A monotown is a town whose economy is dominated by a single industry or company. The term is especially often used in Russia, where the Soviet planned economy created hundreds of monotowns in supposedly rational locations, often in geographically inhospitable areas. The situation in many of Russia's monotowns is highly problematic due to their inflexibility and uncompetitiveness.
Russia has a total of about 400 monocities that were established around timber processing, machine building, food, fuel, and metal manufacturing industry plants. Nearly 10 % of Russia's population live in these cities. Many plants and factories are obsolete and outdated; it's been a long time since they were making products that the market demands; thus, they lived on credit. The borrowed life was halted by the 2008 banking crisis. The challenge of losing job started looming large for 16 million men and women.
