Ukrainian Social Democratic writer who led the Rada's General Secretariat and the Directory
Just as you created the dictatorship of workers and peasants in Russia, we must create a dictatorship of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian Social Democratic writer, he led the Central Rada's General Secretariat in 1917 and retook Kyiv as first chairman of the Directory in 1918. Arguing for talks with the Soviets he broke with Petliura and resigned in 1919, dying in France in 1951.
Career timeline
- 1905Co-founder of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers' Party
- 1917Vice-president of the Central Rada and first head of its General Secretariat
- 1918.01Premier of the Ukrainian People's Republic, soon resigned
- 1918.12Retook Kyiv as chairman of the Directory
- 1919–1920Wrote the memoir Rebirth of a Nation
- 1920Deputy head of the Ukrainian SSR Sovnarkom; soon re-emigrated
From Soviet economic planner to independent Ukraine’s first prime minister
In 2016, the man who had signed away the USSR revealed his own grief: 'As a man, I'm ashamed to admit it, but when Crimea was annexed, I cried like a child.'
Vitold Fokin was a Ukrainian Soviet economic official who began as a mining engineer and experienced both the operation of a planned economy and the pressures of state transformation. He led Ukraine’s government around independence while confronting economic crisis and the collapse of the Union. In December 1991, he signed the Belovezha Accords for Ukraine alongside Leonid Kravchuk, helping establish the post-Soviet order. Late in life, his controversial positions in the Donbas negotiations ended his public role.
Career timeline
- 1954–1963Mining engineer and manager in the Luhansk region
- 1963–1971Manager in the Donbas anthracite industry
- 1971–1987Department head and deputy chair of Ukraine’s State Planning Committee
- 1987–1990Deputy chair of Ukraine’s Council of Ministers and head of the State Planning Committee
- 1990–1991Chair of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR
- 1991–1992First prime minister of Ukraine
- 1991Ukrainian signatory of the Belovezha Accords
- 2020First deputy head of Ukraine’s delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group
