He heads the government of Ivanovo Oblast and is elected by direct popular vote for the term of five years.

Many of the first secretaries of the CPSU obkoms resigned from their party posts and focused on their work as speakers of the Soviets.

In March 1990, Tikhomirov was elected chairman of the Soviet, and on June 2, he succeeded Mikhail Knyazyuk as the first secretary of the CPSU regional committee.

In late 1991, at the beginning of the radical reforms, the President of Russia Boris Yeltsin had virtually unlimited powers to form executive branch of the regions.

In the new Charter of Ivanovo Oblast, adopted in 2000, the terms of office of the governor and the legislature were extended to five years.