Post-socialist metropolises in transition

The paper discusses the phenomenon of socio-economic transition of metropolises in the post-socialist Russia. The higher an administrative status of a city, its financial, economic and cultural potential, the more spectacular the achievements are. The metropolises that are involved in a national and global economy demonstrate much bigger 'openness' to transformation being more successful in reforms. These metropolises encountered the crisis earlier than most of the other big industrial cities but they seem to have overcome it also before the less favourable centres. Only in a few leading cities like Moscow and St.Petersburg the societal transition coincided with the transition from the industrial to the post-industrial stage. The current transitive process is a fundamental re-evaluation of the urban territory with respect to the location, functioning and reorganization of productive and non-productive activity. Market forces examine the cities from the point of view of their potential for the effective production and escalate polarization between cities of the same size. It is particularly remarkable in the group of medium and small industrial cities. Marketization very quickly improves the previously neglected retailing trade and services, but it is not capable in short period to mitigate an acute housing problem. The substantial renovation and gentrification affects predominantly the prestigious central parts of metropolises that boast with a historical 'flavour'. Now new housing investments prefer certain suburbs, but avoid traditional 'sleeping-room' mass-construction districts in the intermediate city belt. Key words: post-socialist cities, metropolis, transition, disparities, quality of life