Petro Symonenko

Petro Symonenko ( born August 1, 1952 in Donetsk ) is a Ukrainian politician and currently First Secretary ( Chairman) of the Communist Party of Ukraine ( KPU ), and Chairman of the KPU faction in the Verkhovna Rada.

Petro Symonenko studied at the Donetsk Polytechnic Institute and graduated in 1974 as electro-mechanics and mining engineer from. He then worked as a representative of the Communist Youth League ( Komsomol ) in the Institute Dondneprougolmasch. From 1982 to 1988 he was Komsomol secretary and then worked within the KPU (then regional member of the CPSU ) as secretary of the city committee of Mariupol, Secretary and Second Secretary of the Donetsk regional committee of the KPU. In 1991, he graduated in Kiev from further study in political science. After the banning of the KPU in the same year, he worked as deputy director of industrial plant Ukruglemasch.

In June 1993 Symonenko was elected to the re- founding congress of the KPU to their 's First Secretary. Since the parliamentary elections in 1994 in which the party of the catchment in the Verkhovna Rada succeeded Symonenko is also the Chairman of the Communist parliamentary group.

As a candidate of the KPU Symonenko took part in the presidential elections of 1999, 2004 and 2010. In 1999 he reached 22.24 % of the votes in the first ballot. In the second round he was defeated with 37.80 % incumbent Leonid Kuchma, who got 56.25 %. In 2004 he resigned from 4.97 % of the votes in the first ballot.

Symonenko is married since September 26, 2009 with the journalist Oksana Symonenko, born Vashchenko. Symonenko has two adult sons from his first marriage to Svetlana Symonenko, with whom he was married from 1974 to 2009. Private Petro Symonenko busy with the game of chess.