Last First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party on the eve of the Soviet dissolution
Addressing the Central Committee upon his election as First Secretary in June 1990: "We will never return to the days when the party monopolised power. But neither will we allow Ukraine to become a testing ground for political experiments."
A mechanical engineer by training, Gurenko rose from technologist to factory director at the Donetsk Machine-Building Plant before turning to party work in 1976. He served as secretary of the Donetsk Oblast Party Committee and deputy chairman of the Ukrainian SSR Council of Ministers, and took part in the disaster response as deputy chairman of the state commission after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Backed by Gorbachev, he became First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party Central Committee and a full member of the CPSU Politburo in June 1990, only to resign in August 1991 when party activity was banned after the failed coup. In independent Ukraine he returned to parliament and chaired the economic policy committee, helping reorganize the former communist political current.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1958–1976Donetsk Machine-Building Plant: engineer-technologist → director (1970–1976)
- 1976–1980Secretary, Donetsk Oblast Committee, Communist Party of Ukraine
- 1980–1987Deputy Chairman, Council of Ministers, Ukrainian SSR
- 1986Deputy Chairman, State Commission for the Chernobyl accident
- 1987–1990Secretary → Second Secretary, CPU Central Committee
- 1990–1991First Secretary, CPU Central Committee; Member, CPSU Politburo
- 1998–2006People's Deputy, Verkhovna Rada (3rd–4th convocations); Chairman, Committee on Economic Policy
The Soviet Politburo
- Full member 1990.07–1991.08
served until the party ban of 1991.11
Related historical events
Debates over the Ukrainian Communist Party’s economic autonomy
Gurenko became First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party Central Committee in June 1990, during late-Soviet debates about party reorganization and the republic’s economic autonomy. In Leonid Kravchuk’s recollection, the two discussed drafting a new party programme and statute, and Gurenko was taken aback when Kravchuk proposed separate Ukrainian party documents. The party adopted “programmatic principles” rather than a programme, and for the first time passed a resolution on the republic’s economic independence. The recollection indicates that the scope of autonomy was debated within the party, but it does not independently establish Gurenko’s reaction or that he led these decisions.