Sherig-ool Oorzhak, a Russian politician, died on April 8, 2026, at the age of 83.
Born on July 24, 1942, in Shekpeer, in the Tuvan People’s Republic, he was a retired politician who led Tuva for 21 years, from 1986 to 2007. Oorzhak graduated from the Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy in 1971.
He worked from 1971 to 1980 as an economist and later as director of a government-owned farm in Shekpeer. In 1983, he became an activist in the Tuvan branch of the Communist Party, and in 1985 he graduated from Novosibirsk High Communist Party School. From December 1986, he served as First Secretary in the Tuvan branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, making him Tuva’s de facto leader.
Sherig-ool Oorzhak, 83, Russian politician.