Yulia Tymoshenko - Early Years
A Brief Profile from Childhood to Successful Businesswoman
Biography of Ukraine's first female Prime Minister and Orange Revolution leader from childhood to video store owner and leading businesswoman in the energy sector.
Since the mid 1990s, Yulia Tymoshenko, Forbes Magazine’s #3 Most Powerful Woman in the World of 2005, has become a key and influential figure in Ukrainian politics. Yulia has admitted to having lofty political aspirations since childhood, but had to take some detours along the way to her current position as leader of the reformist Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. To appreciate her many political accomplishments, it is important to first examine her early life, from a youth under the old Soviet system to powerful businesswoman in newly independent Ukraine.
Childhood
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko was born on November 27, 1960 in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Yulia is generally not forthcoming with information about her childhood years, but has stated that her father, Vladimir Abramovich Grigyan, is Latvian and her mother, Ludmila Nikolaevna Telegina is Ukrainian. Vladimir left the family when Yulia was three years old. No one knows if Yulia’s proper maiden name was Grigyan or Telegina, and she won’t tell.
Family Life
In 1979, while studying at Dnepropetrovsk State University, Yulia married Oleksandr Tymoshenko, the son of a a Soviet communist party official. The couple has one daughter, Eugenia, who was born in 1980 and married British rock singer Sean Carr in October 2005.
University Education
Eschewing her education, Tymoshenko joined the economic faculty of Dnepropetrovsk State University in 1979. Eventually, she returned to her studies and graduated in 1984 with a degree in economics. In 1999, Yulia earned a candidate degree (Ph.D. equivalent) in economics by successfully defending her thesis entitled “The State Regulation of the Taxation System.” To date, she has published over 50 different research papers.
Career in Business
In 1988, as private enterprise slowly crept into Soviet society, Yulia and Oleksandr started a video rental shop using 5,000 borrowed Soviet rubles, The business proved profitable, and the couple reinvested their earnings into a chain of video rental shops.
In 1991, Tymoshenko became managing director of the Ukrainian Oil corporation (UOC). Amid the collapsing state and economic structures of a newly independent Ukraine, UOC was strong and successful, using all available funds to purchase oil products. Building on its accomplishments, UOC eventually evolved into a new, larger company, United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU).
In 1995, Yulia became president of UESU and the company soon devised a new model for supplying energy resources to Ukrainian industry. Acting as a middleman, by 1996 UESU became the main importer of Russian natural gas. During this time, Tymoshenko was closely linked to management of Russian gas giant Gazprom. Accused of selling vast quantities of stolen Russian gas abroad and evading taxation on those transactions, it was at this time that Yulia gained the nickname “gas princess.” While director of these energy-related companies, Tymoshenko is said to have amassed a significant fortune, though she now claims that the fortune has disappeared.
During this period, Yulia cultivated business relationships (co-operative and hostile) with many key figures in Ukraine including powerful businessmen Viktor Pinchuk (son-in-law of then-President Leonid Kuchma), Ihor Kolomoyski, and Rinat Akhmetov. Tymoshenko also developed relationships with important politicians such as then-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko and President Leonid Kuchma.
References
“Ex-Ukraine PM’s daughter marries.” BBC News. October 2, 2005.
Kuzio, Taras. “Yulia Tymoshenko To Visit Washington, New Yrok.” Eurasia Daily Monitor. Jamestown Publications. February 22, 2007.
Yulia Tymoshenko Official Website.
