ИСТИНА

Single-industry cities are the model cities of the times when Soviet Union planned the wider exploration of natural resources, industrialization and urbanization of its Arctic territory. Since 30’s of the last century these cities along with other northern settlements played a significant role in exploration and development of the Arctic. Murmansk region is one of the regions within the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation; and is one of the most heavily industrialized territories. Among other Arctic territories of Russia, region holds the first place by the number of single-industry cities (8). At present 23% of the region’s population live and work in single-industry cities (based mostly on mineral resource industry) and set up the greatest industrial potential for further socioeconomic and sustainable development of this area. We aim to evaluate the pathways of past and present development of these cities; describe socioeconomic and environmental indicators of well-being of their residents as well as sustainable development of the cities themselves; and suggest the possible future positive and negative scenarios for the development (based on evaluation of statistics, factor analyzes and community consultations). Northern single-industry cities have a number of specifics which make them different from the same cities of other territories, but these specifics are somehow international. About 1 million residents live in some 1000 resource towns across Canada. Evaluation of commonly shared challenges and Canada’s experiences and legacies for sustainable development of these resource communities might help to foresee the future strategies for further economic development of Murmansk region.