Anatoliy Matviyenko

Anatoliy Serhiyovych Matviyenko (Анатолій Сергійович Матвієнко, March 22, 1953 – May 22, 2020) was a Ukrainian politician, founder of several political parties in the country. Matviyenko was 6 times elected to the Ukrainian parliament.

Biography
Matviyenko was born on March 22, 1953, in Bershad, Vinnytsia Oblast, to a working-class family. In 1975, he graduated the Lviv Agrarian Institute, Agrarian Mechanization faculty.

Between 1975 and 1977 Matviyenko worked as a mechanic in Bershad. From 1977 he was an activist of Komsomol (LKSMU) and by 1985 became a secretary of the Central Committee of LKSMU. In 1989–91 Matviyenko became the first secretary of the Ukrainian Komsomol and became a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

As the first secretary of the Central Committee of LKSMU, in the 1990 Ukrainian Supreme Soviet election Matviyenko was elected to the Ukrainian parliament representing the group of younger people and Komsomol activists in parliament as well as Bershad electoral district. In 1990 he was recommending electing Vladimir Ivashko as the chairman of Verkhovna Rada.

Matviyenko was Governor of Vinnytsia Oblast between 1996 and 1998. In February 1996 Matviyenko became member and leader of the new People's Democratic Party.

Matviyenko returned to the Ukrainian parliament in the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election for the People's Democratic Party. He also was the party's faction leader. But Matviyenko left this party after accusing the party of being forced into supporting Leonid Kuchma in the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election. In December 1999 Matviyenko was one of the founders and first leader of the Ukrainian Republican Party "Sobor". In February 2001 he joined the council of the anti-Kuchma National Salvation Committee.

In the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election Matviyenko was elected for the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, he was placed second on its election list after Yulia Tymoshenko. From 20 April 2005 to 21 September 2005 Matviyenko was Prime Minister of Crimea. In September 2005 he resigned from the post in protest against the fact that his party members did not support the candidacy of Yuriy Yekhanurov for the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine.



Matviyenko briefly worked for the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine (at the time Viktor Yushchenko) early 2006. In the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election he was elected again to parliament for the Our Ukraine Bloc (number 12 on its electoral list). He was reelected in the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election for the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (number 22 on the list).

Matviyenko was registered as an independent candidate in his native Vinnytsia Oblast during the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election, but withdrew his candidacy in favour of Hryhoriy Zabolotny of UDAR who indeed gained a parliamentary seat (gaining 46.73% of the votes).

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Matviyenko was again elected into parliament; after placing 32nd on the electoral list of Petro Poroshenko Bloc. In October 2016 it was reported that he had declared ownership of a private church.

Matviyenko died on 22 May 2020, at the age of 67.

Matviyenko was married to Olha, and had two sons Viktor and Pavlo.