Disappearing cities of Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Russia is a huge country, and its population is also rather big. However, next to urbanization, in the domestic open spaces, there is another, but this time - a depressing process: the gradual extinction of some cities. For various reasons, its population is “aging” and decreasing over the years, and there has been no positive progress in this regard for a long time.

Ultimately, this can lead to the fact that settlements will be completely empty within literally several decades. We would like to bring to your attention the “six” of Russian cities, the population of which is inexorably decreasing.

1. Vorkuta

Vorkuta is known not only as the easternmost city in Europe and the fourth largest city outside the Arctic Circle. However, there is one more feature "thanks to" which people speak about this settlement more and more often. Vorkuta is by far the most famous Russian city, which is slowly dying out.

The history of this, now the fastest dying domestic city began in 1936, and the forces of the GULAG prisoners were thrown into its construction. The city-forming enterprise of Vorkuta was JSC Vorkutaugol, which is part of the mining division of PJSC Severstal. It was around him that the infrastructure began to develop. The city grew gradually.

The peak of the economic prosperity of Vorkuta was noted at the end of the eighties of the last century: at that time the population was more than one hundred thousand people. And in the city itself there was everything for a comfortable life in the Arctic: in addition to coal mines, a dairy plant, a poultry farm, several construction plants and even state farms worked. In addition, the housing stock was actively expanding.

However, 1991 was the last year when it was possible to talk about the development of the city. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the population has been steadily decreasing since the first half of the nineties, enterprises have ceased to function, and the infrastructure is gradually deteriorating. Already entire villages around the city were completely abandoned, and in Vorkuta itself at least 14 thousand apartments are empty.

2. Berezniki

Berezniki was founded in 1932, and throughout the Soviet period the city was a major center of the chemical and mining (potash) industries. In the early seventies, the Yurchukskoye oil field was discovered on the territory of the city - this gave an impetus to its development. By the mid-eighties, the number of residents of Bereznyaki exceeded two hundred thousand.

However, as in the case of Vorkuta, Bereznyaki began to lose population after the collapse of the Soviet Union. So, since 1991, the number of residents of the city has decreased by almost a third and continues to decline.

According to official statistics, as of 2020, a little more than 139 thousand people lived in Bereznyaki. In addition, sinkholes in the ground that have appeared in the city in recent years only exacerbate the situation - people are leaving en masse.

However, some researchers believe that the city may not comprehend the fate of Vorkuta, and it still has a chance for revival. And all because Bereznyaki does not have the status of a monocity, because a number of large enterprises of different significance operate on its territory: Avisma, Uralkali, Azot, Bereznikovsky Soda Plant, Soda-Chlorat and others. And if it is possible to solve the problem of failures, then there is a possibility

3. Agidel

Agidel is a vivid example of a young city of nuclear scientists - it was founded in 1980 near the Bashkir nuclear power plant.

However, the dire consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 caused a sharp jump in negative attitudes towards nuclear energy among the population and eco-activists. This led to the fact that under pressure from society in 1990, the construction of a nuclear power plant was stopped.

However, this also endangered the existence of Agidel. In addition to the absence of a city-forming enterprise, which was supposed to support life in the city, for which year residents are forced to live on very low salaries: according to statistics, they receive less there than the average for both the country and the republic. It also influences an increase in the flow of those who seek to leave the hopeless city.

Despite the depressing situation, the government of the Republic of Bashkortostan does not abandon its attempts to revive the city: new enterprises are regularly opened there, they are looking for investors to invest in infrastructure.

But the fate of the unfinished nuclear power plant was decided in a rather nontrivial way - in its place they want to build an industrial park in the style of Soviet modernism. In addition, they try to ennoble and make life comfortable for Agidel as much as possible. However, so far these attempts to reduce the population cannot be stopped: today the city's population is only 14,219 people.

4. Verkhoyansk

Verkhoyansk is one of the coldest places on the planet: the lowest recorded temperature was -67.7 ° C. Due to the extremely low indicators on thermometers, this city is regularly included in the rating of the most difficult settlements for living.

In addition, it is also very difficult to get there: there is no railway connection with Verkhoyansk, cars will pass only in winter, and only air traffic there is year-round, but not cheap: a one-way ticket costs about 20 thousand rubles.

Verkhoyansk was founded in the first half of the seventeenth century as a Cossack winter quarters. And in the Soviet years it was known as a place where political prisoners were exiled. It is interesting that, unlike most of the now dying cities, the peak in the number of local residents of Verkhoyansk fell just in the nineties - then it only grew and eventually amounted to two thousand people.

However, since 2001 and the next twenty years, the opposite trend has been observed, which has not been interrupted. Therefore, by the end of the 2010s, the population had almost halved.

Verkhoyansk is half-abandoned: there is no industry at all, and the only industry that feeds the locals is, oddly enough, agriculture. People are engaged in cattle breeding, horse and reindeer breeding, and fur trade is also practiced.

5. Island

The town of Ostrovnoy, which is twinned with the aforementioned Verkhoyansk, is a small settlement on the territory of the Kola Peninsula and is the center of the closed city of the same name. The Gremikha naval base of the Northern Fleet is located within it. In addition, the area nearby was set aside for storage of decommissioned submarines and radioactive waste.

Perhaps this is why Ostrovnoy has not yet been completely abandoned, but the statistics are depressing: in the Soviet period there was a tendency for the development of the city due to an increase in the population - from 632 (1939) to almost 10 thousand at the time of the collapse of the USSR. In the first half of the nineties, this process was still preserved - the number of residents increased to 14 thousand, but over the next quarter of a century the number of locals decreased by 7.5 times to 1700 people.

Despite the fact that in recent years the authorities have taken a number of measures to cleanse the nearby Ostrovnoy Gremikha from radioactive waste, practically nothing is allocated for the development of the city itself. In addition, it is very difficult to get there: there is no road or rail link. There are only two options for transport communication with the city: by water - on the motor ship "Klavdiya Elanskaya", or by air by helicopter.

6. Chekalin

Chekalin has been holding the "proud" title of one of the smallest Russian settlements for several years already - only Innopolis in the Republic of Tatarstan has surpassed him.

It is located in the Tula region. Despite the fact that the city has a rather long history - it was founded back in 1565 - its population has always been quite small. The greatest development of the city fell on the Soviet period, but even then its number was unstable.

Even the Soviet government did little to improve the city, and after the collapse, this trend only continued. The enterprises that functioned on the territory of Chekalin have long been closed, local residents have to go to work in neighboring settlements. Hence the decline in the population - today it is only 863 people. According to experts, the city will last for a couple of decades.