Dynamics of Urbanization Processes in Zabaikalsky Krai (1989–2019)

The article focuses on the processes of urbanization in Zabaikalsky krai in 1989–2019. The author analyzes changes in the structure and number of urban settlements, basic demographic parameters of urbanization, trends and results of industrial development in cities and urban-type settlements in the region. The study is based on official documents of the Government and Legislative Assembly of the region, as well as official statistical data of the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), on the basis of which the author made calculations for three historical periods: 1989–2002, 2002–2010, 2010–2019, and 1989–2019 as a whole. The results of the study point to the crisis of urbanization processes in the region in the last 30 years. The system of urban settlements, which was strengthened in the 1950–1980s and included 10 cities and 46 settlements, underwent a significant economic, industrial and demographic transformation in the 1990–2010s, as a result of which human and other resources were increasingly concentrated in the regional capital and settlements with a more or less stable economic base (Krasnokamensk, Zabaikalsky). As a result of negative socio-economic and demographic trends, as well as due to territorial and administrative transformations, the urban population of the region over the past 30 years has decreased by 176,500 people or almost 20 %. Projects of the regional authorities in the 2010s on the revitalization of urban settlements (the formation of industrial parks, the creation of priority development territories, etc.) in most cases did not lead to significant positive results, but they created the basis for more sustainable development of some urban settlements in the future. Keywords: urbanization, Far East, Zabaikalsky Krai, city, urban settlements, urban population