The urban context for adjustments to the planning process in post-soviet Russia: responses from local planners in Siberia

This paper examines changes to planning practices in different types of Russian cities that inherited varying levels of administrative status and economic diversification during the Soviet period. Considered the hallmark of the previous regime, planning faces a tenuous fate because of its perceived incompatibility with a democratic, market-based society. For many cities, urban development plans created during the Soviet period do not represent or accommodate the needs of post-Soviet society. Local planners, whose main responsibility previously was to execute these now-defunct plans, are redefining their role within city administration in order to remain relevant. The responses to these fundamental issues at the local level vary by city-type because of post-Soviet realities distinctly impacting each type of city.