The Tuvan area was not exclusively a part of Russia as, under a series of treaties signed in 1727, it fell under the administration of the Manchu Ching Dynasty.
It was during the influence of the Soviet Union during 1921-1944 that the republic of Tangdy-Tyva (Tyva Arat Respublika), initiated a sudden change from the traditional nomadic hunting in order to fulfill the goal of collectivization. Many of the Tuva did not appreciate the sudden change in their lifestyles and, like all over the Soviet Union, hid their livestock and even slaughtered many animals so that they may not fall into the hands of the state. However, collectivization did not take hold in this area of the USSR with as much zeal as in other areas as most of the Tuva government was made up of local Tuva men.
The Tuva people had little contact with Russians until 1944 when they were assimilated as a republic. The Tuva were never acknowledged until recently which leads to their rather odd method of looking at property. The Tuva have never had the need for the individual ownership of property. Members of a clan are allowed to hunt on their grounds, but the sense of individual property is non existent. After the Tuva were incorporated into the USSR collectivization began to grow but many Tuva continued their lifestyle, even though pretending to continue to go along with collectivization. The Tuva managed to keep a great deal of administrative control over their region allowing them to make decisions that aided their cause.
With the collapse of the of the Communist state and the agricultural infrastructure in the Tuva region led to a resurgence of herder-hunters.
Sources:
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2003
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.fotuva.org/misc/get_off_my_taiga.pdf