See also Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast.
From the Wikipedia page [1]
The Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Russian: Горно-Алтайская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республик) was an autonomous republic within the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of the Soviet Union. It was formed on 1 June 1922 as the Oyrot Autonomous Region and became the Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast on 7 January 1948. It was upgraded to the level of Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 October 1990, and was declared a Soviet Socialist Republic on 3 July 1991, although it was not recognised as one. It became the Altai Republic on 31 March 1992. Its capital was Gorno-Altaysk. Agriculture is the main occupation for most of the inhabitants. Like the modern Altai Republic, the Gorno-Altai ASSR shared its international border with the People's Republic of China.