The Altai Krai (Altai Territory) lies in southern Siberia, along Russia's border with Kazakhstan. The Krai has a population of around 2.6 million people and is known for its significant raw material reserves including valuable metals such as manganese, bauxite, and gold. On September 1, 1997, 263 teachers at 11 schools in two different districts of Altai Krai began a strike demanding the payment of back wages. On the following day, they were joined by a further 4,802 teachers in 211 schools spread across 20 districts. The strike lasted a month and, at its peak, included nearly 6,000 teachers.

Also on September 1, in the Altai town of Zmeinogorsk, two workers at a gold prospecting enterprise “Kolyvan'” went on hunger strike demanding back pay. On September 17, in the same town, eight women with three children aged between nine and eleven broke into the administration building of the mine to demand payment of wages and to protest a decision to close the mine. The occupation lasted more than a week. Overall for the month, some 117,653 working days were lost to strikes in the Krai. The unrest lasted on and off for more than a year. In September 1998, for example, a further 101,115 working days were lost to strikes.