Budget deficit as a main factor of intensification of social inequality in the cities of Irkutsk oblast in the 1990's

The paper deals with the causes and social consequences of the budget deficit for urban settlements of Irkutsk oblast in the 1990s. The author analyses financial-budgetary state of such cities as Angarsk, Bodaibo, Bratsk, Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky, Sayansk and Ust-Ilimsk and concludes that it can be described as critical. Municipal authorities searched for different ways of solving the problems of underfunding. Meanwhile, the federal authorities did not always take into account the interests of developing the resources of these cities and were gradually shifting a greater proportion of social obligations onto the local authorities.