ИСТИНА

After the collapse of the Soviet Union many Russian cities were faced with the problem of selecting the further development strategy. Due to the nature of the planned economy, production sites and, as a consequence, settlements, often emerged in the places that were not always justified in terms of profitability in accordance with the market economy. The change of regime in the 1990s, global crisis in 1998 and 2008 as well as general structural crisis in Russia — all that have acutely identified the problems of monotowns. Despite the active state policy to support monotowns, without the initiative coming from below (including the authorities as well as entrepreneurs) it is almost impossible to do anything about it. Cities and towns situated in the north of the Sverdlovsk region form a single industrial area and are at different stages of industrial production transformation as well as the transformation of the economy in whole. According to the level of single-industry domination there are three types of cities: cities that have preserved their monospecialisation — Volchansk, Krasnoturinsk, Severouralsk and Serov; city which is now at a transitional stage and in the future is likely to cease to be a monotown — New Lala; cities with diversified economy — Ivdel and Karpinsk. On the basis of the role of the main enterprise and the interaction with the outside world there are the following types of settlements: those which managed to keep their "town-forming" enterprise; towns where the main company is functioning but has significantly reduced its production and lost "town-forming" role; towns which due to their location have become "sleeping areas" of the city; and dying towns that no longer possess necessary environment for their future development.