Trends in economic dynamics of Russia’s classic old industrial region: The case of the Sverdlovsk oblast

The scientific paradigm of studying old industrial regions is of interdisciplinary nature, which is due to their complexity and uniqueness. The research aims to generalise about and systematise the scientific heritage concerning the factors behind and conditions of emergence, formation and transformation of old industrial regions, as well as peculiarities of their economic structure and dynamics. Methodologically, the research relies on the economic and social geography (principles underlying the typology of settlements), and regional science (regional economics and an economic genetic approach to regions). The study applies methods of formalisation, systematisation, time series analysis, bibliometric and content analysis and examines the data of Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) and the Ministry of Economics and Territorial Development of the Sverdlovsk oblast. As a result, the paper substantiates the sustainability and resilience of the regional economy of Sverdlovsk oblast, a typical representative of Russia’s old industrial regions, in conditions of global external challenges; reveals the main factor behind the sustainability and resilience of the old industrial region; interprets the ‘genetic code’ of the Sverdlovsk oblast characterised by a historically emerged industrial specialisation; justifies the prospects for the new modernisation, which will strengthen and refine the revealed ‘genetic code’ to ensure the economic dynamism of the old industrial region under the new sanctions-induced challenges. The authors specifically point to an increasing significance of the Sverdlovsk oblast in conditions of the current crisis, since only this region in Russia retained the official status of the “supporting edge of the state”.