Abstract:  
The article is dedicated to the results of urbanization of Chita Oblast in the late Soviet period. The author examines the established structure of urban settlements, count of cities and industrial townships, as well as their functional designation in the late 1980s. A brief characteristic of production base formed in the Soviet period (organizations, enterprises, etc.) is given by each city and large worker’s settlement. Calculation is conducted on separate demographic parameters of urbanization of the region: share of the urban population, share of the population of cities and industrial townships in the urban population, etc. The research leans on the official results of the All-Union Census of 1989, as well as the data from the official websites of urban settlements in Zabaykalsky Krai. It is underlined that by the end of the 1980s, on the territory of Chita Oblast was formed a broad and dispersed network of urban settlements, which for the most part scattered along Trans-Siberian Railway and southward towards the border with China. Trans-Baikal Railway and mining industry played the leading role in formation of majority of cities and workers’ settlements. The structure of urban settlements highlighted the capita of the region – Chita by demographical and functional aspects. However, nine more cities and five large townships with over 12,000 population and developed infrastructure, smoothed out the territorial imbalances in urbanization of the region.
 

Abstract: This article presents the results of data statistical analysis on the three key parameters of urbanization in the four republics of Southern Siberia (Altai, Buryatia, Tuva, and Khakassia) over the period from 1989 to the beginning of 2019. The author demonstrates the influence of socioeconomic and administrative reforms upon the changes in the overall size of urban population, its ratio within the population composition of the republics, as well as the transformation of the structure of urban settlements in the indicated regions over the last 30 years. The research leans on the analysis of the official data of Soviet census of 1989, pan-Russian censuses of 2002 and 2019, and results of the annual statistical observations arranged by Rosstat and its regional divisions in 1990-2018. The materials were acquired and clarified during the author’s scientific expedition to Altai, Buryatia, Tuva, and Khakassia republics in September-October of 2019. In the course of the expedition, the author explored the processes of demographic and territorial growth of the capital cities (Abakan, Gorno-Altaysk, Kyzyl, Ulan-Ude) and their suburban areas. The following conclusions were made: in 1990-2019, urbanization processes in the republics of Southern Siberia captured mostly the capital cities and their suburban areas, while the small cities and urban-type localities for the most part have lost their potential for the sustainable industrial and territorial development.