticeable in the flour-, grain-, and feed-milling and chemical and petrochemical industries and in individual heavy industry sectors, tractor production.
Small and medium business is developing rapidly in Altai Krai, which is a necessary condition for economic stability and growth. Today, nearly a quarter of the entire working population is employed in this sector.
Altai Krai is one of Russia's most important agricultural regions. Development of the krai's lands began in the second half of the 18th century; and peasants from other Russian regions began resettling here in 1861. By 1917, the krai's rural population had reached 1,998,000 people and the total area under cultivation was 25,060 square kilometres.
Today, farmland covers an area of 110,000 km², of which 69,220 km², or nearly 41% of the total area of the krai, is cropland. The main crops are hard varieties of spring wheat, buckwheat, millet, peas, barley, oats, and potatoes and other vegetables. This is this only region of Siberia where sunflowers, soybeans, sugar beets, and certain kinds of fruit grow.
In 1960, the State Economic Council under the Council of Ministers of the USSR carried out comprehensive zoning of Altai Krai, which divided the krai into seven natural and economic agricultural zones. Wide temperature swings are characteristic of the krai's climate, so that ensuring harvest stability is not easy. It requires a specific approach to developing cropland in order to increase farming efficiency. The Kulundinskaya Plain, the Priobskoe Plateau, and the left and right banks of the Ob River are well developed agriculturally. Natural fodder land, including hayfields and pasture, occupies 39,060 km², which includes 11,930 km² of hayfields and 27130 km² of pasture.
Livestock farming specializes in meat, milk, wool, and egg production. Altai Krai is a major wool producer and an important base for breeding fine-fleeced pedigreed sheep, which makes it possible to export more than 30,000 head of pedigreed sheep per year. The territorial market also offers pedigreed swine, poultry, meat, eggs, honey, and wild products such as deer antlers, furs, and pelts.
Fruit-growing in Altai is made possible by specialists of the internationally known Lisavenko Horticultural Research Institute, which has developed a range of fruit and berry varieties adapted to the climate.
Today, Altai Krai not only meets the agricultural product requirements of its own population, but also the requirements of many other Russian regions. Altai exports many kinds of cereals, as well as processed grain products such as wheat and rye flour, pasta products, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, and flax fiber. The krai is Siberia's largest grain, sugar, and meat producer and its second-largest cheese producer.
As of the 2010 Census, Russians form an overwhelming majority of the population, at 94%. Germans are the second-largest group, at about 2% (see Mennonite settlements of Altai). Other groups include Ukrainians (1.4%), Kazakhs (0.3%), Tatars (0.3%), Belarusians (0.2%), Armenians (0.3%), and people of other ethnicities. Additionally, 40,984 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.
- Vital statistics for 2012
- Births: 32 695 (13.6 per 1000)
- Deaths: 35 030 (14.6 per 1000) 
- Total fertility rate:
2009 - 1.62 | 2010 - 1.63 | 2011 - 1.65 | 2012 - 1.80(e)
Note: Data for Total fertility rate (2012) is estimate based on age and sex structure of Altai Krai at the beginning of 2012, number of births in 2012 and fertility structure in previous years.
According to a 2012 official survey 22.6% of the population of Altay Krai adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 3% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 1% adheres to other Orthodox Churches, 1% to Islam. In addition, 31% of the population deems itself to be "spiritual but not religious", 27% is atheist, and 14.4% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.
- Altay Mountains
- Sayan Mountains
- Denisova Cave
- List of Chairmen of the Altai Krai Legislative Assembly
- Алтайское краевое Законодательное Собрание. №3-ЗС 5 июня 1995 г. «Устав (основной закон) Алтайского края», в ред. Закона №126-ЗС от 30 ноября 2007 г. (Altai Krai Legislative Assembly. #3-ZS June 5, 1995 Charter (Basic Law) of Altai Krai, as amended by the Law #126-ZS of November 30, 2007. ).
- Президент Российской Федерации. Указ №849 от 13 мая 2000 г. «О полномочном представителе Президента Российской Федерации в федеральном округе». Вступил в силу 13 мая 2000 г. Опубликован: "Собрание законодательства РФ", №20, ст. 2112, 15 мая 2000 г. (President of the Russian Federation. Decree #849 of May 13, 2000 On the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District. Effective as of May 13, 2000.).
- Госстандарт Российской Федерации. №ОК 024-95 27 декабря 1995 г. «Общероссийский классификатор экономических регионов. 2. Экономические районы», в ред. Изменения №5/2001 ОКЭР. (Gosstandart of the Russian Federation. #OK 024-95 December 27, 1995 Russian Classification of Economic Regions. 2. Economic Regions, as amended by the Amendment #5/2001 OKER. ).
- Official website of Altai Krai. Main historical dates and events
- Official website of Altai Krai
- Charter, Article 82
- Official website of Altai Krai. Biography of Alexander Bogdanovich Karlin
- Charter, Article 67
- Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Federal State Statistics Service) (2004-05-21). "Территория, число районов, населённых пунктов и сельских администраций по субъектам Российской Федерации (Territory, Number of Districts, Inhabited Localities, and Rural Administration by Federal Subjects of the Russian Federation)". Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russia Population Census of 2002) (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 2011-11-01.
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- The density value was calculated by dividing the population reported by the 2010 Census by the area shown in the "Area" field. Please note that this value may not be accurate as the area specified in the infobox is not necessarily reported for the same year as the population.
- Правительство Российской Федерации. Постановление №725 от 31 августа 2011 г. «О составе территорий, образующих каждую часовую зону, и порядке исчисления времени в часовых зонах, а также о признании утратившими силу отдельных Постановлений Правительства Российской Федерации». Вступил в силу по истечении 7 дней после дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Российская Газета", №197, 6 сентября 2011 г. (Government of the Russian Federation. Resolution #725 of August 31, 2011 On the Composition of the Territories Included into Each Time Zone and on the Procedures of Timekeeping in the Time Zones, as Well as on Abrogation of Several Resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation. Effective as of after 7 days following the day of the official publication.).
- Official the whole territory of Russia according to Article 68.1 of the Constitution of Russia.
- "Russian program — Altai". Retrieved 2006-11-30.[dead link]
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- "Greater Altai – Altai Krai, Republic of Altai, Tyva (Tuva), and Novosibirsk — Crossroads". Retrieved 2006-11-30.[dead link]
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- Demoscope Weekly (1989). "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров." [All Union Population Census of 1989. Present population of union and autonomous republics, autonomous oblasts and okrugs, krais, oblasts, districts, urban settlements, and villages serving as district administrative centers]. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года (All-Union Population Census of 1989) (in Russian). Institute of Demographics of the State University—Higher School of Economics. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
- Перепись-2010: русских становится больше. Perepis-2010.ru (2011-12-19). Retrieved on 2013-08-20.
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- Arena - Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia. Sreda.org
- 2012 Survey Maps. "Ogonek", № 34 (5243), 27/08/2012. Retrieved 24-09-2012.
- China and Russia sister cities
- Media related to Altai Krai at Wikimedia Commons
- Kommersant.com. Information about Altai Krai
- Library of Congress Russian (pdf)
- History of Altai Krai
- Altai: a living spirit