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The Urals industrial region was once the driving force behind the Soviet economy. Central to Josef Stalin’s plans to modernise the Soviet Union and manage the transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy, this area of exceptional mineral wealth has provided the resources for the country’s economic development and military defence for over 300 years.

The region was home to several historically significant “monocities” (single-industry urban centres), whilst also serving as home to the production of military equipment and the production and storage of nuclear material, and during World War II, the Ural region became the industrial heartland of the Soviet Union’s military machine.

However, following the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the region went through a turbulent and painful period of change, as the Soviet economy contracted dramatically in response to the transition from a Communist, centrally planned economy to a market economy. The region suffered from large-scale unemployment, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, high poverty rates, population loss, low birth rates, alcohol abuse, and high male mortality.

With the Ural region undergoing deindustrialisation, recognisable ’rust belt’ problems began to set in as the people were left to endure the punishing legacy of the Soviet industrial project: failing industries, abandoned factories, outdated and dilapidated industrial equipment, decaying housing, job losses, population loss and serious environmental degradation, leading in some cases to ill health and early death.

Over time, reviving the economies in smaller industrial centres and monocities has become a political issue, as have reducing industrial pollution and improving local environments, and despite progress being slow, there have been some regional successes, with some larger conurbations that have created diversified economies that offer future potential.

In 2009, photographer Alan Gignoux visited the region during a residency sponsored by the Russian NCCA (National Centre for Contemporary Art). During his travels, he witnessed the combined effects of the long-term failure of Soviet central planning, and the dire and immediate economic consequences of the fall of the USSR. However, there were visible signs of an emerging new post-industrial economy, and the aim of this project is to showcase a fascinating period of transition between the old (Soviet socialism/Communism) and the new (Russian capitalism/market economy)

Editor’s note – February 2023

Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022, in a major escalation of the conflict in the Donbas region that began in 2014.

We had just finished compiling this photobook when the war broke out and we were shocked and deeply saddened about the terrible human cost of the conflict. Ultimately, the victims of war on both sides are ordinary people.

We have chosen to retain the original text of the essay, written in June 2021, to reflect the circumstances and possibilities as they appeared at that time.

The conflict affects the way we understand the images and texts in this photobook.

Are the army cadets from Nizhny Tagil now fighting in Ukraine? What do they think about the war?

How do the workers at Uralvagonzavod feel now that production has been ramped up to deliver tanks for the war?

Was the boy fishing in the polluted waters of Karabash one of the civilian young men drafted into the army as reinforcements? Does the girl on the swing in Nizhny Tagil feel her dream of working in Europe is now impossible?

Has the pharmaceutical company expanded its production to fulfil the needs of the home market, which no longer has access to western imports?

Did the young woman crossing the street in Yekaterinburg risk imprisonment to protest the war?

We cannot know the answer to these questions, but it seems important to think about them.