GreyAtlas’s Reviews > Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change > Status Update

Entire cities
were built around a single mineral, such as Norilsk and nickel, or Vorkuta
and coal. Some of these, such as Norilsk, make economic sense today;
many don’t.

Russia has over 300 “monotowns,” which are home to over 14
million people, one-tenth of Russia’s population, and account for 25 percent
of the urban population and 40 percent of GDP.13 Yet abandoning such
“zombie cities” is difficult because of the lack of housing and job
opportunities elsewhere. They survive on diminished state subsidies, simply
because they are there.

Thirty years after the end of the Soviet Union, Russia continues to pay the
price for the damage done by the Soviet model of industrialization. Much of
Russian industry to this day still consists of inefficient giants churning out
obsolete goods that are uncompetitive on world markets, at a high cost in
energy and raw materials. To the extent that investment has taken place, it
has only deepened this pattern