About Igor Smirnov (politician)
Igor Nikolaevich Smirnov is a Russian-born Transnistrian politician who served as the first president (1991–2011) of the internationally unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The Smirnovs initially benefited from Nikolai Stepanovich's successes—he reached the position of First Secretary of the Hola Prystan Raion committee in Soviet Ukraine. In a dramatic demonstration of how much the Communist Party's power had waned, Smirnov beat his challenger, the First Secretary of the city's Party Committee, Leonid Tsurkan, by a 2-to-1 margin.
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