Local history is one of actual and fast - developed scientific directions of foreign historiography. Russian historiography has also rich traditions in the researching of local communities, which were found by native local history in the XIXth and the beginning of the XXth centuries, but were remembered in the soviet period. The article is the first attempt of consideration of small towns as a special object of local history on the example of West Siberia in the Second Half of the 19th century. Theoretic base of research of small towns' local history is found by approaches of pre-revolutional and modern historians such as I.M. Grevs, N.P. Anciferov, S.A. Gomayunov, N.M. Dmitrienko. One of important features of local method is close connection of history and modernity of researching object that is a main condition for practical using of scientific results.