Petro Symonenko is one of those politicians who Ukraine is trying to erase from his life today, although he spent more than 20 years in the ranks of government officials. He has vast experience, but his political views are not shared by the current "elite" of this country.
Simonenko is a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of several convocations, a “chronic” presidential candidate. The permanent leader of the Communists is currently considered disgraced. His house was burned, the security service is interested in his personality, and at official events of the imposing Simonenko you will no longer see ...
Childhood and Youth Politics
Simonenko Petr Nikolaevich was born on August 1, 1952 in the city of Stalin, Ukrainian SSR. Today it is Donetsk. His parents were visitors from the Zaporizhzhya region. My father worked as a tractor driver, and his mother as a hospital nurse. The family was very simple, lived modestly.
From early childhood, the boy had to think about how difficult it is to get a piece of bread. He looked at the hard work of his parents, and he tried to help himself. So, for example, young Peter had a swimming rank, participated in competitions, for which he received food stamps. In general, sport occupied an important place in his life. In addition to swimming, he was fond of boxing. In the last sport, he achieved good success, and if he continued to engage in boxing, then perhaps today we knew about him as an outstanding athlete, not politics.
But the profession after school, Pyotr Symonenko, whose biography began in the Donbass, chose a traditional one for the region and is not related to the sports field. The young man entered the Donetsk Polytechnic in the specialty of mining electrical engineer. In 1974, Simonenko graduated from this institute with honors.
Start of work
However, he did not have to work long in the specialty. Just a year, the newly-minted engineer worked as a designer at the Donetsk Design Institute Dongiprouglemash. He got settled there right after graduation - in 1974, and left already in 1975.
Sixteen years later, Simonenko once again tried to realize himself in the industrial sector, replacing the head of the Ukruglemash corporation. But still, the main area of activity for him was public work, and then - big politics.
The first political trials
Petr Nikolaevich Simonenko began his active political life in 1975 with the post of instructor of the Donetsk City Committee of the Komsomol. Then he becomes the head of the department of this structure, and a little later - the second secretary.
Having risen to the first secretary of the regional committee of the Komsomol and having stayed in this post for 6 years (from 1982 to 1988), the young and ambitious figure moves to Mariupol, where he becomes secretary of the local committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. But for a long time it does not linger. A year later, he was appointed secretary for the ideological work of the Donetsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
Seeing great prospects for himself in the management sphere, Simonenko entered and graduated from the Kiev Institute of Political Science. Now nothing prevented a professional political scientist from breaking even higher.
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine: career rise
But then the 1991th year just struck. The Union collapsed, and the activities of the CPSU, as well as the Communist Party was banned. The property of the cells was declared national property, and the structures themselves were dissolved.
A communist with many years of experience, Pyotr Nikolayevich Simonenko could not accept this state of affairs. He actively joined the movement to restore the good name and rights of the Communist Party, heading the corresponding initiative group, which, of course, was informal. The organization included some of the former secretaries of some regional committees, several parliamentary deputies and industrialists.
Simonenko again became the secretary of the Donetsk regional committee, and the group was so powerful that it even managed to hold an "underground" congress of communists of an all-Ukrainian nature. Everything happened in complete secrecy. The conference was attended by over three hundred delegates from all over the country.
In 1993, the efforts of activists were successful. On May 14, the Verkhovna Rada decided that the Communist Party of Ukraine has the right to live and create its own organizations. About a month later, the main fighter for the legitimacy of the party was elected its first secretary.
Deputy debut
Such a high position in the party, which continued to remain a rather influential force in Ukraine, simply obliged the son of the tractor driver and the nurse to go further. And he went. And in March 1994, Pyotr Nikolaevich fell into the Verkhovna Rada as a deputy. In addition to Simonenko, the Communist Party of Ukraine was represented there by almost a hundred people elected, and this was a very good result.
The Communists formed a faction, and, naturally, led a brilliant orator and a very active person, Pyotr Nikolaevich, to lead it. He also served on a committee dealing with issues of spirituality and culture.
As a deputy of this convocation, Simonenko distinguished himself by a fierce struggle against the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk and the support of his successor, Leonid Kuchma. He also opposed the Constitution, adopted in 1996.
The second term as deputy of the Rada
In the next elections to the Verkhovna Rada, the Communists again expected success. They managed to form the largest parliamentary faction of 119 people. It has traditionally been headed by Petr Nikolaevich Simonenko.
This time, he concentrated his parliamentary efforts not on culture and spirituality, but on legal reform in the country, having entered the relevant committee. Twice the ambitious communist tried to take the place of Speaker of the Rada, but both times he did not have enough for this, only five votes.
"Chronic" deputy
After the termination of the powers of the Verkhovna Rada of the third convocation, Simonenko again ran for her deputies. And successfully passes. And this "story" is repeated over and over. The main communist of the country did not leave the walls of parliament from 1994 to 2014, until the onset of the crisis in Ukraine.
Each time, his political power gained less and less votes, but Petr Symonenko was always among those who passed to Rada. Ukraine is used to it. He continued to be an excellent speaker, giving fiery speeches from the parliamentary rostrum, and conquered the hearts of ladies with an impressive appearance, flickering almost every day on television screens.
During the Orange Revolution, he supported President Kuchma, and then fought with Viktor Yushchenko. He is the author of the draft Constitution, where Ukraine is declared a parliamentary republic, that is, the presidency is abolished. However, this project was not destined to be realized.
As the Communists played an ever smaller role in parliament, they were forced to constantly unite with someone. The most long-term and productive alliance of Symonenko’s associates was with the Party of Regions. The latter has also ceased to exist.
Presidential epic
In 1999, a citizen of Ukraine Petro Symonenko made his first attempt to take the country's top post and put forward his candidacy for president. The campaign brought the Communist a resounding success. He scored 22.24 percent of the vote and entered the second round, but in the end he lost the fight to Leonid Kuchma, almost 20% behind him.
But the dream of breaking into the paramount political leaders of Ukraine does not leave Pyotr Nikolaevich. And in the next presidential race (2004), he again takes part. Attempt number two was much less successful for him. Only 4.97% of voters cast their ballots to the “steering” CPU.
And then Simonenko rolled down the slope. In the 2010 elections, he received 3.53%, and as a result of the early election campaign in 2014, only 1.53%. True, Petr Nikolaevich changed his mind after participating in the 2014 elections after some time after registration. But it was already too late to remove the candidate, and he had to go this way to the end.
Ukrainian crisis and Simonenko
One of the victims of the “fire” that swept the country at the end of 2013 was Petr Symonenko. The situation in Ukraine escalated every day more and more, and the Communists opposed the Maidan, as they once opposed the "orange".
The support of President Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions turned out to be fatal for them and, it seems, blocked the path to high state posts for a long time. Ukraine today is investigating the facts of the anti-state activities of the Communist Party, and the permanent leader of the "Reds" was forced to leave the country. The rebels burned his house, and the SBU threatens to hold Simonenko accountable, accusing him of separatism.
The ideological pillars of Simonenko
For many years of his state activity, Petr Symonenko has proved himself to be a very integral and consistent politician. He always adhered to his ideals and never abandoned the previously spoken words.
He traditionally advocated the nationalization of strategically important objects of the country, free medicine, the Russian language as the second state language, the non-aligned status of Ukraine, etc. He did not believe in the deliberate famine of 32-33 of the 20th century and the evil intentions of Stalin, who resettled Crimean Tatars to the north. He condemned Shukhevych and other nationalists and did not perceive the Ukrainian state flag, under which, according to him, some Ukrainians met fascists at one time.
The personal life of Peter Nikolaevich
In 1974, the very young Petr Symonenko married his former classmate Svetlana. In this marriage two sons were born - Andrei and Konstantin.
In 2009, the family broke up. 57-year-old Petr Nikolaevich fell in love with 32-year-old journalist Oksana Vashchuk and married her. The new wife also gave Simonenko two children - daughter Maria, born in 2009, and son, Ivan, born in 2010. In addition, the politician has grandchildren - Vladimir and Elizabeth.
Simonenko claims to be happy in his second marriage. This famous citizen of Ukraine continues to be a prominent man and to carry out active work, though it is already outside the borders of his native country or, at least, “underground”.
Will Pyotr Nikolaevich be able to return to his country with his head proudly raised, time will tell. At the same time, the road is closed to him there. The same applies to all his colleagues who consider themselves to be Communists and are not afraid to talk about it loudly, since the detail of the party is prohibited in Ukraine. Perhaps, after some time, more loyal to the communists political forces will come to power in the country, then the current situation may change.