Law regulation of forest relations in the Altai region in the late XIX - early XX century

Introduction: The article is aimed to consideration of legal regulation of forest relations in the Altai region. The «The Rules under the forestry of Altai region» was the most important local normative act, which regulated the forestry management, forest exploitation, protection and some other issues. Materials and methods: «The Rules under the forestry of Altai region» is the source base of the research which had three editions during the period under review (1897, 1908 and 1911). The methodological basis of the study is a complex of general scientific logical methods (analysis, synthesis) and special methods (historical-legal, historical-comparative, comparative-legal, historical-genetic). Results of the study: as a result of our paper we have shown the conditions for the emergence of legal autonomy in the Altai region; determined the particular importance of forest resources and analyzed the content of the «The Rules under the forestry of Altai region». Findings and conclusions: forestry became the main direction of the economic activity of the Cabinet in the Altai region at the end of the XIX century. The transformation of Altai economy in that period from the mining and metallurgical industry to the development of forestry had required the formation of a new system of normative regulation of forest relations. «The Rules…» had become the basis of this process. Each subsequent issue of «The Rules…» fixed the changes in the process of modernization of forestry in the Altai region.