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Урбанизация по-российски
The article examines the state of what could be called the settlement system of Russia in the context of the history of Russian urbanization. Analysis shows that, in the situation of steady depopulation, the possibilities for a fresh spiral of growth of cities, which took place in Soviet times, have been exhausted. However, considering Russia's late urbanization, the "rural" character of many of its towns and the level of their saturation with infrastructure, low by the standards of developed countries, the potential for their qualitative development is still quite large. The country's depopulation and spatial contraction have not only laid bare the general insufficiency of towns for the vast expanse of Russia, but they have also sharply brought up the question of which is worse—the lack of a layer of great center cities capable of generating new standards of urban life and giving an impetus to the whole system or the gradual vanishing of small towns which form the fabric of the system of urban settlements.