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Leonid Kravchuk

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In this name that followsEastern Slavic naming customs,thepatronymicisMakarovychand thefamily nameisKravchuk.
Leonid Kravchuk
Леонід Кравчук
Kravchuk in 1991
1stPresident of Ukraine
In office
5 December 1991 – 19 July 1994
Acting: 24 August – 5 December 1991
Prime Minister
Preceded byMykola Plaviuk(as the lastPresident in exile)[a]
Himself(as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada)
Succeeded byLeonid Kuchma
1stChairman 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 theSupreme 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 theSecretariat 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,Second Polish Republic
(nowVelykyi Zhytyn,Rivne Oblast,Ukraine)
Died10 May 2022(2022-05-10)(aged 88)
Munich,Bavaria,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. PresidentBill Clinton
Recorded 12 January 1994

Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk(Ukrainian:Леонід Макарович Кравчук,IPA:[ˈlɛ.ɔ.nʲidmɐˈka.rɔ.ʋet͡ʃkrɐu̯ˈt͡ʃuk];10 January 1934 – 10 May 2022) was a Ukrainian politician and the firstpresident of Ukraine,serving from 5 December 1991 until 19 July 1994. In 1992, he signed theLisbon Protocol,undertaking to give up Ukraine's nuclear arsenal. He was also theChairman of the Verkhovna Radaand a People's Deputy of Ukraine serving in theSocial 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 in1994.He was defeated by his formerprime 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 ofSocial 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 ofVelykyi Zhytyn(Żytyń Wielki) to an ethnic Ukrainian peasant family. At that time the village was part ofPoland(Second Polish Republic). It became part of theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republicafter theSoviet invasion of Polandin 1939 when Kravchuk was a child. His father served in thePolish armyduring the 1930s, and later he and his wife worked for the localosadniks(Polish colonists). DuringWorld 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 Statesfrom 1989 to 1993,Barbara Bush(wife of the41stPresident of the United StatesGeorge 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 inChernivtsi,in southwest Ukraine, before entering politics. Kravchuk joined theCommunist Party of Ukrainein 1958 and rose through the ranks of the party and of itsagitpropdepartment.[9]

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

Presidency[edit]

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 UkrainianCommunist Party Bureauin 1989, and on 23 July 1990, becameChairman 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 August1991 Soviet coup attempt,Kravchuk, who did not support the attempt to remove Soviet Union leaderMikhail Gorbachevfrom power, resigned from the Communist Party.[13]After the Verkhovna Rada passed theAct of Declaration of Independence of Ukraineon 24 August, the constitution was amended to create the post ofPresident 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 bothde factoandde jurehead of state. Later that year, on 5 December 1991, voters formally elected him president in Ukraine'sfirst presidential election.Just a few days before on 1 December, the votersvoted overwhelminglyto 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 98/92About the changes in the system of central bodies of executive power of Ukraine.[16]

On 6 May 1992, Kravchuk met PresidentGeorge H. W. Bushin 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 theBudapest Memorandum.The document was signed on 5 December 1994 at the summit of theOrganization for Security and Cooperation in EuropeinBudapest.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 andPresident of the Russian FederationBoris Yeltsinsigned theBelavezha 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 ofUkrainian–Russian tensionsand a policy of cooperation with Moscow.[18]

Kravchuk refused to retain the common armed forces and currency inside theCommonwealth 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 ofNATO 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 theSoviet Navy's Black Sea Fleet should be divided. In May 1992, Russia's Supreme Soviet voted to declare the Soviet government's 1954 grant ofCrimeato Ukraine an illegal act. Ukraine opposed this decision. The status of the RussianBlack Sea Fleet's presence inSevastopoland 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 in1994but 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 theSocial Democratic Party of Ukraine (united)(SDPU(o)). He served as a member of theVerkhovna Radafrom 1994 until the2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[25][13]

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

During the2004 presidential electionsKravchuk actively supported the candidacy ofViktor 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 newspaperDenthat he left SDPU(o) and became unaffiliated again. He explained this based on the fact that his former party decided to join theBloc of Left and Center-left Forcesto run for the2010 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]KravchukendorsedYulia Tymoshenkoduring the 2010 presidential elections campaign.[31]

During the 2010 election campaign, he accused incumbent presidentViktor Yushchenkoof 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: theUkrainian language,culture,and theHolodomor."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 ananti-Ukrainianposition.[33]

Kravchuk inPolandin June 2013.

In July 2020, Kravchuk was chosen to represent Ukraine at theTrilateral Contact Group(formed to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to thewar in Donbas), being appointed to replaceLeonid Kuchma.[34][35]He maintained this position until February 2022 whenRussia 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 theVerkhovna Radaon the occasion of Constitution Day due to heart surgery. After surgery, Kravchuk was placed in intensive care and connected to aventilator.In July, the media reported that Kravchuk had been in intensive care for a month.

On 10 May 2022, a family member told theUkrainian News Agencythat 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 asAndriy Yermak,head of Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy's office.[37]He died a week after Belarus'sStanislav Shushkevich,another signatory to theBelovezh 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 theUkrainian Housein Kyiv, and was attended by President Zelenskyy and First LadyOlena Zelenskaas well as three former presidents of Ukraine:Leonid Kuchma,Viktor Yushchenko,andPetro Poroshenko.In addition, guests included his wifeAntonina,MayorVitali Klitschkoof Kyiv, Defence MinisterOleksii Reznikov,and former politiciansOleksandr Kuzmuk,Oleksandr Moroz,andMustafa Dzhemilev.He was buried atBaikove Cemetery.[38]

Personal life[edit]

Kravchuk marriedAntonina Mykhailivna Mishurain 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 formerFC Nafkom Brovary.Kravchuk had two grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. After Kravchuk stopped working for the Ukrainian state, he lived in a state-owneddachainKoncha-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, UkrainianMinister 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 theOffice 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 PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyypaid 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[edit]

  1. ^Authority transferred on 22 August 1992.
  1. ^"People's Deputy of Ukraine of the I convocation"(in Ukrainian).Verkhovna Rada of Ukraineofficial portal.Retrieved22 December2014.
  2. ^"People's Deputy of Ukraine of the II convocation"(in Ukrainian).Verkhovna Rada of Ukraineofficial portal.Retrieved22 December2014.
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  4. ^"People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VI convocation"(in Ukrainian).Verkhovna Rada of Ukraineofficial portal.Retrieved22 December2014.
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  10. ^"Global Youth Leadership - Студреспубліка".19 December 2012.
  11. ^https://afsa.org/sites/default/files/fsj-2019-11-november.pdf
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  16. ^Presidential decree 98/92,rada.gov.ua; accessed 3 January 2017.
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  31. ^(in Russian)Кравчук стал доверенным лицом Тимошенко на президентских выборахArchived23 July 2012 at theWayback Machine,Focus(21 October 2009).
  32. ^Interfax-Ukraine(27 October 2009).
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External links[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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