Integration vs. Autonomy by Geir Hønneland Anne-Kristin Jørgensen

Author:Geir Hønneland, Anne-Kristin Jørgensen [Geir Hønneland, Anne-Kristin Jørgensen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429853876
Google: bvmADwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-12-21T03:45:07+00:00

Russian CATFs - A Brief Overview

When the new law (O zakrytom...) entered into force in 1992, 38 cities were given CATF status. In the Russian Federation's budget for 1996, three more were included, among them Polyarnyy in Murmansk obiast'. The naval base of Severomorsk just outside of Murmansk was given CATF status in November 1996 and was thus included in the federal budget from 1997 (O preobrazovanii...). Geographically, most of the CATFs lie in the Volga/Ural region. If we look at the distribution in relation to the economic regions of Russia, there are most closed cities in the Ural economic region (10). The majority of these lie around the main cities of Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk). Then follow the Northwestern region (7), Eastern Siberia (6), the Far East (6), the central region (6), Volga (3), Volga-Vyatka (2) and Western Siberia (2).8 Murmansk obiast' is the federation subject with the highest concentration of CATFs (6). Krasnoyarsk kray and Moscow oblast', on their part, have four each.

Of the CATFs, the ten so-called "nuclear cities" are involved in research on and production of nuclear energy.9 These are mainly located in the Ural area, and the most important, as mentioned above, are the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Krasnoyarsk cities, as well as Arzamas-16.10 Of the other closed cities with CATF status, there are two main groups: missile and naval bases, with somewhat more than 10 of each.11 The "nuclear cities" are administratively subordinate to the Ministry of Nuclear Energy, while the others come under the Ministry of Defence.

Demographic statistics of the closed cities were released for the first time in 1995. In 1996, the total CATF population was more than 1.1 million.12 Two thirds of these lived in the "nuclear cities" (Rowland 1996a). The largest "nuclear cities" were Tomsk-7 (110,900), Krasnoyarsk-26 (93,500), Sverdlovsk-44 (91,500), Chelyabinsk-65 (88,000) and Arzamas-16 (82,300). Only three of the remaining CATFs had a larger population than the smallest of the "nuclear cities", Zlatoust-36 (30,800). At the other end of the scale, there are six CATFs with less than 5,000 inhabitants. It is interesting to note that the total number of inhabitants in the closed cities increased slightly from 1995 (1,080,600) to 1996 (1,117,600), while there was a pronounced reduction in the total urban population of the Russian Federation (Rowland, 1996b). As many as 23 of the CATFs experienced population growth, while 11 had their populations reduced, among them a majority of naval bases. Thus, it is natural to regard the population decline in some CATFs in connection with the general cuts in the Russian armed forces. The more consequential problems of the Russian army, such as troop reductions, obsolete equipment, lacking federal allocations and nonpayment of wages (cf. Chapter 4) appear to considerably affect the situation in the CATFs.13 We will examine these problems in more detail in our discussion of the closed towns on the Kola Peninsula in Chapter 11.

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