Russia Far from Only Former Soviet Republic with Dying Company Towns

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Dec. 5 – Being the largest former Soviet republic, the Russian Federation has far and away the most company towns, what Russians call monogorody, which were built around a single industry and more recently have been dying. But it is far from the only one as a report about the situation in Kazakhstan makes clear.
    There are more than 300 company towns in the Russian Federation, while in turkey there are fewer than 30, although their populations make up more than ten percent of the urban residents of that country and generate 40 percent of the country’s GDP and often engage in protests about their declining economic circumstances.
    Initially, the Kazakhstan government did little to address their problems – it had other more pressing issues of nation building to consider – but beginning in 2012, it adopted a state program for the company towns, although that program has not been fully funded (spik.kz/2085-hronicheskaja-problema-monogorodov-v-kazahstane-mozhno-li.html).
    Like the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan has engaged in a kind of triage with regard to these cities, identifying some as fated to die, others to diversify and still others to survive with subsidies of one kind or another. Another common approach is reducing the number of such places on paper if not in fact: Astana now says there are 20, not 27 as it earlier acknowledged.
    According to Spike journalist Viktor Dolgov, these places are increasingly the source of instability in Kazakhstan, something the government has not been able to overcome in large part because it lacks the funds to do so or the ability to attract money from outside investors. As a result, the company town problem there may be even more serious than it is in Russia.