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Leonid Kravchuk

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In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Makarovych and the family name is Kravchuk.
Leonid Kravchuk
Леонід Кравчук
Kravchuk in 1991
1st President of Ukraine
In office
5 December 1991 – 19 July 1994
Acting: 24 August – 5 December 1991
Prime Minister
Preceded byMykola Plaviuk (as the last President in exile)[a]
Himself (as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada)
Succeeded byLeonid Kuchma
1st Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada
In office
24 August 1991 – 5 December 1991
Preceded byHimself (as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet)
Succeeded byIvan Plyushch
Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR
In office
23 July 1990 – 24 August 1991
Preceded byVladimir Ivashko
Succeeded byHimself (as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and President of Ukraine)
Member of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Ukraine
In office
4 June 1988 – 5 December 1990
People's Deputy of Ukraine
In office
15 May 1990 – 5 December 1991
ConstituencyVinnytsia Oblast, No. 39 (1990–1991)[1]
In office
25 September 1994 – 25 May 2006
ConstituencyTernopil Oblast, No. 364 (1994–1998)[2]
SDPU(o), No. 1 (1998–2002)[3]
SDPU(o), No. 5 (2002–2006)[4]
Personal details
Born(1934-01-10)10 January 1934
Żytyń Wielki, Wołyń Voivodeship, Poland
(now Velykyi Zhytyn, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine)
Died10 May 2022(2022-05-10) (aged 88)
Munich, Germany
Resting placeBaikove Cemetery, Kyiv, Ukraine
Political partySocial Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) (1994–2009)
Other political
affiliations		Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1958–1991)
Independent (1991–1994)
Spouse
​
(m. 1957)​
Children1
Residence(s)Koncha-Zaspa, Kyiv, Ukraine
Alma materKyiv State University (1958)
Academy of Social Sciences of the CPSU [bg] (1970)
OccupationPolitician
Signature
Leonid Kravchuk's voice
Kravchuk during a press conference with U.S. President Bill Clinton
Recorded 12 January 1994

Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk (Ukrainian: Леонід Макарович Кравчук, IPA: [ɫeoˈnid mɐˈkɑɾoʋɘt͡ʃ kɾɐʊˈt͡ʃuk]; 10 January 1934 – 10 May 2022) was a Ukrainian politician and the first president of Ukraine, serving from 5 December 1991 until 19 July 1994. In 1992, he signed the Lisbon Protocol, undertaking to give up Ukraine's nuclear arsenal. He was also the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and a 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 then served as president for two terms. After his presidency, Kravchuk remained active in Ukrainian politics, serving as a People's Deputy of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada and the leader of the parliamentary group of Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) from 2002 to 2006.

Early life

[edit]

Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk was born on 10 January 1934[5][6] in the village of Velykyi Zhytyn (Żytyń Wielki) to an ethnic Ukrainian peasant family. At that time the village was part of Poland (Second Polish Republic). It became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 when Kravchuk was a child. His father served in the Polish army during the 1930s, and later he and his wife worked for the local osadniks (Polish colonists). During World War II, Kravchuk's father perished on the front lines.[6]

Kravchuk married a mathematics teacher, Antonina Mykhailivna Mishura, in 1957.[7][8] First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, Barbara Bush (wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush), described Antonina in her memoirs: "She was the nicest young woman, a math teacher with absolutely no interest in politics".[8]

Kravchuk went to a vocational school before studying Marxist political economy at Kyiv University. He graduated at 24 and became a political economy teacher in Chernivtsi, in southwest Ukraine, before entering politics. Kravchuk joined the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1958 and rose through the ranks of the party and of its agitprop department.[9]

Kravchuk took part in the International Visitor Leadership Program, a professional exchange run by the US State Department.[10][11]

Presidency

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Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR

[edit]
Kravchuk in 1990 as the 1st Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada

He became a member of the Ukrainian Communist Party Bureau in 1989, and on 23 July 1990, became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, becoming the republic's nominal head of state. On 24 October 1990, the monopoly of the Communist Party of Ukraine on power was abolished, and thus, Kravchuk became not only the nominal, but also the actual head of the republic.[12]

After the 19–21 August 1991 Soviet coup attempt, Kravchuk, who did not support the attempt to remove Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev from power, resigned from the Communist Party.[13] After the Verkhovna Rada passed the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine on 24 August, the constitution was amended to create the post of President of Ukraine. Before the vote for the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine Kravchuk was instrumental in persuading the communists parliamentary majority to accept the opposition's demands of Ukrainian Independence.[14] Participants in the Belovezha talks said Kravchuk rejected any efforts to keep the Soviet Union going with reforms.[15]

Following the Act of Declaration of Independence Kravchuk was vested with presidential powers, thus becoming both de facto and de jure head of state. Later that year, on 5 December 1991, voters formally elected him president in Ukraine's first presidential election. Just a few days before on 1 December, the voters voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Soviet Union—a move which Kravchuk now fully supported. This made Kravchuk the first head of state of independent Ukraine.[12]

President of Ukraine

[edit]

On 25 February 1992, as President of Ukraine, Kravchuk, issued Presidential decree 98/92 About the changes in the system of central bodies of executive power of Ukraine.[16]

On 6 May 1992, Kravchuk met President George H. W. Bush in the United States and signed an agreement for the full removal of all nuclear tactical weapons from Ukrainian territory by 1 July, and in return obtained a credit line of $110 million to buy U.S. commodities.[17] It led to the signing of the Budapest Memorandum. The document was signed on 5 December 1994 at the summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Budapest. In it, Ukraine, a nuclear power at that time, voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.[12]

Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin signed the Belavezha Accords, dissolving the Soviet Union, 8 December 1991

Kravchuk achieved and strengthened the formal sovereignty of the country. He took a pro-European stance, developing relations with the West and signing a cooperation accord with the European Union.[6] The Kravchuk administration walked a tightrope between escalation of Ukrainian–Russian tensions and a policy of cooperation with Moscow.[18]

Kravchuk refused to retain the common armed forces and currency inside the Commonwealth of Independent States.[19] On 2 July 1993, the Ukrainian parliament approved the statement; 'Ukraine advocates the creation of an all-embracing international system of universal and all-European security and considers participation [therein] a basic component of its national security'.[20]

Ukraine under Kravchuk welcomed the idea of NATO enlargement. As president, he never opposed the expansion of the Alliance or the possibility of a future Ukrainian membership to NATO. This was reflected in his disdain for military cooperation with Eurasian structures, such as the Tashkent CIS Collective Security Treaty, in favour of European security structures. He said that "the best guarantee to Ukraine's security would be membership to NATO." He repeated his support for an immediate Ukrainian membership to NATO in 1994.[21]

Ukraine and Russia argued over many issues, including how the Soviet Navy's Black Sea Fleet should be divided. In May 1992, Russia's Supreme Soviet voted to declare the Soviet government's 1954 grant of Crimea to Ukraine an illegal act. Ukraine opposed this decision. 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.[22]

Under Kravchuk's leadership, Ukraine's economy slumped as corruption linked to privatization of Soviet-era industry thrived.[12][23] Ukraine's economic woes caused a decline in Kravchuk's political popularity, sparking governmental infighting. Political tension reached a point in the fall of 1993 that the then-prime minister, Leonid Kuchma, resigned. By 1994, in less than three years of Kravchuk's presidency, the country's GDP had shrunk by 40 percent.[23][22]

Kravchuk ran for a second term as president in 1994 but was defeated by Kuchma, with his loss being attributed to the rampant graft and the declining economy.[12][24]

Post-presidency

[edit]

Soon after his defeat in 1994, Kravchuk joined the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) (SDPU(o)). He served as a member of the Verkhovna Rada from 1994 until the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[25][13]

In February 2003, Oleksandr Moroz, the leader of Ukraine's Socialist Party, accused Kravchuk and other 300 public high-ranked officials of being members of the Freemasons.[26]

During the 2004 presidential elections Kravchuk actively supported the candidacy of Viktor Yanukovych,[27] and was a member of the Yanukovych team that negotiated with the opposition in the aftermath of that disputed election. 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.[28]

On 25 September 2009, Kravchuk declared during an interview with the newspaper Den that he left SDPU(o) and became unaffiliated again. He explained this based on the fact that his former party decided to join the Bloc of Left and Center-left Forces to run for the 2010 presidential elections. He 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 it [the] "block as the artificial union without any perspectives".[29][30] Kravchuk endorsed Yulia Tymoshenko during the 2010 presidential elections campaign.[31]

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]".[32] 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 would indicate an anti-Ukrainian position.[33]

Kravchuk in Poland in June 2013.

In July 2020, Kravchuk was chosen to represent Ukraine at the Trilateral Contact Group (formed to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the war in Donbas), being appointed to replace Leonid Kuchma.[34][35] He maintained this position until February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.[36][25]

Death and funeral

[edit]

Kravchuk had heart surgery in June 2021. He was reportedly in ill health by this time. On 29 June 2021, he missed the solemn meeting of the Verkhovna Rada on the occasion of Constitution Day due to heart surgery. After surgery, Kravchuk was placed in intensive care and connected to a ventilator. In July, the media reported that Kravchuk had been in intensive care for a month.

On 10 May 2022, a family member told the Ukrainian News Agency that Kravchuk had died at the age of 88, after a long illness.[13] His death was also confirmed by unnamed officials in Kyiv, as well as Andriy Yermak, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office.[37] He died a week after Belarus's Stanislav Shushkevich, another signatory to the Belovezh Accords, died in Minsk. On 11 May, President Zelenskyy issued a decree establishing the Kravchuk Prize in his memory.

His funeral ceremony took place on 17 May at the Ukrainian House in Kyiv, and was attended by President Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska as well as three former presidents of Ukraine: Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Petro Poroshenko. In addition, guests included his wife Antonina, Mayor Vitali Klitschko of Kyiv, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, and former politicians Oleksandr Kuzmuk, Oleksandr Moroz, and Mustafa Dzhemilev. He was buried at Baikove Cemetery.[38]

Personal life

[edit]

Kravchuk married Antonina Mykhailivna Mishura in 1957.[8][7] She rarely attended official events with her husband.[7]

Kravchuk and his wife had one child, Oleksandr Leonidovych Kravchuk (born 1959), president of the State Company "Nafkom-Ahro" and the former FC Nafkom Brovary. Kravchuk had two grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. After Kravchuk stopped working for the Ukrainian state, he lived in a state-owned dacha in Koncha-Zaspa.[39]

Legacy

[edit]

He is often associated as a key figure in achieving Ukraine's independence and in giving up Ukraine's nuclear arsenal.[5][40][37]

Former Belarusian leader, Stanislav Shushkevich, who took part in the Belovezha talks and signed the deal, said; "Kravchuk was focused on Ukraine's independence, he was proud that Ukraine declared its independence in a referendum and he was elected president on 1 December 1991." Following his death, Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Oleksii Reznikov, said, "Thank you for the peaceful renewal of our Independence. We're defending it now with weapons in our hands." Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said it was "Sad news and a great loss," describing Kravchuk as "a wise patriot of Ukraine, a truly historical figure in gaining our independence."[6] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid tribute to Kravchuk, calling him not just a historical figure but "a man who knew how to find wise words and to say them so that all Ukrainians would hear them."[37]

Awards and honors

[edit]

References

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  1. ^ Authority transferred on 22 August 1992.
  1. ^ "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the I convocation" (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine official portal. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  2. ^ "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the II convocation" (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine official portal. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  3. ^ "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the III convocation" (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine official portal. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  4. ^ "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VI convocation" (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine official portal. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Leonid Kravchuk, independent Ukraine's first president, dies at 88". Reuters. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d Steele, Jonathan (11 May 2022). "Leonid Kravchuk obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  7. ^ a b c First ladies of Ukraine, ITAR-TASS (6 June 2014).
  8. ^ a b c Bush, Barbara (1994). Barbara Bush: A Memoir. New York: Scribner. p. 428. ISBN 0-7432-5447-3. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  9. ^ Patil, Anushka (11 May 2022). "Leonid Kravchuk, First President of an Independent Ukraine, Dies at 88". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  10. ^ "Global Youth Leadership - Студреспубліка". 19 December 2012.
  11. ^ https://afsa.org/sites/default/files/fsj-2019-11-november.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  12. ^ a b c d e Wesolowsky, Tony (11 May 2022). "Leonid Kravchuk, First President Of Independent Ukraine, Dead At 88". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  13. ^ a b c Hirasnova, Tara (10 May 2022). "Leonid Kravchuk dead. First president of Ukraine passed away at 88". Ukranews. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  14. ^ A reform that ruined the Soviet Union, The Ukrainian Week (10 November 2018)
  15. ^ Kyiv, Staff and agencies in (10 May 2022). "Leonid Kravchuk, first president of Ukraine, dies aged 88". the Guardian. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  16. ^ Presidential decree 98/92, rada.gov.ua; accessed 3 January 2017.
  17. ^ "The President's News Conference With President Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine". 6 May 1992. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017.
  18. ^ "Leonid Kravchuk: The man who buried the Soviet Union". Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com). 10 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  19. ^ Donaldson, Robert H. (2005). The Foreign Policy of Russia: Changing Systems, Enduring Interests. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-2741-4.
  20. ^ Burant, Stephen R. (1995). "Foreign Policy and National Identity: A Comparison of Ukraine and Belarus". Europe-Asia Studies. 47 (7): 1125–1144. doi:10.1080/09668139508412312. ISSN 0966-8136. JSTOR 152590.
  21. ^ Tür, Özlem. "NATO'S RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA AND UKRAINE" (PDF). Middle East Technical University, Department of International Relations, Ankara, Turkey.
  22. ^ a b "1991-1994 - President Leonid M. Kravchuk". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  23. ^ a b "A brief history of corruption in Ukraine: the Kravchuk era". Eurasianet. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  24. ^ "Independent Ukraine's first president Leonid Kravchuk dies aged 88". Atlantic Council. 12 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  25. ^ a b "The first president of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, has died". Sloboden Pechat. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  26. ^ "Ukrainian Opposition Unveiled Masonic Conspiracy". 4 February 2003. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021.
  27. ^ Viktor Medvedchuk's Crisis Archived 6 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Ukrainska Pravda (26 June 2007).
  28. ^ Leonid Kravchuk says, Viktor Yanukovych is not against talks with Yuschenko Archived 4 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Radio Ukraine (29 November 2004).
  29. ^ Kravchuk left SDP, 5.ua; accessed 3 January 2017. (in Ukrainian)
  30. ^ Kravchuk leaves Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united), Interfax-Ukraine (25 September 2009).
  31. ^ (in Russian) Кравчук стал доверенным лицом Тимошенко на президентских выборах Archived 23 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Focus (21 October 2009).
  32. ^ Interfax-Ukraine (27 October 2009).
  33. ^ Kravchuk explains his drift to Tymoshenko Archived 14 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine, zik.com.ua (21 December 2009).
  34. ^ Service, s Ukrainian (28 July 2020). "Kuchma Quits As Presidential Envoy In Group For Resolving Conflict In Ukraine". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  35. ^ "Zelenskyy Appoints Gerontocrats to Negotiate With Russia in Minsk (Part One)". Jamestown. 11 August 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  36. ^ "Leonid Kravchuk, first president of independent Ukraine, dies at 88". TVP World. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  37. ^ a b c "Leonid Kravchuk, independent Ukraine's 1st president, dies". Associated Press. 10 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  38. ^ "The presidential couple took part in the farewell ceremony for Leonid Kravchuk". Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  39. ^ "Ukrayinska Pravda exposes president's Mezhygirya deal", Kyiv Post (6 May 2009).
  40. ^ S.A, Telewizja Polska. "Leonid Kravchuk, first president of independent Ukraine, dies at 88". tvpworld.com. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  41. ^ "Про присвоєння звання Герой України". zakon.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  42. ^ "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №277/2020". president.gov.ua. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  43. ^ "Указ Президента України № 4/2007 від 9 січня 2007 року «Про нагородження Л. Кравчука орденом князя Ярослава Мудрого»". zakon.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  44. ^ "Указ Президента України № 11/2004 від 10 січня 2004 року «Про нагородження Л. Кравчука орденом князя Ярослава Мудрого»". zakon.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  45. ^ "Указ Президента України № 6/99 від 10 січня 1999 року «Про нагородження відзнакою Президента України "Орден князя Ярослава Мудрого"»". zakon.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  46. ^ "Указ Президента України № 731/96 від 21 серпня 1996 року «Про нагородження відзнакою Президента України "Орден князя Ярослава Мудрого"»". zakon.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  47. ^ "О награждении Л. Кравчука орденом Свободы". search.ligazakon.ua. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  48. ^ "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №336/2016". president.gov.ua. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  49. ^ "Ольга Сумская актриса года, а Александр Жеребко молодой деятель искусств — премия «Celebrity Awards 2020»". hronika.info. 21 September 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  50. ^ "Биография". leonid-kravchuk.com.ua. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  51. ^ a b "Леонід Макарович Кравчук". president.gov.ua. Archived from the original on 25 December 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
[edit]
Political offices
Preceded by Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine
1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairman of Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR /
Chairman of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
1990–1991 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Office created
 President of Ukraine
1991–1994 		Succeeded by
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