Oleksandr Moroz

Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Moroz (Ukrainian: Олександр Олександрович Мороз, born 29 February 1944) is a Ukrainian politician. He was the Speaker of Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine twice, first from 1994 to 1998 and then from July 2006 to September 2007. Moroz is one of the founders and leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine which was an influential political party in Ukraine. Moroz lost parliamentary representation when the Socialist Party failed to secure sufficient number of votes (2.86%) in the 2007 snap parliamentary election, falling 0.14% short of the 3% election threshold.

Not to be confused with Alexander Moroz.
Oleksandr Moroz
Oleksandr Moroz in 2003
2nd and 6th Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada
In office
6 July 2006[1] – 4 December 2007
Preceded byVolodymyr Lytvyn
Succeeded byArseniy Yatsenyuk
In office
18 May 1994[2] – 7 July 1998
Preceded byIvan Plyushch
Succeeded byOleksandr Tkachenko
People's Deputy of Ukraine
1st convocation
In office
May 15, 1990 – May 10, 1994
ConstituencyCommunist Party of Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, District No.224[3]
2nd convocation
In office
May 10, 1994 – May 12, 1998
ConstituencySocialist Party of Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, No.223[4]
3rd convocation
In office
May 12, 1998 – May 14, 2002
ConstituencySocialist Party of Ukraine, Kiev Oblast, No.92[5]
4th convocation
In office
May 14, 2002 – May 25, 2006
ConstituencySocialist Party of Ukraine, No.1[6]
5th convocation
In office
May 25, 2006 – November 23, 2007
ConstituencySocialist Party of Ukraine, No.1[7]
Personal details
Born (1944-02-29) February 29, 1944
Buda, Tarashcha Raion,
Kiev Oblast,  Soviet Union
Political partySocialist Party of Ukraine
Spouse(s)Valentyna Andriyivna (née Lavrynenko)[8]
ChildrenIryna (1966)
Ruslana (1972)
Signature
Websitehttp://www.spu.in.ua/leader.php

Biography

Moroz was born on 29 February 1944 in Buda, Tarashcha Raion of the Kiev Oblas. After graduating from the local school in 1960, Moroz graduated from the Agricultural Academy of the Ukrainian SSR to become a mechanical engineer. He then worked in many careers, including as a teacher and engineer for twelve years. Moroz joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, moving from the First Secretary of local Regional Committee of the Communist Party to the position of the Head of the Kiev Oblast Committee and the Oblast Trade Union Committee. He was a recipient of the Medal "For Labour Valour". He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1972 to 1991. He became a deputy of Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) in 1990. During the August 1991 Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, Moroz was Communist majority leader in the Verkhovna Rada.[9] On 26 October 1991, he arranged the congress that formed the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) as a successor of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine.

Moroz ran as a presidential candidate as a nominee of the Socialist Party of Ukraine in the 1994 and 1999 presidential elections, but he came third both times, with 13.04% of the vote in 1994 and 11.29% in 1999. In 1999, many experts predicted that Moroz had a chance to defeat incumbent Leonid Kuchma in the election run-off and according to many observers the government rigged the election results[10] in favor of Petro Symonenko (of the Communist Party of Ukraine) in order to make sure that unpopular Symonenko, rather than Moroz, would compete against Kuchma in the run-off vote.

In 1996, Moroz together with several other parties prevented President Kuchma's attempt to concentrate most of the powers in the President's hands and led the parliament to adopt on 28 June the new Constitution that includes many positions close to the demands of left-wing parties. After signing the treaty of "Kanev Four" in 1999, he became an acknowledged leader of the non-Communist opposition to Kuchma.

At a 2001 sitting of the Verkhovna Rada, Moroz made public Mykola Melnychenko’s tapes that alleged the involvement of the top leaders of the state (including President Kuchma) in the murder of famous independent journalist Georgiy Gongadze that provoked the political crisis in Ukraine known as the Cassette Scandal. Moroz was a member of a special board "Forum of national salvation", a representative of a Public Committee of Protection of the Constitution "Ukraine without Kuchma" and later "Rise, Ukraine!" in charge of negotiations with representatives of the regime.

In 2002, the Socialist Party (which included Yuriy Lutsenko, Josef Vinski, Mykola Rudkovski and Valentyna Semenyuk) got the fourth place in the 2002 parliamentary election. The Socialists joined the "oppositional four", a group of parties that also included Our Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko Electoral Bloc and the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Olexandr Moroz (First round) - percentage of total national vote
Moroz (left), with Viktor Yushchenko

In the 2004 presidential election, Moroz was nominated by the Socialist Party which he has chaired since 1991. He won third place with 5.81% of the vote. As a longtime leader of anti-Kuchma forces, Moroz quickly announced his support for Viktor Yushchenko's presidential bid against Kuchma's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, thus making Yushchenko the favourite to win in round two. That Yushchenko did not win despite this endorsement was used to argue that there was election fraud in the run-off. Moroz supported the subsequent Orange Revolution, the mass protests that eventually led to the annulment of the vote results and to a revote won by Yushchenko. The support of the Ukrainian Socialists he brought to Yushchenko's campaign was important to widen Yushchenko's appeal to voters. Similarly, the votes of Moroz's Socialist Party faction in Verkhovna Rada (parliament) were crucial for passing several important resolutions during the Orange Revolution, particularly the non-confidence vote in the Kuchma–Yanukovych government involved in election fraud scandal.

After the 2006 parliamentary election, Moroz was elected the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 6 July 2006 (238 ayes, 226 needed for election) with support of the Party of Regions, the Socialist Party and Communist factions. The Socialist Party of Ukraine received 2.86% of the national vote in the 2007 parliamentary election, falling 0.14% below the election threshold, denying them the right of representation and removing Moroz as a member of Ukraine's Parliament.

The Socialist Party chose the party leader Oleksandr Moroz as their presidential candidate for the 2010 presidential election, whose first-round ballot was scheduled to be held on 17 January 2010. 268 out of 422 party congress delegates registered supported the Moroz's nomination.[11] During the election, Moroz received 0,38% of the votes.[12] Public opinion polls did not rate the Socialist Party or its leader Moroz as they were undecided as to their participation in the presidential election. In 2005, Moroz received 5.8% of the national vote. An opinion polls conducted by FOM-Ukraine in April 2009 showed Moroz with less than 1% support, with most analysts not considering Moroz as a serious contender as he would not win sufficient number of votes in the first-round presidential ballot, scheduled for 17 January 2010.

After leading his party for twenty years, Moroz was succeeded as party leader by Vasyl Tsushko in July 2010.[13] However, he was again elected as party leader in August 2011.[14] In April 2012, Petro Ustenko was elected as Moroz's successor as party leader.[15]

Moroz tried to return to parliament in the 2012 parliamentary election, running as an independent candidate, single-member districts number 93 (first-past-the-post wins a parliament seat) located in Kiev Oblast; but he finished third in this district with 11.94% of the votes.[16]

In the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, Moroz is a candidate for the Socialist Party of Oleksandr Moroz.[17]

Political views

Since organized the left-leaning Socialist Party of Ukraine, his party ideology largely evolved from orthodox communism to social democracy. He himself is a left-wing social democrat of the European type who uses both Marxist and social democratic ideas. For this reason, he met strong opposition from a more rigid-wing of his party represented by the supporters of Nataliya Vitrenko. Finally, Vitrenko left the Socialist Party, proclaimed the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and bannered Moroz as "opportunist" and "traitor", much helping Kuchma to fight the opposition of Ukraine of which Moroz' Socialist Party was part. After the last radicals headed by Ivan Chyzh left the party and formed an organization called Spravedlyvist (Justness), Moroz was able to transform his party closer to the European social democratic model.

Moroz and his party supported the political reform and Ukraine's transition towards a more European parliamentary democracy which shifted the power balance in Ukraine stripping the President of some of his powers in favor of the parliament. During the Orange Revolution, his party voted for the changes to the Ukrainian Constitution, changes that made Ukraine a parliamentary and not a presidential republic. This constitution, pushed by Moroz and Petro Symonenko, went into effect in January 2006 despite Viktor Yushchenko's furious opposition. Moroz also speaks in support of the preservation of land for Ukrainian farmers and has made many promises about resolving social problems using socialist rhetoric. The program of his party begins with a statement that demands real democracy for working people.

Bibliography

Moroz is fond of poetry and chess. He has written the following books:

  • Куди йдемо?... [Where we go?...]. Kiev: Association "Postup". 1993. ISBN 5-7707-5030-8.
  • Тема для роздумів [Subject for thoughts]. Kiev: Zlahoda. 1995. ISBN 5-7707-5568-7.
  • Вибір [Choice]. 1996.
  • Дорога, з якої не зійти [An unavoidable path]. 1999. OCLC 58407685.
  • Між вічними полюсами [Between permanent poles]. Kiev: Parlaments'ke vydavnytstvo. 1999. ISBN 966-7288-93-5.
  • Про землю, Конституцію і не тільки [About land, Constitution and not only]. Kiev: Redaction of newspaper "Tovarysh". 2000. ISBN 966-7864-00-6.
  • Хроніка одного злочину [The chronicle of the crime]. Kiev: Politrada SPU. 2001. OCLC 49307992.
  • Політична анатомія України [Political anatomy of Ukraine]. Kiev: Parlaments'ke vydavnytstvo. 2004. ISBN 966-611-274-4.
  • Жива стерня [Live stubble]. Kiev: Parlaments'ke vydavnytstvo. 2004. ISBN 966-611-273-6. Recognized by international literature award named after Hryhori Skovoroda.
  • ...З відстані [...From distance]. Kiev: Parlaments'ke vydavnytstvo. 2004. ISBN 966-611-278-7.
  • Обличчям до вогню [Facing fire]. Kiev: Tomiris. 2006. Poetry collection in Ukrainian language.
  • Белый снег на каменной террасе [White snow on stone terrace]. 2006. Poetry collection in Russian language.
  • Кують зозули. Kiev: Parlaments'ke vydavnytstvo. 2007. ISBN 978-966-611-567-9..
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References
  1. "Order of Verkhovna Rada on appointment of Chairman" (in Ukrainian). 2006-07-06.
  2. "Order of Verkhovna Rada on appointment of Chairman" (in Ukrainian). 1994-05-18.
  3. "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VI convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  4. "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VII convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  5. "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VIII convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  6. "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VIII convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  7. "People's Deputy of Ukraine of the VIII convocation". Official portal (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  8. Pavlenko, Alla. "Anticrisis manager of Ukrainian politics". New Day magazine #25 (592) (in Russian).
  9. Historic vote for independence, The Ukrainian Weekly (1 September 1991)
  10. Profile: Socialist Party of Ukraine's Oleksandr Moroz - RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY
  11. "Socialist Party nominates Moroz for president". 2009-10-25.
  12. (in Ukrainian) ЦВК оприлюднила офіційні результати 1-го туру виборів, Gazeta.ua (January 25, 2010)
  13. Economy minister appointed Socialist Party head, Kyiv Post (July 26, 2010)
  14. Oleksandr Moroz elected Chairman of Socialist Party of Ukraine Archived 2011-08-17 at the Wayback Machine, National Radio Company of Ukraine (August 15, 2011)
  15. Petro Ustenko heads Socialist Party of Ukraine, Kyiv Post (30 April 2012)
  16. (in Ukrainian)Single-mandate constituency № 93, Central Election Commission of Ukraine
  17. (in Ukrainian) The CEC registered Tymoshenko, Lyashka and 4 other presidential candidates, Ukrayinska Pravda (January 25, 2019)
Political offices
Preceded by
Ivan Plyushch		 Chairman of Verkhovna Rada
1994–1998		 Succeeded by
Oleksandr Tkachenko
Preceded by
Volodymyr Lytvyn		 Chairman of Verkhovna Rada
2006–2007		 Succeeded by
Arseniy Yatsenyuk
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