What is "monotown"

A monotown (a calque from Russian моногород, monogorod; gorod="town") is a city/town whose economy is dominated by a single industry or company. The term is especially often used in Russia, where the Soviet planned economy created hundreds of monotowns in supposedly rational locations, often in geographically inhospitable areas. The situation in many of Russia's monotowns is highly problematic: they are entirely dependent on the competitiveness of a single company or factory, very unflexible and based on Soviet-era economics and technologies.