"The paper comprises an update of an earlier study...focused on towns with declining population during the 1959-1970 period. Based on recently published data on individual urban centers with 15,000 or more inhabitants reported in the 1979 and 1989 censuses, it identifies centers where population declined from 1970 to 1989. The study also assesses selected geographical aspects, economic functions, and size characteristics of such urban centers. Comparisons with data from the 1959-1970 period are made to arrive at a 30-year perspective."
The author "examines a range of issues surrounding the involuntary migration of Russian populations from the non-Russian republics of the former USSR. Among the questions addressed are possible magnitudes of in-migration into Russia (with special attention paid to conditions in one of the major source regions, Central Asia), attitudes in Russia regarding appropriate policy with respect to treatment of co-nationals in the near abroad and whether their return to Russia would have a positive or negative impact, and conditions in areas of Russia that presently are absorbing the greatest numbers of migrants. The assertion that Russian policy should seek aggressively to prevent the out-migration of Russian populations [from] the near abroad is assessed critically."

