The Geography of the April 25 (1993) Russian Referendum

Two geographers analyze the spatial dimension of results of the historic Russian referendum of April 25, 1993, which produced dramatic regional differences in the degree of support for President Boris Yel'tsin and his economic reform policies. The paper correlates the outcome of the referendum with demographic and economic performance variables for the political-administrative units of Russia. It thus assesses the extent to which approval of Yel'tsin was associated with such variables as urbanization, education, white collar work force, percentage of workers in agriculture, and age of the population. 5 figures, 5 tables, 23 references.