Аннотация:Single-industry towns in Russia have been a driving force of export-oriented economic growth of Russia during the 2000-ies. However, in 2008 they have been affected by financial crisis and later in 2013-2014 by economic crisis. Economic restructuring and adverse conjuncture have led to the closure of plants or reduction of the employment in most towns specialized in mining, non-ferrous metallurgy and mechanical engineering. These processes strongly contributed to negative social situation and budget deficit. Our research was aimed at tracing the various phases in the present situation in single-industry towns in Russia and working out scenarios of their development. Our method is based on the combination of dynamics and forecast of core town enterprises and alternative urban economy. To create a scenario, we analyzed data obtained from 300 interviews with experts representing business, local and regional government, and leaders of local communities of the 18 single-industry towns in 11 regions of Russia. We elaborated three basic development scenarios contributing to overcome the low level of life in single-industry towns: «stable single-industry town», «urban shrinkage» and «industrial diversification».