Declining towns in the former USSR

A study of the declining towns of the former USSR during the two intercensal periods of 1970 to 1979 and 1979 to 1987 reveals that the rate of decline during these two periods was much higher than that of 1959 to 1970. The Western regions had the maximum number of towns that experienced this high decline rate, in contrast to the previous decline, which occurred mainly in the Eastern regions. The declining towns were small coal-mining towns and towns which served as railroad junctions. People from these small towns migrated toward larger towns which had more industries.