NOVGOROD OBLAST

An administrative region of the Russian Federation. Home to several of Russia’s oldest cities including the UNESCO World Heritage site Great Novgorod, the oblast is a center fortourismas well as science and engineering. Surrounded by theLeningrad,Tver,Vologda, andPskov oblasts, the region is proximate to theBaltic StatesandBelarusand is well connected to bothSt.PetersburgandMoscow.

Novgorod Oblast covers an area of 55,300 square kilometers and is part of the NorthwesternEconomic RegionandFederal District. Novgorod’s population is slightly less than 700,000, making it the least populousfederal subjectin European Russia. At 95 percent, it has one of the most homogenouslyethnic Russianpopulations in the federation. The regional capital, Novgorod (pop. 241,000), was once a key city in theBaltic-Volgatrade route, and sports ancient monasteries, icons, and frescoes reflecting its centrality to earlyOrthodoxyin the region.

Thegeographyof the region is characterized bytaigaand forested marshland, and numerous glacial lakes, Ilmen being the largest, dot the countryside. The attractive Valdai National Park is located in the southeast of the oblast.Novgorod is rich in shale, clay, limestone, and quart deposits, as well as mineral springs. In addition to tourism, regionalindustriesinclude woodworking, fertilizers, forestry, and electricity production. In the 1990s, the regionaleconomyenjoyed five times the national amount offoreign investmentdue totaxincentives, which attracted more than 200 companies including Cadbury Schweppes (Great Britain), Dansk Tyggegummi Fabrik (Denmark), and Dresser (United States).

Under the leadership of the popular governor Mikhail Prusak, the regional government pursued a policy of economic pragmatism combined with reform. Prusak revived medieval traditions of so-called northern self-government and pushed for greater levels of private land ownership and localized authority; he detailed his strategies in the 1999 bookReform in the Provinces. Prusak’s inability to stop the rising popularity of theCommunist Party of the Russian Federationled to his purportedly voluntary decision to step down as governor. The current governor is Sergey Mitin; he was appointed byVladimir Putinin 2007. He immediately launched a campaign to improve housing,health care,agriculture, andeducationin the region. However, Mitin’s campaign againstcorruptionhas been criticized for its draconian enforcement of tax collection, including targetingwomenselling homemade pies on the roadside of the St. Petersburg-Moscow highway.