“Polyaki” of the Altai were descendants of Russian Old Believers from Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan and Orel governorates. In the late 17th to early 18th centuries, they fled persecution for their faith to the lands that were then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 1760s they were forcibly relocated by the order of Empress Catherine II to the region of the Southern Altai along the Uba River, where they began to be called “Polyaki” after their former place of residence.

Some of the Old Believers exiled to Siberia settled in Transbaikalia, where they were called “Semeyskie”. The “Polyaki” for two centuries maintained only intra-family marriage ties, avoiding marriages with representatives of other Siberian ethnic groups. They had more than 90% of marriages with relatives in 6–8 generations. This special feature was reflected in their material culture.

The ethnic costume is one of the most illustrative cultural elements in which the nation’s artistic taste, its spiritual and religious attitudes and worldviews are concentrated. According to the intended purpose, clothing was subdivided into casual, festive, prayer, and ceremonial (wedding and funeral).

A canvas ceremonial shirt was part of the men’s costume of the “Polyaki” Old Believers. Its cut was considered archaic as early as in the 19th century. Such clothes were worn together with pants of the all-Russian cut made of straight and bell-shaped pieces of cloth, girded at the waist with homespun belts with tassels.

The main distinctive feature of such a shirt was the composition of decorative embroidery on the left side of the chest. The elements formed a cross-shaped figure. Two vertical strips of red calico were also used to decorate the garment. They were stitched along the seams connecting the center and side pieces. These strips were decorated with patterns in the form of continuously repeating twisted spirals and squares, as well as embroideries of white and blue colors, contrasting with red calico.

Decorative red calico stripes served a certain artistic function: they emphasized the shape and cut, so that the abundance of finishes in the shirt was not perceived as a chaotic clutter. There are only about ten men’s shirts of Siberian “Polyaki” preserved in Russian museums, which could be dated to the second half of the 19th century.