The article discusses the historiography of the formation of the authentic sources of the Great Patriotic War in the museum collections of the Altai Republic. The history of formation of the military collections is analyzed through the prism of regional historiography of the Great Patriotic War. The author draws attention to the analysis of scientific research of the war period, gives a description of the main directions of historiography, and highlights the most significant scientific works influencing the formation of museum collections in the region. In accordance with the periodization of modern history, the identification is given to the main stages which influenced the development of the historiographical process in the Altai Republic. A special attention is paid to the analysis of the sources used to write scientific papers; allocation is made of the period which is characterized by the inclusion of different kinds of heritage (photodocuments, visual heritage, epistolary heritage) represented in museum collections as the base of the sources. It is concluded that the a large number of works devoted to the study of the history of the common problems of the region (1941–1945), the history of museums of Siberia (1941–2015), cannot compensate for the absence of monographic studies examining the legacy of the Great Patriotic War in museums of the Altai Republic.