How Ukrainians remember the presidency of Leonid Kravchuk, according to the material TSN.ua.
Today, May 10, after a long illness at the age of 88, the first president of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, died .
And although Kravchuk’s presidency lasted less than one term, the first years of independence were extremely important and remembered by Ukrainians for a long time.
Hyperinflation and coupons
In 1993, insane inflation began in Ukraine. Unusual banknotes appeared in circulation:
- 2 thousand rubles,
- 5 thousand rubles,
- 10 thousand rubles,
- 20 thousand rubles,
- 500 thousand rubles,
- 1 million rubles.
Probably, every Ukrainian then became a “millionaire”, but the cost of this money was scanty. Citizens were forced to go shopping with huge bags or suitcases. Even food prices were in the hundreds of thousands.
Photo: aystatic.by
“Kravchuchka”
In general, the first years of independence were economically difficult: inflation, unemployment, chaotic privatization, rampant crime (the so-called “racket”).
It was then that “Kravchuchka” appeared in the dictionary and households of Ukrainians. This is a playful name for a type of handcart used to transport goods. It was during the reign of Kravchuk that “shuttleism” (small trade) became widespread.
Photo: UNIAN
Kravchuk himself did not consider his “namesake” something negative.
“The one who traveled with a redhead in the 90s now has his own business, and whoever ran with the flag still runs with it,” he commented in an interview with Proposition magazine in 2013.
mobile connection
It was Leonid Kravchuk who became the first mobile subscriber in Ukraine 29 years ago.
Kravchuk made the opening call from a mobile phone in Ukraine in 1993. “I was 65 years old. For the first time in my life I held a mobile phone in my hands. And now children are actually born with a mobile phone – and a little time has passed,” the president said.
“I thought that it was necessary to dial the farthest country where people are familiar to me. I say, well, let’s go with the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States,” Kravchuk recalled and noted that he could not believe such calls.
Budapest Memorandum
The Budapest memorandum of 1994 on the transfer to Moscow of the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which ended up on the territory of Ukraine, was formally signed by Kravchuk’s successor, Leonid Kuchma.
But it was during the cadence of the first president that negotiations were held. As a result, Ukraine abandoned nuclear weapons in exchange for verbal “security guarantees”, including from Russia, which were not implemented.
Kravchuk himself commented on the renunciation of nuclear weapons: “The nuclear weapons that were on the territory of Ukraine were alien. The button was in Russia, manufactured in Russia. We could not do anything with these weapons,” he said in August 2011.
“Run between the drops”
“Running between raindrops” is a joke that Ukrainians came up with about the path of the first president in politics.
In a joke, Leonid Kravchuk, Boris Yeltsin and George W. Bush have to run from one building to another in the pouring rain. The presidents of Russia and the United States got wet, while the Ukrainian president remained completely dry. “And I’m careful, between the drops,” he explained.
The Air Force cites such a story from Kravchuk’s political life. Once, even before the declaration of independence, he came to a meeting of the People’s Rukh.
There he was offered to hang a badge with a trident on the lapel of his jacket. Leonid Makarovich, however, accepts a small trident, hangs it next to the red badge of a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, but, sitting down on a chair in the presidium, takes off his jacket and hangs it on the back of the chair.
For his caution and tact, Kravchuk was also called the “cunning fox” by the people.
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