Tambov Oblast

   An administrative region of the Russian Federation. Tambov Oblast sits on the East European Plain, and forms part of Russia’s Central Black Earth Economic Region and the Central Federal District. The oblast covers an area of 34,300 square kilometers and has a population of 1.1 million. Tambov was politically separated from the Penza region during the late 1930s; the region also shares borders with Saratov, Voronezh, Lipetsk, and Ryazan. The administrative capital is Tambov (pop. 291,000); the city hosts an important military airfield. Michurinsk is the region’s second city. Like other regions in Russia’s European core, the economy is divided between agriculture and industry. Important crops include grain, sugar beets, sunflowers, potatoes, and livestock; beer and mineral water are also key exports. Regional industries include machine building, fertilizers, and plastics. During the 1990s, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation overtook the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia as the leading party in the regional parliament. During the 1996 presidential election, the region overwhelmingly favored the candidacy of Gennady Zyuganov over Boris Yeltsin, placing the region squarely within Russia’s Red Belt of regions. However, the party’s popularity waned by the end of the decade. Oleg Betin, a former Yeltsin advisor, has governed the region since 1999; he succeeded Aleksandr Ryabov, a staunch Communist whose economic management of the region was widely viewed as a failure. During the 1999 election, Betin found strong support from Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov and his Fatherland—All Russia party. With the rise of Vladimir Putin, Betin placed himself in the proKremlin camp, which guaranteed reappointment after Putin’s reform of the regional gubernatorial system. As governor, Betin has sought to expand small business through a partnership with Sberbank. He has also raised the region’s international profile by expanding foreign trade with Italy, Serbia, and other European countries. In 2007, he led a campaign to clearly mark Estonian goods sold in the region as part of an effort to boycott products from the Baltic state during the crisis over the bronze soldier and the subsequent Estonian Cyberwar. In 2008, Betin drew criticism from activists across Russia for his attack on homosexuals in an interview with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

   See also Chernozem.