The main area of specialization is Siberian history of XVII-XX centuries in its different aspects: economic development and social relations, culture and spiritual life, social and political processes.
Since its establishment, more than five hundred students of the chair have majored in the above research areas. More than two hundred graduates have received a Candidate degree, and eight of them have become Doctors of Science.
The chair graduates are successfully working at various universities in Russia and former USSR republics, in research institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, museums, archives, secondary educational institutions.