Biography
Tkachenko was born on 7 March 1939, in Shpola, Cherkasy Oblast. In 1963, he graduated from the Bila Tserkva Agriculture Institute. Between 1963 and 1981, he worked in Tarashcha Raion, Kyiv Oblast, first as an agronomist and later as a local Communist Party leader. In 1981, he became an inspector of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union), Communist Party of Ukraine. In 1982, he was appointed Governor of Ternopil Oblast, and in 1985, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991 Ukrainian presidential election, 1991 and 1999 Ukrainian presidential election, 1999, he was a candidate in the elections for President of Ukraine. On both occasions he withdrew his candidacy, in favour of Leonid Kravchuk in 1991 and Petro Symonenko in 1999. Tkachenko was a member of the 11th convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, and in 1994 was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine) for the first of five consecutive terms. Between May 1994 and April 1998 he was the First Deputy Chairman of the Parliament, and was Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada from 7 July 1998 to 21 January 2000, when was dismissed for violating parliamentary session regulations.References
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