The article based on archival material discusses the importance of social origin in personnel rotation processes of the party elite of the Altai region in the period of 1937–1953. An indispensable source of information in this case are the reports, inquiries and information of the personnel department of the Altai Regional Committee of the CPSU about quantitative and qualitative composition, staffing, placement, turnover of employees occupying nomenclature positions; information about the elected secretary of the party committees. The analysis is given to the dynamics of indicators on different social groups constituting the party management personnel during the historical period under review. In particular, the study is made of the situation with the prevailing representatives from the working class in the provincial party leadership at the beginning of the researched period. The authors review the cases of changes in social status in different periods of party functionaries’ career. The emphasis is made on the fact that in general the regional party elite was replenished from the workers with a peasant origin. This situation is explained by the fact that the agricultural sector in the region was a priority.