Oleg Chirkunov

Early life

Chirkunov graduated from Perm Polytechnic Institute in 1981 with a specialization in Economics and Organization of the Mechanical Engineering Industry. He received a degree from the Higher School of the KGB in 1985, after which he served in the KGB until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He subsequently graduated from the Law Department of Perm State University in 1988. He received his PhD in economics in 1990.

Career

Business

Chirkunov was the trade representative of Russia to Switzerland from 1991 to 1994. He worked with the company "EKS" whose business was the import of goods from Europe to Russia. Eventuallty he became its director until becoming the member of the Federation Council. "EKS" included the "Semya" supermarket chain, one of the largest in Perm Krai (sold to the federal chain "Lenta" in 2021).

Politics

He was a deputy of legislative assembly of Perm Oblast from 1997 to 2000. After this he became the representative of the region at Federation Council of Russia. He was appointed acting governor of Perm Oblast in 2004, and was confirmed as governor of Perm Krai in 2005 (after the merger of Perm Oblast and Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug).

In Perm, he commissioned Marat Gelman, a political scientist and art curator, to oversee "Project Perm" and revitalize the city to become a European center of culture. Gelman aspired to create an "artistic perestroika." Under Chirkunov, "in Perm artists were encouraged to experiment, journalists could criticize, and visitors might think they were in Western Europe, rather than middle Russia." Project Perm included a Museum of Contemporary Art; the White Nights Festival, a summer event which drew up to a million visitors; and the Perm-36 Gulag museum.

Chirkunov resigned as Perm governor in April 2012, after constant verbal attacks on state television.