The Atomic Energy Ministry's long-term plan is to cut the nuclear work force by as much as a third and create an equivalent number of new jobs in the commercial sector. Of the three-quarter of a million people who live in the closed cities, 125,000 work directly in the nuclear enterprises.

''People in the closed cities are like children,'' Mr. Adamov said. ''The gap between ordinary cities and the free market is quite big, but the gap between people who lived in a closed city and a market economy is enormous.''

The stakes are so high that the United States Energy Department has forged an unusual collaboration with the Atomic Energy Ministry, its former archrival. While the $30 million the department has earmarked for new businesses is a small sum, the funds cannot even be disbursed until Congress reviews the spending plan early next year. The department plans to increase its financing to $60 million in 2000.

The Energy Department is also planning to spend $200 million to help Russia dispose of plutonium. That will also involve work in the closed cities, though it is not clear exactly how those funds will be spent and how much will go to American contractors.

''The cities were in trouble before, but now they are getting desperate, said Kenneth Luongo, a former Energy Department official and the head of the Russian-American National Security Advisory Council, a private group that focuses on the problems of the closed cities. ''What little economic progress there was is being erased, and serious action is required to prevent further deterioration.''

The Task

Luring Investment Is Very Difficult

At Krasnoyarsk-26, Mr. Lebedev has not given up hope. His dream is to transform his complex into a high-tech commercial center, a sort of Silicon Valley of Russia. He has tried one plan after to try to lure business here, but little has happened.

A plan to assemble Samsung televisions collapsed after import tariffs on electronic components were raised. He also drafted a plan to make his city a tax-free zone for foreign investors. But the Government never acted.