Viktor Andreevich Yushchenko is the third President of Ukraine (2005 – 2010), Prime Minister of Ukraine (1999 – 2001), Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (1993 – 2000), leader of the Orange Revolution.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on February 23, 1954 in the village of Khoruzhivka, Sumy region.
His father, Andriy Yushchenko, taught English at a local school after the war, and his mother, Varvara Yushchenko, worked as a teacher of physics and mathematics.
The future president graduated from the Ternopil Institute of Finance and Economics, which he graduated in 1975. He has a PhD in Economics – he defended his dissertation on the topic “Development of money supply and demand in Ukraine”.
He is also an academician of the Academy of Economic Sciences of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Academy of Economic Cybernetics.
Career
In 1975, he worked as an assistant chief accountant at the collective farm “40th anniversary of October”. In the same year, he began to serve in the border troops on the Soviet-Turkish border.
From 1976 to 1985, he worked as an economist and headed the Ulyanovsk branch of the State Bank of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). After that, he held the position of Deputy Head of the Department of the Ukrainian Republican Office of the State Bank.
In 1988 – 1990, Yushchenko worked as the head of the department, and later – deputy chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Republican Bank of the USSR Agroprombank.
In the period from 1990 to 1993, he held the positions of deputy, and then first deputy chairman of the board of the Republican Joint Stock Commercial Agro-Industrial Bank “Ukraine”.
From 1993 to 1999, he headed the Board and the National Bank of Ukraine.
From 2003 to January 2005, he served as Chairman of the Board of Our Ukraine and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund.
In May 2018, he headed the supervisory board of Alpari Bank.
Political Activities
In 1999, Yushchenko was elected Prime Minister of Ukraine, but in April 2001 he was dismissed. In the decree of the then President Leonid Kuchma, the resignation of the government was indicated as the official reason.
After his dismissal from the post of Prime Minister, Yushchenko headed the Ukrainian-Russian Institute of Management and Business named after Boris Yeltsin, where he worked until the parliamentary elections of 2002.
After being elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the list of the Our Ukraine bloc, he became the head of the faction and became a member of the Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations.
In 2004, Yushchenko ran for the post of president of Ukraine, and his main rival was the then Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
In early September of the same year, Yushchenko was admitted to the Rudolfinerhaus clinic in Austria with symptoms of severe poisoning. His headquarters announced an attempted poisoning.
On October 31, 2004, the first round of presidential elections took place. According to its results, Yushchenko received 39.90% of the votes, while Yanukovych gained 39.26%. According to the statements of both Ukrainian and international organizations, numerous violations of citizens’ electoral rights were recorded during the tour.
On November 21, the second round of presidential elections took place, which, according to most international organizations, was also accompanied by violations of electoral law. Large-scale falsifications were reported, including interference with the electronic vote counting system of the Central Election Commission (CEC). In the end, it was decided to hold a second vote, which took place on December 26.
These events took place against the backdrop of mass protests by citizens. The actions became large-scale and went down in history as the Orange Revolution.
On December 26, 2004, a second round of voting took place, which, according to experts, was much more democratic compared to the previous rounds. Yushchenko then won 51.99% of the vote, and Yanukovych gained 44.20%.
On January 23, 2005, Yushchenko was inaugurated.
In October 2012, he headed the “Our Ukraine” party in the parliamentary elections, but the political force failed to overcome the 5% barrier.
Marital Status
Yushchenko is married, has five children and four grandchildren.
His wife, Kateryna Yushchenko, heads the Supervisory Board of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund and is engaged in charity.
Children: sons Andriy and Taras, daughters Vitalina, Sofia and Khrystyna.
