Leonid Kuchma

Kuchma, Leonid [Кучма, Леонід; Kučma], b 9 August 1938 in Chaikyne, Novhorod-Siverskyi raion, Chernihiv oblast . Second president (1994–2004) and second prime minister (1992–93) of independent Ukraine; head of the Council for National Security and Defense of Ukraine (1994–2004) and of the President of Ukraine ’s Higher Economic Council (1997–2001). Kuchma graduated as a mechanical engineer from Dnipropetrovsk University in 1960. Later he obtained a candidate of technical sciences degree. Beginning his career as an engineer in the Pivdenne Construction Firm in Dnipropetrovsk , he worked his way up to general director (1986–92) of the Pivdennyi Machine-Building Plant (then the world’s largest missile factory) in that city and also worked for three years as head technician at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Soviet rocket-launching and -testing site in Kazakhstan. In March 1990 Kuchma was elected to the Supreme Council of Ukraine from a Dnipropetrovsk constituency. He was appointed a member of the parliamentary Commission on Defense and State Security. On 4 October 1992 he was co-opted to the science and technology panel advising President Leonid Kravchuk , who soon after, on 13 October, appointed Kuchma his prime minister. Kuchma held that post until 21 September 1993, when his repeated requests to be relieved were finally met. During his term as prime minister, Kuchma tried to introduce economic reforms, but these efforts were stymied by Kravchuk’s populist actions. At that time Kuchma was one of the organizers, with Vladimir Grinev, of the Inter-regional Bloc for Reforms (MBR) and president (December 1993–July 1994) of the Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (USPP). In 1994 Kuchma ran for the office of president of Ukraine and won second place among seven candidates, winning 31.3 percent of the vote on 26 June. In the second round, on 10 July, he defeated the incumbent, Kravchuk, winning 52.1 percent of the vote to the latter’s 45.1. Kuchma’s campaign evidently benefitted from his criticism of the Kravchuk regime and from his promise to seek closer ties with The Russian Federation . He thus appealed both to the Russophone voters of southern and eastern Ukraine, where most of that electorate lives, and to his liberal, business, and reform-minded supporters in central and eastern Ukraine. Because of the narrowness of his victory and being buffeted by various pressures, Kuchma’s presidency was not much different from Leonid Kravchuk ’s. Kuchma’s first visit abroad was to Canada rather than to The Russian Federation . He achieved adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine on 28 June 1996, but not without a long period of haggling that included passage of the troublesome Law on Power and of the Constitutional Accord, nor without alienating the left wing of the Supreme Council that had initially supported him, nor without threatening to hold a referendum , just as Kravchuk had done. In the economic sphere, Kuchma approached reform more directly and with greater determination and understanding than Kravchuk, yet his achievements fell short of the target. Like Kravchuk, Kuchma fostered a ‘party of power’ to support himself politically—the People’s Democratic party (NDP) of Ukraine. His entire first term was characterized as a series of running battles with the Supreme Council over privatization, taxes, and land reform . Kuchma stood for re-election as president in 1999. In the first round of voting, on 31 October 1999, he led a field of thirteen candidates, winning 36.3 percent of the vote. In the runoff on 14 November, which was marred by violations of normal rules of fairness, he secured 56.3 percent of the vote, defeating the CPU leader, Petro Symonenko, who won 37.8 percent. Kuchma’s team portrayed the contest as a choice between restoring Soviet-style Communism and moving closer to Europe. Immediately after his re-election, Kuchma embarked on a series of dramatic policy moves, including disbanding the collective farm