Petr Simonenko
Biography of Petr Simonenko
Date of Birth: 01.08.1952
Place of Birth. Education. Petr Simonenko was born in Donetsk. Between 1969 and 1974, he graduated as a Mining Engineer-Electromechanic from the Donetsk Polytechnic Institute. In 1991, he graduated from the Kiev Institute of Political Science and Social Management.
Career. In 1974, Simonenko began working as a designer at the Donetsk Institute Donugrilemasch. From 1975, he was involved in Komsomol and party work. He served as an instructor, department head, secretary of the city and regional committees of the Komsomol in Donetsk, as well as secretary of the Central Committee of the LKSMU. Until the collapse of the USSR, he held leadership positions in the Mariupol City Committee and the KPU-Oblast Donetsk. After the ban on party activity in 1991, he worked as the Deputy General Director of the Ukrhlemash Corporation.
In 1993, after the legalization of the party, he was appointed First Secretary of the KPU-Oblast Donetsk. In June 1993, he was elected as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the KPU at the party congress in Donetsk, which effectively followed the CPSU in Ukraine.
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From 1994, Simonenko was elected five consecutive times to the Verkhovna Rada. Each time, he led the parliamentary faction of the KPU. In the first parliament, he worked in the Committee for Culture and Spirituality of the Verkhovna Rada, in the subsequent parliaments in the Committee for Legal Policy.
He participated multiple times in the presidential elections in Ukraine. In 1999, he was among the competitors of Leonid Kuchma, being the strongest candidate: he reached the runoff but was unable to win. His participation in the 2004 presidential campaign was also unsuccessful.
Year after year, the popularity of the Communist Party among voters declined. In 1998, they received 128 seats in parliament, but in 2002, it was only half as much. In the 2006 parliamentary elections, the KPU received only 21 mandates. In the summer of 2006, the KPU became a ruling party (for the first time in its recent history). After the elections, Simonenko and his supporters agreed to form a so-called Anti-Crisis Coalition together with the Party of Regions and the Socialist Party of Ukraine. However, due to the alliance with the 'oligarchs from Donetsk', the party and its leadership received much criticism. Nevertheless, the KPU did not stay in power long. After the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada in 2007, Simonenko's party remained outside the parliamentary coalition. In 2010, Simonenko ran again for president but received even fewer votes than in the previous presidential election.
After Viktor Yanukovych came to power, the KPU joined the reformed coalition 'Stability and Reforms.' And after the Constitutional Court restored the validity of the 1996 constitution, and no coalition was needed anymore, the party entered the main majority.
On January 16, 2014, he voted for the 'dictatorial laws' - a package of anti-democratic laws that significantly restricted citizens' rights and freedom of speech.
On March 25, 2014, the KPU nominated Petr Simonenko as a presidential candidate of Ukraine. On May 16, during the televised debate between presidential candidates, he announced his withdrawal from the race, but ZIK did not accept this request due to the expiration of the deadline for withdrawing candidacies. In the election, Petr Simonenko placed 9th among all candidates with a result of 1.51%.
On August 15, 2014, Simonenko was suspected by SBU. According to law enforcement agencies, Petr Simonenko requested assistance from the Kremlin during the occupation of the Kyiv region to be evacuated from Berezovka in the Makar district by special forces of the RF. After that, Simonenko moved to Russia, where he became an official of the Kremlin organization of Communists under the leadership of Gennady Zyuganov. In October 2022, Petr Simonenko participated in the Congress of Communists in Cuba, where he attempted to legalize the occupation of part of the Ukrainian territory. In April 2023, he appeared at another propaganda event in Minsk, where he advocated for a continuation of the RF aggression against Ukraine and called for a tactical nuclear strike.
Views and Evaluations. According to experts, the loss of trust in the KPU led to a general decline in the popularity of the communist ideology, as well as the policies of the official opposition leader under Simonenko (especially during the Kuchma presidency), which often contradicted the statements of the opposition. Not for nothing did a part of the KP electorate temporarily give their vote to the Social Party. After the early elections in 2007, the KPU received 27 mandates (six more than a year and a half earlier). Although this, in the opinion of some observers, was rather not due to the merits of the Communists, but to the lack of qualifications of the Regions.