The Southern Urals and Trans-Urals: Inherited and New Pathways of Development

— This article is devoted to the south of Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, and the southwest of Tyumen oblasts. Located on the border of forest-steppe and subtaiga to the east of the Ural Mountains, in the contact zone of large macroregions, European Russia, the Urals, Siberia, and Central Asia, until the administrative reforms of the Soviet era this territory developed in a common historical and geographical context and integration logic and experienced several waves and impulses of development. This study was carried out in the logic of archetype analysis: for sample settlements including the cities of Troitsk, Yuzhnouralsk, Plast, and the rural settlement of Zverinogolovskoye, we identified and analyzed the attributes, which played a decisive role in shaping their past and present development paths. The physical and geographical conditions of the territory largely determined the historical and modern forms of settlement pattern, the positions of key centers, and the economic specialization of the area. In the 19th to early 20th centuries, the fast development and population growth here were determined by agricultural activities and the rise of trade and transport centers. In the Soviet period, the key development impulses came with industrialization, the development of virgin lands, and accelerated urbanization. Some settlements changed their economic specialization completely, while others new impulses did not reach at all. In the post-Soviet period, the decline of industrial production and the rapid development of the tertiary sphere have further advantaged the largest cities. This article provides a more detailed look at the relationships between past and present development pathways for sample settlements.