Urban-type settlement

Urban-type settlement (селище міського типу; selyshche miskoho typu, or смт; smt). A special type of town introduced into the administrative-territorial system of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1925. According to a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR on the administrative-territorial structure of the republic (28 June 1965), an smt is a populated area around an industrial plant, construction site, railway junction, educational institution, research station, sanatorium, or other stationary medical or convalescent establishment that has state housing and over 2,000 residents, 60 percent of whom are wage or salaried workers or members of their families. In an exceptional case an smt may have fewer than 2,000 residents, if it is likely to develop soon into a full-fledged smt. Urban-type settlements are classified into three types: worker smt (no fewer than 3,000 residents), resort smt (no fewer than 2,000), and cottage smt (no more than 25 percent of the adults occupied in agriculture). The number of smts in Ukraine has increased steadily: there were 459 in 1940, 478 in 1950, 823 in 1960, 861 in 1970, 901 in 1980, and 927 in 1990.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]