Ivan Plyush

Date of Birth: 11.09.1941

Place of Birth. Education. Born in the settlement of Borzna in the Chernihiv region. In 1959, he graduated from Borzna Agricultural College. Later, he obtained degrees from the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy (1967) and the Academy of Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Moscow (1979). Candidate of Economic Sciences, defended his dissertation in 2001 on the topic 'Reforming Economic Relations in Ukraine's Agricultural Industry'.

Career in the USSR... After college, Plyush worked as the brigadier of a vegetable growing collective farm in Khmelevik, agronomist of the collective farm of the XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, head of the district of the Voikivsky collective farm (in the Baryshivsky district near Kyiv).

1967-1974 - Director of the Kirow Collective Farm, the Lenin Collective Farm in the same district. Subsequently, he worked in specialized agricultural enterprises for vegetables and dairy products and in the Kyiv regional committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1984, he became the chairman of the executive committee of the Kyiv Oblast. From 1990 to 1991, he served as the First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Under Plyush's chairmanship, the deputies adopted the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine on July 16, 1990.

...and in the post-Soviet period. Member of the Ukrainian Parliament in the I-IV convocations. He served twice as Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine - from December 1992 to April 1994 and from February 2000 to May 2002.

In 1994, he ran for the presidency of Ukraine. He received 1.29% of the votes and took sixth place out of seven candidates.

Since 2005, he has been the honorary chairman of the Party for the Revival of the Village.

In 2006, he ran as a people's deputy for the Kostyuk and Plyush Block. The political force did not reach the three percent threshold.

Since May 2007, he has been the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC).

In the early parliamentary elections of 2007, he was on the passenger side of the list (in 23rd place) of the pro-presidential block Our Ukraine - Self-Defense. In November, he received a mandate as a deputy, after which he resigned from the position of Secretary of the NSDC. In the winter of 2011, he left the Our Ukraine - Self-Defense faction.

On March 31, 2010, he was appointed extraordinary adviser to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych by order of the President. On February 24, 2014, he was dismissed from this position by order of the acting president Oleksandr Turchynov.

Views and Assessments. During the presidential elections of 2004, Plyush supported the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. During the 'Orange Revolution', he was a member of the National Rescue Committee.

At various times, his relations with Yushchenko were described as very close and trustful and at the same time quite cool.

The Ukrainian political master, already displaced from the big arena by younger and more active colleagues, was unexpectedly reincarnated for many due to another political crisis. Plyush was appointed as the president's secretary of the NSDC at a critical moment for both Yushchenko and the parliamentary opposition. It was decided who would emerge from the hard clinch as the winner - the head of state or the anti-crisis coalition, and whether early parliamentary elections should be held or not. He replaced Vitaliy Hayduk, who according to some reports did not want to escalate relations with the group of 'Donbass' players in the ruling majority block.

Some members of the coalition immediately associated Plyush's appointment with an allegedly prepared violent scenario in the presidential secretariat. At the same time, Plyush, in the opinion of observers, contributed significantly to the compromise. As a result of the dialogue, the party of regions led by Yanukovych agreed to the premature dissolution of the fifth parliament and the holding of early elections.

In the final phase of the election campaign, Plyush was considered one of the candidates for the position of Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (on the condition of forming a so-called broad coalition that would consist of the Party of Regions and Our Ukraine - Self-Defense and ideally the Yulia Tymoshenko Block). By the way, unlike many members of his bloc, Plyush has long been an advocate of a 'broad' coalition. He did not decline to sign the coalition agreement to form an 'orange' coalition between Our Ukraine - Self-Defense and Batkivshchyna and to write a request for joining. He was among the seven signers from UNS who were the most resolute and unwavering.

On December 4, 2007, Plyush was the only one of 228 members of the Batkivshchyna and UNS blocs who attended the session of the Verkhovna Rada during which the vote was held for the election of the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Arseniy Yatsenyuk (he received 227 votes). According to the leader of the People's Defense Yuri Lutsenko, the former head of the NSDC preferred to attend a football match with Shakhtar in Donetsk rather than to be present. Accompanied by members of the Party of Regions Rinat Akhmetov and Boris Kolesnikov.

Awards. The former speaker of Parliament - Hero of Ukraine (2001). Awarded the Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Honor, and the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise of IV-V class.

Family. The politician is married. He has a daughter.

Death. Died on June 25, 2014 from cancer. He was buried on June 27 at the Bajkove Cemetery.

26.06.2014