Incumbent Governor Nikolai Sevryugin, a member of Our Home Is Russia, was appointed by President Yeltsin in November 1991. According to experts, he has virtually no chance of winning in the economically depressed region.
The leading contender is considered to be 65-year-old Vasilii Starodubtsev, who is backed by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In August 1991, Starodubtsev, at that time a USSR people's deputy, joined the State Committee for the State of Emergency. He was arrested after the coup had failed and was expelled from the Party "for organizing a coup d'etat" by the Presidium of the CPSU Central Control Commission. In June 1992, he was released from prison and took office as the chairman of the agroindustrial complex "Novomoskovskoe" and the Lenin collective farm in Tula. In 1993, he was elected to the Federation Council gaining 43.19% of the vote. Starodubtsev is a strong opponent of private land ownership. He is the chairman of the Agrarian Union of Russia, which formed part of the Agrarian Party electoral bloc in the December 1995 parliamentary elections. Starodubtsev was third on the federal list, but because the bloc failed to clear the 5% barrier, he did not win a seat in the Duma. Former Security Council Secretary Aleksandr Lebed, who is an honorary citizen of Tula and was elected to the State Duma from a Tula single-member constituency, decided not to join the race, even though he was likely to win.
Duma Chairman Viktor Derevyanko (elected in December 1993)
Tula Oblast covers 25,700 sq km and lies to the south of Moscow in the Central Russian highland. Most of the area is under cultivation, with potatoes and sugar beets being the main crops. Also important are dairy and livestock breeding as well as brown coal deposits. The metallurgy industry has been prominent in the region since the 17th century; chemicals and engineering started up in the 20th century. The defense industry makes up a large part of the economy. The oblast's capital, Tula city, first mentioned in 1146, resisted the Tatar siege in 1552. Tula has been a center of armament production since the times of Peter the Great, who made it the site of the first armament factory in 1712.
1995 Population: 1,825,700 (1.23% of Russian total)
Industrial production as percentage of all Russian production (Jan.-Aug. 1995): 1.28%
Agricultural production as percentage of all Russian production (1994): 1.68%
Average personal income index in July 1995: 81 (Russia as a whole = 100)
Price basket index in July 1995: 83 (Russia = 100)
Average back wages owed per person (September 1995): 50,400 rubles (Russian average = 37,100)
Urban population: 81.3% (Russia overall: 73.0%)
Student population (1993): 106 per 10,000 (Russia overall: 171/10,000)
Pensioner population (1994): 33.2%
Percent of population with higher education (1989 census): 9.3% (Russia overall: 11.3%)
Percent of population working in (1993):
Number of telephones per 100 families (1993):
According to a survey by Bank Austria, the oblast was ranked 11th among Russia's 89 regions on investment climate.
1996 Presidential Election
| Candidate | Turnout in First Round | Turnout in Second Round |
| Yeltsin | 29.96% | 52.42% |
| Zyuganov | 30.23% | 41.13% |
| Lebed | 24.03% | NA |
| Yavlinskii | 6.59% | NA |
| Zhirinovsky | 4.58% | NA |
| Overall Turnout (Tula Oblast) | 72.14% | 71.08% |
| Overall Turnout (Russia) | 69.67% | 68.79% |
1995 Parliamentary Election
| Party | Result |
| Communist Party of the Russian Federation | 22.07% |
| Liberal Democratic Party of Russia | 13.19% |
| Our Home Is Russia | 10.33% |
| Congress of Russian Communities | 9.92% |
| Yabloko | 5.22% |
| Communists -- Workers' Russia | 4.59% |
| Women of Russia | 4.23% |
| Agrarian Party of Russia | 3.74% |
| Party of Worker's Self-Government | 2.57% |
| Single-member districts | |
| Women of Russia | 1 |
| Independent | 1 |
| Congress of Russian Communities | 1 |
| Turnout in Tula Oblast | 67.96% |
| Turnout in Russia | 64.37% |
1993 Constitutional Referendum
| Yes | 56.37% |
| No | 40.44% |
1993 Parliamentary Election
| Party | Result |
| Liberal Democratic Party of Russia | 30.35% |
| Russia's Choice | 14.69% |
| Communist Party of the Russian Federation | 12.00% |
| Yabloko | 8.66% |
| Women of Russia | 8.24% |
| Agrarian Party of Russia | 6.56% |
| Party of Russian Unity and Concord | 6.32% |
| Democratic Party of Russia | 5.56% |
| Single-member districts | |
| New Regional Policy | 1 |
| Russia's Choice | 1 |
| Agrarian Party of Russia | 1 |
| Turnout in Tula Oblast | 60.85% |
| Turnout in Russia overall | 54.34% |
1991 Presidential Election
| Candidate | Result |
| Yeltsin | 63.98% |
| Ryzhkov | 14.74% |
| Zhirinovsky | 6.19% |
| Tuleev | 5.89% |
| Makashov | 3.21% |
| Bakatin | 2.25% |
| Turnout in Tula Oblast | 78.22% |
| Turnout in Russia | 76.66% |
Sources
Goroda Rossii [Cities of Russia], Moscow: Bolshaya Rossiiskaya Entsiklopediya, 1994
Rossiiskie regiony nakanune vyborov-95 [Russian regions on the eve of 1995 elections], Moscow: Yuridicheskaya Literatura, 1995.
Itogi vyborov 17 dekabrya 1995 goda po regionam [Results of the 17 December 1995 elections, regional breakdown], Moscow: Panorama, 1996.
Vybory deputatov Gosudarstvennoi Dumy 1995 [State Duma elections 1995], Moscow: Central Electoral Commission, 1996.
S.A. Nagaev and A.Woergoetter: Regional Risk Rating in Russia, Vienna: Bank Austria, 1995.
Data compiled by Silja Haas and Anna Paretskaya.