Leonid Kravchuk
| Leonid Kravchuk Леонід Кравчук |
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 Leonid Kravchuk in 1992. |
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| In office December 5, 19911 – July 19, 1994 |
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| Prime Minister | Vitold Fokin Valentyn Symonenko Leonid Kuchma Yukhym Zvyahilsky |
| Preceded by | post created2 |
| Succeeded by | Leonid Kuchma |
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Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic3
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| In office July 23, 1990 – December 5, 1991 |
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| Preceded by | Volodymyr Ivashko |
| Succeeded by | Ivan Plyushch |
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| In office May 15, 1990 – December 5, 1991 October 18, 1994 – May 25, 2006 |
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| Born | January 10, 1934 Rowno powiat, Volyn, Poland |
| Birth name | Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk |
| Nationality |  Ukrainian |
| Political party | unaffiliated |
| Other political affiliations |
Yulia Tymoshenko[1] Viktor Yanukovych[2][3] Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine |
| Spouse(s) | Antonina Mykhailivna |
| Children | Oleksandr |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Religion | Ukrainian Orthodox |
| 1Official inauguration was on August 22, 1992. 2Mykola Plaviuk, the 4th President of Ukrainian People's Republic in exile terminated his authority on August 22, 1992 when he formally ceded his authority to Kravchuk. 3From July 23, 1990 to August 24, 1991, the office was known as the "Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR." |
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Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk (Ukrainian: Леонід Макарович Кравчук) (born January 10, 1934) is a Ukrainian politician, the first President of Ukraine serving from December 5, 1991 until his resignation on July 19, 1994, a former Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and People's Deputy of Ukraine serving in the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) faction.
After a political crisis involving the President and the Prime Minister, Kravchuk resigned from the Presidency, but ran for a second term as President in 1994. He was defeated by his former Prime Minister, Leonid Kuchma, who served as President for two terms. After his presidency, he was active in Ukrainian politics, serving as a People's Deputy of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada and the leader of Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united)'s parliamentary group (from 2002 to 2006). He is currently politically inactive.[4]
Leonid Kravchuk is the author of books dealing with his career and Politics of Ukraine (some of them were translated into English). Kravchuk is married to Antonina Mykhailivna, has a son Alexander and three grandchildren – Andrey, Maria and Ylena Kravchuk, Andrey's daughter.
Biography
Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk was born in 1934 in the village of Velykyi Zhytyn (Żytyń Wielki) in a peasant family. At that time the village was located in Aleksandrija gmina, Rowno powiat in Poland. The village became part of Rivne Oblast in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after the Soviet invasion in 1939 when he was a child. His father served in Polish cavalry in 1930s, later he and his wife worked for the local osadniks (Polish colonists). During the World War II the father of Kravchuk perished on the front-lines.
He joined the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1958 and rose through the ranks of the party and its agitprop department. He became a member of the Ukrainian Politburo in 1989 and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada in 1990.
With the weakening of the central power in the USSR, Kravchuk became the effective leader of the republic. He left the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) in August 1991 and began to support the Ukrainian independence movement. He officially declared his support for Ukrainian independence after the August 1991 Soviet coup attempt. Later that year, he was elected the first President of Ukraine after Ukraine's first presidential elections.
Although Kravchuk does not work for the Ukrainian state anymore he is still living in a state-owned dacha in Koncha-Zaspa.[5]
Political portrait
Leonid Kravchuk's political creed is avoiding conflicts and straightforward declaration of his position. He is widely considered to be cunning, diplomatic, and cautious. He describes himself as a man who refuses to take an umbrella because he hopes to "slip between the raindrops." (in interview by Yulia Lytvynenko at Poza ochi on Inter (Ukraine), 2009)
Such diplomacy helped Kravchuk to retain and strengthen his power over Ukraine during the transition from Soviet rule to independence. He was third in command in Ukraine's CPSU leadership before the fall of Soviet Union even though he didn't belong to the ruling Dnipropetrovsk group. He avoided inflexible positions towards democratic changes and was a compromise figure for both party conservatives and reformists.
After becoming president of independent Ukraine, Kravchuk successfully attempted to achieve and strengthen formal sovereignty of the country and develop its relations with the West. He withstood the enormous pressure from Russia and refused to retain the common armed forces and currency inside the Commonwealth of Independent States. The status of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Sevastopol and the Crimea was not resolved by a 20-year lease agreement until 1997, three years after Kravchuk left office. Another of his stands was the refusal of nuclear weapons based on Ukrainian territory. One of not many country leaders he agreed to surrender the Ukraine nuclear arsenal.
During his leadership the government of Ukraine's economic policy is often criticized. He failed to avoid corruption in the privatization of country's industry and promote effective financial decisions. Ukrainian annual inflation rates from 1992 to 1994 reached thousands of percents. Millions of loans given by the semi-government banks defaulted. This led to delays of many years in salaries for industry workers, teachers etc. The collapse of the Black Sea Steamship Company became the saddest symbol of the Kravchuk era. This global merchant fleet, the largest in the world (based mostly in Odessa), was covertly sold out to foreign companies, mostly for fake debts. Hundreds of sailors who hadn't received their salaries were trapped for years on board their vessels throughout the world. Kravchuk's own son was later accused of taking part in this fraud.
Shocked by these developments and also by growing tensions with Russia, the voters of industrial and predominantly Russian-speaking southeastern Ukraine supported Kravchuk's main rival, Leonid Kuchma, in the 1994 presidential elections. Kuchma won under the slogans of fighting corruption, reconstruction of the economy, and further integration with Russia. Kravchuk's reliance on bureaucratic pressure, support of pro-Western nationalists, and media bias did not serve him well.
Soon after his defeat in 1994, Leonid Kravchuk joined the powerful business and political group known as Kiev Holding or the Dynamo Group. This group, led by oligarchs Viktor Medvedchuk and Hryhoriy Surkis, is formally organized as the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united). Despite its formal centrist/social-democratic slogans, the party is widely associated with big business, organized crime, corruption, and media bias in favor of President Leonid Kuchma. In 2004, Hryhoriy Surkis was banned from visiting the United States, due to his alleged involvement in irregularities during the Ukrainian presidential election, 2004. The group also took a strongly pro-Russian and anti-Western stand. Analysts say that TV channels and other media controlled by the group have started a sharp anti-U.S./anti-NATO campaign.
Kravchuk has been highly criticized for remaining one of the leaders of SDPU(o), specializing in negotiations and public relations, despite his declared pro-democratic and patriotic position.
During the 2004 presidential elections Kravchuk actively supported the candidacy of Viktor Yanukovych[2] and was a member of the Yanukovych team that negotiated with the opposition in the aftermath of that disputed election.[3] In November 2004 he told the media that he was afraid that the resulting crisis would cause the disintegration of the country, intensifying movements for certain regions of Ukraine to join other countries.
On September 25, 2009 Kravchuk declared during the interview with the newspaper Den that he left the Social-Democratic Party (United) and became unaffiliated again. He explained this based on the fact that his former party decided to join the election bloc of left and central left political forces to run for the 2010 presidential elections. He also was indignant due to the fact that the political council of the party decided to accomplish that behind the closed doors in non-democratic order. He called the block as the artificial union without any perspectives.[6][7] Kravchuk endorsed Yulia Tymoshenko during the 2010 presidential elections campaign.[1] During the 2010 election campaign he accused incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko of having "turned into Yanukovych's aide. He has actually turned into an also-ran. His task is to slander Yulia Tymoshenko every day and prevent her from winning [the presidential elections]".[8] Kravchuk explained his shift in support from Yanukovych to Tymoshenko was caused because he felt Yanukovych "turned his back" on all the issues Kravchuk wanted him to address as president: the Ukrainian language, culture and the Holodomor. Only the dead or the stupid do not change their views, he stated in December 2009 when he also voiced the opinion that voting for Yanukovych in the second round of the 2010 elections will indicate one’s anti-Ukrainian position.[9]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 (Russian) Кравчук стал доверенным лицом Тимошенко на президентских выборах, Focus (October 21, 2009)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Viktor Medvedchuk’s Crisis, Ukrainska Pravda (June 26, 2007)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Leonid Kravchuk says, Viktor Yanukovych is not against talks with Yuschenko, Radio Ukraine (November 29, 2004)
- ↑ "Kravchuk Not To Run For Snap Rada Elections". ukranews.com. October 25, 2008. http://www.ukranews.com/eng/article/158415.html. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
- ↑ Ukrayinska Pravda exposes president’s Mezhygirya deal, Kyiv Post (May 6, 2009)
- ↑ Kravchuk left SDP(u) (Ukrainian)
- ↑ Kravchuk leaves Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), Interfax-Ukraine (September 25, 2009)
- ↑ [], Interfax-Ukraine (October 27, 2009)
- ↑ Kravchuk explains his drift to Tymoshenko, Z I K (December 21, 2009)
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Vladimir Ivashko |
Chairman of Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR / Chairman of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine 1990–1991 |
Succeeded by Ivan Plyushch |
| Preceded by Office created |
President of Ukraine 1991–1994 |
Succeeded by Leonid Kuchma |
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