Tomenko Nikolai

Biography of Nikolai Vladimirovich Tomenko

Date of birth: 11.12.1964

Nikolai Vladimirovich Tomenko is a Ukrainian politician, the head of the political party Native Land. People's Deputy of Ukraine of the IV-VIII convocations. Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (from February 8 to June 14, 2007, and again from 2008 to 2012). From February 4 to September 8, 2005, he served as Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for humanitarian issues in Yuliya Tymoshenko's government.

Place of birth. Education. He was born in the village of Malye Kanevtsy, Chernyavsky district of Cherkasy region. From 1983-1985, he served in the army and went through Afghanistan. He graduated from the historical faculty of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1989. In 1992, he completed graduate studies there, defending his PhD thesis on 'The Problem of Statehood in the Program Documents and Activities of Contemporary Political Parties in Ukraine: Historical-Political Analysis'.

Career. From 1992 to 1995, Tomenko worked as the head of the Department of Political Science at the Institute of State Administration and Self-Governance under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. From September 1994, he was an associate professor at the Department of Political Science of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, which he headed three years later. He led the expert public organizations Institute of Post-Communist Society and Institute of Politics, and was Vice President of the Ukrainian Perspective Foundation. He was at the forefront of Ukrainian political science.

From 2000 to 2001, he worked with the then Mayor of Kyiv, Oleksandr Omelychenko, as the head of the Main Department of Press and Information of the Kyiv City State Administration. It is no coincidence that, having become a People's Deputy of Ukraine (in 2002), he preferred to work in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information and was even elected its chairman. He was the author and participant of a number of legislative and public initiatives aimed at freeing Ukrainian media from censorship and securing freedom of speech in the country.

In the IV convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, Tomenko came as a member of the board of the Reform and Order party, joined the Our Ukraine faction, and did not switch to other parliamentary groups. In the 2004 presidential elections, he was one of the most active and prominent members of the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko's team, becoming his trusted person in the all-Ukrainian electoral district. He was a 'field commander' of the Maidan and became one of its heroes in the eyes of ordinary participants in the Orange Revolution. It is said that Tomenko was the one who invented or popularized the slogans of Maidan: 'East and West - together!', 'Police with the people!', 'Freedom cannot be stopped!', and also introduced the word 'daimorda' into common usage.

After Yushchenko's victory, he took the post of Vice Prime Minister for humanitarian issues in Yuliya Tymoshenko's government. In September 2005, shortly before the resignation of the entire Tymoshenko Cabinet, Tomenko submitted a resignation letter of his own accord. 'With each day, the powers of Poroshenko's government (Petro Poroshenko, who was then the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine – ed.) are growing, while the influence on the president of this government becomes external,' stated the indignant Vice Prime Minister at a press conference.

After the split in the 'orange' forces, Tomenko left the PRP, whose leader Viktor Pinzenik retained the post of Minister of Finance and, subsequently, in the next 'orange' government of Yury Yekhanurov. Shortly after his resignation, Tomenko joined the Fatherland party led by Tymoshenko. He was one of the leaders of the electoral campaign of Yulia Tymoshenko's Block in the 2006 parliamentary elections, running and winning a second term as a People's Deputy on the No. 3 list of the BYuT. In the V convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, he held the positions of Deputy Leader of the BYuT faction and Chairman of the Committee on Family Affairs, Youth Policy, Sports, and Tourism. In February 2007, he was elected Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada with 340 deputy votes. Later, like most BYuT members and Our Ukraine members, he agreed with the idea of dissolving parliament and resigned as a People's Deputy in June.

Following the early parliamentary elections of 2007, he was again elected to parliament (on the BYuT list). He was elected Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.

From December 2012 to November 2014, he was a People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VII convocation from the Fatherland party (No. 10 on the list). Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information.

On June 18, 2014, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko appointed Tomenko as his regular advisor on humanitarian issues.

In the autumn of 2014, during the snap elections, Tomenko was elected to the Verkhovna Rada on the lists of the Block of Petro Poroshenko party (under No. 8). Deputy head of the BPP deputy faction (Yuriy Lutsenko). He holds the position of Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy, Natural Resources Management, and the Elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster.

On July 13, 2015, President Poroshenko issued an order to relieve Tomenko of his duties as a regular advisor.

On February 2, 2016, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Groysman voted on Tomenko's statement about leaving the BPP faction. Tomenko explained his decision by disagreeing with the process of adopting the state budget-2016.

On March 25, 2016, the congress of the BPP party voted to strip Tomenko of his parliamentary mandate, and on March 29...