Abstract: The transformation of urban settlement system in the post-Soviet Russia, its sources, scale, consequences and results, and regional diversity remain poorly understood in Russian historical science. The purpose of this article is to present the main results of this process in the Republic of Buryatia in the context of cities, urban–type settlements, metropolitan agglomeration and the nearest suburbs of regional center (Ulan-Ude). The study is based on a set of special historical methods, materials from four population censuses (1989, 2002, 2010, 2020), regulatory legal acts of regional and municipal authorities of the republic, and other documentation. The transformation of urban settlement system in the Republic was the result of the complication of the urbanization process in the region in the 1990-2010s. In addition to the ongoing urbanization, deurbanization and suburbanization have developed in its structure. Despite the fact that all the cities in the region retained their status, more than half of the urban-type settlements were transformed into rural settlements, and two more were liquidated due to the fulfillment of their historic role. The population growth in the capital of the Republic, whose share of the population in the total population of the region increased from 33.8 to 44.7%, smoothed the statistical decline of the urban population (about 10% over three decades), which was the result of the migration outflow from cities and urban-type settlements, the “movement” of part of the urban population to the rural category because of administrative-territorial transformations of urban-type settlements. Population redistribution in the Republic, rapid rural-urban migrations were significantly reflected in the population growth rates in the nearest suburbs of Ulan-Ude and in the Ulan-Ude urban agglomeration as a whole.

Abstract:  
The article is dedicated to the results of urbanization of Chita Oblast in the late Soviet period. The author examines the established structure of urban settlements, count of cities and industrial townships, as well as their functional designation in the late 1980s. A brief characteristic of production base formed in the Soviet period (organizations, enterprises, etc.) is given by each city and large worker’s settlement. Calculation is conducted on separate demographic parameters of urbanization of the region: share of the urban population, share of the population of cities and industrial townships in the urban population, etc. The research leans on the official results of the All-Union Census of 1989, as well as the data from the official websites of urban settlements in Zabaykalsky Krai. It is underlined that by the end of the 1980s, on the territory of Chita Oblast was formed a broad and dispersed network of urban settlements, which for the most part scattered along Trans-Siberian Railway and southward towards the border with China. Trans-Baikal Railway and mining industry played the leading role in formation of majority of cities and workers’ settlements. The structure of urban settlements highlighted the capita of the region – Chita by demographical and functional aspects. However, nine more cities and five large townships with over 12,000 population and developed infrastructure, smoothed out the territorial imbalances in urbanization of the region.
 

Abstract: This article analyzes the key parameters of urbanization in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) on the background of urbanization processes in other republics in the East of Russia during the period from 1988 to 2018. Attention is paid to the dynamics of demographic development of the cities and workers’ settlements, changes in the structure of urban localities in the republic associated to abolishment of the settlements and turning them into the rural localities. The article also demonstrates which factors affected density or urban population in Yakutia, as well as analyzes the sources and vectors of continuing urbanization. The research leans on the extensive corpus of official statistical data on 11 cities and 67 urban-type settlements acquires based on the results of All-Union Census of 1989, Russian Censuses of 2002 and 2010, and special statistical examinations of Rosstat and its regional branck in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) conducted in 2011-2018. The conclusion is made on the overall deceleration of urbanization processes in the republic for the past 30 years. These changes were associated with restructuration of the regional industry, particularly reduction of urban-type settlement for 27 localities – from 67 to 40. At the same time, population of majority of the cities and settlements during the period from 1990 to 2018 was decreasing; however, the rapid demographic growth of Yakutsk partially compensated for these losses. It is concluded that urban population was concentrated mostly in the capital and its environs, as well as the largest cities of the republic – Neryungri, Mirny, Lensk and Aldan.

Abstract: This article presents the results of data statistical analysis on the three key parameters of urbanization in the four republics of Southern Siberia (Altai, Buryatia, Tuva, and Khakassia) over the period from 1989 to the beginning of 2019. The author demonstrates the influence of socioeconomic and administrative reforms upon the changes in the overall size of urban population, its ratio within the population composition of the republics, as well as the transformation of the structure of urban settlements in the indicated regions over the last 30 years. The research leans on the analysis of the official data of Soviet census of 1989, pan-Russian censuses of 2002 and 2019, and results of the annual statistical observations arranged by Rosstat and its regional divisions in 1990-2018. The materials were acquired and clarified during the author’s scientific expedition to Altai, Buryatia, Tuva, and Khakassia republics in September-October of 2019. In the course of the expedition, the author explored the processes of demographic and territorial growth of the capital cities (Abakan, Gorno-Altaysk, Kyzyl, Ulan-Ude) and their suburban areas. The following conclusions were made: in 1990-2019, urbanization processes in the republics of Southern Siberia captured mostly the capital cities and their suburban areas, while the small cities and urban-type localities for the most part have lost their potential for the sustainable industrial and territorial development.