The manual tells about the prehistory of the city of Barnaul from ancient times until the arrival of Russian peasants-first settlers at the mouth of the Barnaulka River; about the Demidov period in the history of the settlement and about the transformation of the factory village into an administrative center - the future city of Barnaul. Based on a thorough study of documents stored in the archives of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Barnaul, the authors trace in detail the history of the city in the first half of the 18th century.