thumb|200px|Kamenschik settlements in the late 18th century The Kamenschiks () or Bukhtarman are a group of Russians who descend from the earliest settlers of South Siberia. They are Old Believers and originally lived along the Kerzhenets River in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. They later moved to the banks of the Bukhtarma River.
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thumb|200px|Kamenschik settlements in the late 18th century The Kamenschiks () or Bukhtarman are a group of Russians who descend from the earliest settlers of South Siberia. They are Old Believers and originally lived along the Kerzhenets River in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. They later moved to the banks of the Bukhtarma River.
==History== From the early 18th century, fleeing persecution by the Russian Empire, Russians settled in the remote and vast southern region of the Altai Mountains. After the weakening and eventual defeat of the Dzungar Khanate by Qing Empire, the Bukhtarma region found itself in a neutral zone between the loosely defined borders of Russia and China. Rich in natural resources and beyond the legal reach of neighboring states, the area became a refuge for Old Believers, who began arriving in the 1720s, though documentary evidence dates their presence only to the 1740s. Their flight was driven by oppressive policies, including the imposition of taxes on Old Believers in the 1720s and a 1737 decree forcing them into labor at state-owned mines and factories.
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