Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk (born 1934) was president of the Ukraine (1991-1994), the first ever to be elected by direct popular vote and the first president of this newly independent country. Economic pressures led to his defeat in the presidential election of 1994.

Leonid Kravchuk was born January 10, 1934, in the village of Velykyi Zhytyn, in the Rivne district into a peasant family. His father died at the front in 1944, during World War II. His mother worked on a collective farm until retirement.

Kravchuk completed the Rivne Cooperative Technical School and in 1958 graduated with a diploma from the economics department of Kiev State University. From 1958 to 1960 he taught courses in political economy at the Chernivtsi Financial Technical School.

Resigns From Communist Party

In 1960 he began his career in the Communist Party of Ukraine, and for 30 years he climbed the party ladder. His first step was appointment as a lecturer in the political...