Leonid Polezhaev was elected governor in December 1995. At that time, Yeltsin permitted 11 of his appointees to hold gubernatorial elections before the presidential race. The presidential administration believed that he and the other governors allowed to stand for election had a strong chance of winning a popular mandate. Although the KPRF and LDPR were the big winners in the Duma elections held on the same day, Polezhaev was able to hold on to his seat.
Polezhaev graduated from the Omsk Agricultural Institute with a specialization in irrigation and then worked as an engineer in Karaganda Oblast, Kazakhstan, and Omsk Oblast until the late 1980s. He took a break from engineering for five years at the beginning of the 1980s when he served as a deputy head of the Karaganda oblispolkom (the Soviet era regional executive body). At the end of the decade, he was chairman of the Omsk oblispolkom. In 1990, Polezhaev was elected to the Russian Federation parliament and the Omsk Oblast legislature, which re-elected him to head the regional executive committee. Yeltsin appointed Polezhaev as governor in November 1991.
Despite his over 20-year membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Polezhaev has not cooperated with the party's successors after the 1991 coup attempt. He joined the pro-governmental Our Home Is Russia movement at its founding congress and is now a member of the movement?s Political Council.
Chairman of the Legislative Assembly - Vladimir Varnavskii, elected in April 1994
Omsk Oblast lies on the West Siberian plain and shares a border with Kazakstan in the south, Tyumen Oblast in the west and north, and Novosibirsk and Tomsk oblasts in the east. Intensive development of today's Omsk Oblast began after Cossack ataman Yermak?s push into Siberia in the late 16th century. In 1716, the Omsk fortress was erected to protect Russia?s southern borders. In the 17th-19th centuries, the Omsk region was a place of exile for various revolutionaries, including the Decembrists and participants in Polish uprisings against Russian Czarism. In the beginning of this century, migrants from the European part of Russia and Ukraine started to settle in the oblast, boosting the local economy. In 1913, over a dozen European companies had branches in the oblast exporting leather and wool.
The region's industries are now concentrated in cities and towns along the Irtysh, Om, Tara, and Osha rivers and the Transsiberian railroad. The city of Omsk is the main industrial center, housing over half of the region?s population and 90% of its industry. However, due to the city's poor ecological situation, further industrial development is almost impossible, a situation which is likely to stimulate the growth of other oblast towns. Energy and machine building, mostly concentrated in defense plants, are the main industries of the region. Their output totals 65% of overall production. The oblast has ties with companies in over 50 countries, while its main business partners come from Cyprus, Germany, and China. Over half of the region's foreign export goes to third world countries.
1995 Population (est.): 2,179,500 (1.47% of Russian total) Industrial production as percentage of all Russian production (Jan.-Aug. 1995): 1.63%
Agricultural production as percentage of all Russian production (1994): 1.69%
Average personal income index in July 1995: 66 (Russia as a whole = 100) Price basket index in July 1995: 83 (Russia = 100) Average back wages owed per person (September 1995): 60,100 rubles (Russian average = 37,100)
Urban population: 67.4% (Russia overall: 73.0%) Student population (1993): 192 per 10,000 (Russia overall: 171/10,000); Pensioner population (1994): 21.85% Percent of population with higher education (1989 census): 9.7% (Russia overall: 11.3%)
Percent of population working in (1993): Industry: 25.5% (Russian average: 29.9%); Agriculture: 18.9% (12.8%); Trade: 9.8% (9.1%); Culture: 12.9% (13. 6%); Management: 2.0% (2.3%)
Number of telephones per 100 families (1993): in cities : 37.4 (Russian average: 41.5); in villages: 18.9 (17.2)
According to a 1995 survey by Bank Austria, the krai is ranked 50th among Russia's 89 regions in terms of investment climate.