The former subject of the Russian Federation, one of the 6 districts, liquidated as a result of the enlargement of the regions in 2003-2008. Formerly part of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, but was an independent subordinate entity of the Russian Federation. It was located in the northern part of Siberia on the Taimyr Peninsula and occupied 40% of the territory of the Krasnoyarsk Krai. In 2005, a referendum was held, in which residents of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, the Taimyr and Evenki districts supported the merger into a single federation entity. After the creation in 2007 of a new subject of the Russian Federation, the territory of the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) AD became a municipal district of the Krasnoyarsk Krai.
The Taymyr National Okrug was established in 1930. Originally it was part of the East Siberian region with a center in Irkutsk, and in 1934 it was incorporated into the Krasnoyarsk Krai. In 1977, it was renamed the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug. In 1992, as a result of the signing of the Federal Treaty, the district received the status of an independent subordinate entity of the Russian Federation, remaining part of the Krasnoyarsk Krai.
There were two titular groups in the district: Dolgans and Nenets. The main marker of their differences from the titular nation of the country was, first of all, language. Dolgan - the indigenous population of Taimyr, speak the Dolgan language - one of the Turkic languages. Nenets are a Samoyed people inhabiting the Eurasian coast of the Arctic Ocean from the Kola Peninsula to Taimyr. Their language belongs to the Samoyed group of the Uralic language family. Despite the fact that among the Dolgan and Nenets traditional beliefs are preserved, at present most of them have adopted Orthodoxy. According to the 2002 census, the Dolgans made up 13.9% of the population of the Okrug, Nenets - 7.7%, Russians - 58.6%.