Viktor Melkiorovich Kress (b. 1948 in Kostroma Oblast

Kostroma Oblast

Kostroma Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma.Major historic towns include Kostroma, Sharya, Nerekhta, Galich, Soligalich, and Makaryev. Textile industries have been developed there since the early 18th century...

) is the governor of Tomsk Oblast

Tomsk Oblast

Tomsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Tomsk. Population:...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. Both his parents were ethnic Germans

History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union

The German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves. The 1914 census puts the number of Germans living in Russian Empire at 2,416,290. In 1989, the German population of the Soviet Union was roughly 2 million. In the 2002 Russian census, 597,212...

.

Kress was born into a peasant family with five brothers and a sister. During his education he also worked on the farm at the village of Yashkino in Kemerovo Oblast

Kemerovo Oblast

Kemerovo Oblast , also known as Kuzbass after the Kuznetsk Basin, is a federal subject of Russia , located in southwestern Siberia, where the West Siberian Plain meets the South Siberian mountains...

.

Kress graduated from Novosibirsk Agricultural Institute in 1971 as an agricultural economist and worked as an agronomist in Siberia eventually becoming head of the Rodina Sovkhoz

Sovkhoz

A sovkhoz , typically translated as state farm, is a state-owned farm. The term originated in the Soviet Union, hence the name. The term is still in use in some post-Soviet states, e.g., Russia and Belarus. It is usually contrasted with kolkhoz, which is a collective-owned farm...

 near Tomsk. From 1987-90, he was First Secretary of the CPSU committee of Pervomayskoye rayon

Rayon

Rayon is a manufactured regenerated cellulose fiber. Because it is produced from naturally occurring polymers, it is neither a truly synthetic fiber nor a natural fiber; it is a semi-synthetic or artificial fiber. Rayon is known by the names viscose rayon and art silk in the textile industry...

, Tomsk Oblast. In 1990, Kress was elected and served as speaker of the Tomsk Oblast Soviet. He was appointed to the post of governor by President Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

 following the collapse of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in 1991 and was re-elected in 1995, 1999 and 2003.

He has been a member of United Russia

United Russia

United Russia is a centrist political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 315 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties...

 (since 2004).

Kress has also authored five books

1. Difficult Times of Russia: A Look at the Provinces (1998)
2. Tomsk Oblast: Today and Tomorrow (1999)
3. Tomsk Oblast at the Crossroads of the Centuries (1999)
4. Tomsk Oblast: The Start of the 21st Century (2002)
5. Direct Answers to Complex Questions (2003)

Kress is married to Lyudmila Kress and has two children, His daughter Elena is a cardiologist and his son Vyacheslav is judge at the Seventh appellant arbriage court. He has four grandchildren.

Honours and awards

• Order of Merit for the Fatherland
  Order of Merit for the Fatherland
  The Order of Merit for the Fatherland was instituted on 2 March 1994 by Presidential Decree. The statutes describe it as a decoration for merit, not an order of knights....
  
  ;
  • 3rd class (16 November 2008) - for his great personal contribution to the socio-economic development of the field and many years of diligent work
  • 4th class (13 November 1998) - for services to the state and a major contribution to socio-economic development of the region
• Order of the Badge of Honour
• Medal "For Labour Valour"
• Diploma of the President of the Russian Federation (12 December 2008) - for active participation in the drafting of the Constitution and a great contribution to the democratic foundations of the Russian Federation
• Order of Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow
  Order of Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow
  The Order of Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow is an award of the Russian Orthodox Church, established in 1978...
  
  , 1st class (Russian Orthodox Church, 2002)
• Breastplate of the Foreign Ministry of Russia "for contribution to international cooperation" (2008) - for active international activity for the development of international co-operation of Tomsk region with the European Union, Southeast Asia, Israel, United States
• Honorary Citizen of the Tomsk region (2008) - for outstanding contribution to the objectives of socio-economic development of the Tomsk region, many years of fruitful work
• Honorary citizen of Tomsk (2004)
• Badge "For Services to the Tomsk region" (26 February 2004) - for his great personal contribution to the socio-economic development, successful management of the area during the period of political and economic reforms, stability, peace and harmony on earth
• Badge of Honour "for his services in promoting the Olympic Movement in Russia" (2004, R & D)
• Order of St. Sergius, 1st class (2008, Russian Orthodox Church)
• Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany - November 23, 2010

External links

• Governor's Official Page