Jewgeni Markusch
Date of Birth: 28.01.1941
Place of Birth. Education. Born in the village of Dolynivka, Hayvoron district, Kirovohrad region. In 1963 he graduated from the Kirovohrad Pedagogical Institute (specializing as a teacher of German, Ukrainian, and literature). A second higher education degree - in law. Doctor of legal sciences.
Career. Began his career in 1963 as an employee of the KGB in the Kirovohrad region.
From 1965 to 1988, Markusch worked as a junior and senior staff member, department head, deputy head, and inspection head of the KGB. In 1988 he took over the leadership of the KGB department in the Poltava region.
Since 1990, he was the first deputy chairman of the KGB of the USSR. From June to November 1991 - State Minister for Defense, National Security, and Emergency Situations of Ukraine. From November 1991 to July 1994 - Head of the Security Service of Ukraine. Military rank - Army General (since 1994).
In July 1994, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, and in October of that year, he became the first Deputy Prime Minister. From March 1995 to June 1996 - Prime Minister of Ukraine.
He participated in the presidential elections in 1999, where he received 2,138,356 votes in the first round (8.13% of all votes). In the final of the presidential campaign in November 1999, he was appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine by President Leonid Kuchma, who was again running for the presidency.
From June 2003 to September 2004, he served as Minister of Defense of Ukraine before being replaced by General Oleksandr Kuzmuk following Kuchma's initiated dismissal.
He was elected a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine twice - in 1995 and 1998. In the II parliamentary coalition, he led the faction of the Social Market Economic Electoral Bloc. In the III Parliament, he later headed the faction of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (new left) and then was part of the Independent group. He was a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Defense and State Security and chaired the Committee on Social Policy and Labor.
In December 2004, after resigning as Minister of Defense, Markusch became the chairman of the Freedom Party. The party participated in the parliamentary elections in 2006 as part of the block 'Yevhen Markusch - Unity', which received only 17,000 votes (0.06%) and took 37th place out of 45 possible seats.
On May 19, 2008, he was appointed extraordinary advisor to the President of Ukraine by the order of President Viktor Yushchenko. In March 2010, he was dismissed by order of his successor Viktor Yanukovych.
In December 2014, he took over the leadership of the International Secretariat for Security and Civil Cooperation between Ukraine and NATO.
In May 2015, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko appointed Markusch as the representative of Ukraine in the working group on security in the Trilateral Contact Group for peace settlement in Eastern Ukraine.
On November 22, 2018, the President Petro Poroshenko appointed Yevhen Markusch as the representative of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk to address the situation in Eastern Ukraine.
On May 19, 2019, the President Petro Poroshenko relieved Markusch of the duty to represent Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group.
Views and evaluations. Markusch is counted among the masters and heavyweights of Ukrainian politics and is regarded as an expert in intrigues and political backgrounds.
From his office as Prime Minister, he was dismissed, as was common during Kuchma's presidency, for 'creating his own political image'.
Experts in the Ukrainian 'art of the possible' remember Markusch as one of the members of the 'Kanev Quartet'. This included Oleksandr Moros, Volodymyr Oliynyk, and Oleksandr Tkachenko. During the 1999 presidential elections, these politicians aimed to prevent Kuchma from coming to power again by fielding a common candidate. However, following the worst traditions of Ukrainian politics, they broke apart at the crucial moment and went separate ways in the first round. Ultimately, Ukrainians had to choose between the already 'worn-out' Kuchma and the communist Petro Symonenko. Some observers saw the dissolution of the 'Kanev Quartet' as the work of 'Danilchyk'. Markusch's appointment as Secretary of the NSDCU after the first round was also received controversially.
After the defeat in the 2006 elections, Markusch withdrew from active political life. However, he occasionally commented on various sensational events.
A few months before his appointment as presidential advisor in February 2008, he was appointed to the Senior Council. To 'ensure the democratic development of the state and preserve positive traditions', it was created by the first president of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, by inviting well-known but 'forgotten' figures like Volodymyr Fokin, Valeriy Pustovoit, and others.
Family. Markusch's wife is Larissa Ivshyna, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Den. The politician has two sons from his first marriage (Taras and Vadym) and several grandchildren.
Death. Yevhen Markusch died on August 5, 2021, at the age of 81 from cardiac arrest.
05.08.2021.