Valentyn Symonenko

{{Short description|Ukrainian statesman (born 1940)}} {{family name hatnote|Kostyantynovych|Symonenko|lang=Eastern Slavic}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Valentyn Symonenko | honorific_prefix = Hero of Ukraine | honorific_suffix = {{tooltip|OS|Order of the State (HOU)}} | image = Валентин Симоненко.jpg | order = | office = 2nd First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine | prime_minister = Vitold Fokin | term_start = 11 July 1992 | term_end = 7 November 1992 | predecessor = Kostyantyn Masyk | successor = Ihor Yukhnovsky | office1 = Acting Prime Minister of Ukraine | president1 = Leonid Kravchuk | term_start1 = 2 October 1992 | term_end1 = 13 October 1992 | predecessor1 = Vitold Fokin | successor1 = Leonid Kuchma | office2 = Presidential Representative <br>in Odesa Oblast | president2 = Leonid Kravchuk | term_start2 = March 1992 | term_end2 = July 1992 | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | predecessor3 = | successor3 = | office4 = People's Deputy of Ukraine | term_start4 = May 1990 | term_end4 = June 1992 | predecessor4 = | successor4 = | term_start5 = May 1994 | term_end5 = May 1998 | predecessor5 = | successor5 = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|07|04|df=y}} | birth_place = Odesa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union | party = | alma_mater = Odesa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture | spouse = Yelena Taratuta | children = Serhiy (1963), Kostyantyn (1974), Yelena Vitalivna Lozhkareva | awards = {{Hero of Ukraine}} Hero of Ukraine<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100213145606/http://www.president.gov.ua/documents/10157.html edict]</ref> 40 px|link=Order of Friendship | caption = Symonenko in 2013 | native_name = {{nobold|Валентин Симоненко}} | native_name_lang = uk }} '''Valentyn Kostyantynovych Symonenko''' ({{langx|uk|Валентин Костянтинович Симоненко}}; born 4 July 1940) is a Ukrainian politician and former Soviet Communist Party functionary. Between 1996 and 2011 he was chairman of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine. He served also as the Mayor of Odesa from 1983 to 1992, 2nd First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine in 1992, and a People's Deputy of Ukraine from 1990–92 and 1994-98.

== Early life == Symonenko was born on 4 July 1940 in the city of Odesa, which was then part of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union.<ref name="lb">{{cite web |title=Симоненко Валентин Костянтинович |url=https://lb.ua/file/person/4390_simonenko_valentin_kostyantinovich.html |website=LB.ua |access-date=16 February 2026 |date=20 May 2010}}</ref> According to later interviews, he stated that his life in Odesa post-World War II consisted of extreme hunger, but led him to develop a desire to "build and create".<ref>{{cite web |title=Валентин Константинович СИМОНЕНКО |url=http://www.odessapassage.com/passage/magazine_details.aspx?id=34114 |website=www.odessapassage.com |access-date=16 February 2026 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304195326/http://www.odessapassage.com/passage/magazine_details.aspx?id=34114 |archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref> In 1962, he graduated from the Odesa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture.<ref name="lb" /> Afterwords, he was sent to work on the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant as a foreman, before returning to Odesa to work at Odesa Film Studio and Ukrdiprohydroliz and then at the Illichivsk Reinforced Concrete Structures Plant as head of the technical department.<ref name="lb" /> By 1973, he was head of the production department of Plant No. 3 "Odessazalizobeton".<ref name="lb" />

== Political career == In 1973, he became Head of the Department of Construction for the Odesa City Committee until 1976, when he was promoted to First Secretary of the Pimorsky District Committee of Odesa.<ref name="lb" /> His last post before becoming Mayor was as Second Secretary of the Odesa City Committee.<ref name="lb" /> Finally, from 1983 to 1992, he served as Mayor of Odesa (de jure Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Odesa City Council).<ref name="lb" /> His period as mayor was marked by a construction boom, and he was also appointed as Representative of the President of Ukraine in Odesa Oblast.<ref name="lb" />

He then became First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine in the Fokin government, and for period of 10 days in October 1992 (2–12 October) ex officio acted as a Prime Minister of Ukraine upon the resignation of Vitold Fokin and the appointment of Leonid Kuchma to the office. Symonenko became the first "acting Prime Minister".

Symonenko has been elected to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) for three sequential terms (11, 12(1), and 13(2) convocations).

In 1996 he was elected as the Chairman of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine. In 2003 he was re-elected for the second 7-year term. The Accounting Chamber executes control over revenues and expenditures of the State Budget of Ukraine on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada.

== Post-political career == Since his retirement from politics, he has worked as a professor at Kyiv National Economic University within the Department of Financial Audits and Analysis.<ref name="kn">{{cite web |title=СИМОНЕНКО ВАЛЕНТИН КОСТЯНТИНОВИЧ |url=https://knute.edu.ua/blog/read/?pid=40859 |website=knute.edu.ua |access-date=16 February 2026}}</ref> He was elected a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2006.<ref name="kn" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{in lang|en|uk}} [http://www.ac-rada.gov.ua/ Accounting Chamber of Ukraine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415205320/http://www.ac-rada.gov.ua/ |date=2009-04-15 }} - official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Symonenko, Valentyn}} Category:1940 births Category:20th-century Ukrainian politicians Category:21st-century Ukrainian politicians Category:Living people Category:Politicians from Odesa Category:Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union) politicians Category:Corresponding members of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Category:Acting prime ministers of Ukraine Category:First vice prime ministers of Ukraine Category:Governors of Odesa Oblast Category:Mayors of Odesa Category:First convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Category:Second convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Category:Eleventh convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Category:Recipients of the title of Hero of Ukraine Category:Laureates of the Honorary Diploma of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Category:Laureates of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology Category:Recipients of the Order of Friendship Category:Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 1st class Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 2nd class Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Category:Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 5th class Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Category:Soviet mountain climbers Category:Ukrainian mountain climbers