Family of Yulia Tymoshenko

The family of Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko (Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко), née Hrihyan (Грігян), former Prime Minister of Ukraine, is Ukrainian on her mother's side, and Latvian and Jewish on her father's side. Her ancestry was of some relevance during her campaign of 2009–2010, Tymoshenko herself has self-identified as "Ukraino-Latvian" (україно-латишка), "both for ten generations".[1][2] while her opponents drawing attention to her Jewish grandfather was described as a political "smear".[3][4] A detailed account of her family history was published in 2008 by Dmytro Chobit.[5]

Family of Yulia Tymoshenko
Place of originRussian Empire, Soviet Union, Ukrainian, Latvian

Tymoshenko's parents were both born in Ukraine and are, therefore, Ukrainian as defined by the Law on Citizenship of Ukraine and by the Ukrainian Constitution.[6][7][8]

Immediate family

edit

Oleksandr Tymoshenko

edit

Yulia Tymoshenko is married to Oleksandr Tymoshenko[9] (born 11 June 1960). A businessman, he married Yulia Telehina in 1979, and she took his name.[10]

During the early years of her political career, the two were parted for years while Oleksandr Tymoshenko was evading arrest.[11]

They have a daughter, Eugenia (Yevhenia) (born in 1980).[1] According to an income declaration filled in by Yulia Tymoshenko, her husband's income is higher than hers.[12] Tymoshenko's hypocorism for her husband is "Sasha".[13] Tymoshenko has expressed regret that she neglected her family due to her political activity.[14]

Oleksandr Tymoshenko and his father Hennady Tymoshenko[15] were members of the board of United Energy Systems of Ukraine.[16][17] In August 2000 Oleksandr Tymoshenko was arrested[18] and charged with bribing former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko as a member of the board of United Energy Systems of Ukraine;[16] the charges were dropped in May 2002.[18] Tymoshenko's father-in-law has also been arrested in connection with this case; he was released in 2003.[17] According to Tymoshenko her spouse has never been personally involved in the Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko.[13]

In early January 2012, Oleksandr Tymoshenko was granted asylum in the Czech Republic, as he had requested at the end of the previous year.[19][20]

 
Eugenia Tymoshenko at a congress of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria in Schrobenhausen, January 2014.

Eugenia Tymoshenko

edit

Eugenia Tymoshenko is the daughter of Yulia Tymoshenko and Olexandr Tymoshenko. She was born on 20 February 1980,[1][21] and moved to London when she was 14, boarding at Rugby School.[22] She is a graduate of the London School of Economics[1] in the field of politics and philosophy.[1] Eugenia spent nine years in England.

Eugenia Tymoshenko was her mother’s defender during the trial against her in the summer-autumn 2011. For two and a half years of the former prime minister imprisonment Eugenia conducted an active campaign for her release: held dozens of meetings with leaders of the European Union, the Western countries and international organizations, delivered speeches in the US Senate,[23] at the meeting of the Committee on Foreign affairs of the Italian Parliament,[24] at the Bornholm conference in Denmark,[25] at the 20th Congress of the European People's Party,[26] at congresses of the German Christian Social Union[27] and the Italian party "The Union of Christian and Centre Democrats",[28] in the media.[29][30]

In February 2012, Eugenia Tymoshenko submitted a statement to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to demand investigation in prison of the facts about the torture of her mother.[31]

Awards

edit

Eugenia Tymoshenko received the Crans Montana Forum Medal for her contribution to defending democracy and human rights. The Crans Montana Forum was founded in 1986, works closely with the United Nations, UNESCO, the European Union and other institutions to ensure the stability, security and respect for human rights in the world.[32]

Family history

edit

Liudmila Telehina

edit

Yulia Tymoshenko was raised by her mother Liudmila Mykolaivna Telehina (Людмила Миколаївна Телегіна), née Nelepova (Нелепова), who was born 11 September 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk.[5][33] Liudmila married at an early age and took the married name Telehina. It is unknown how long this first marriage lasted or why it was dissolved, but Liudmila was married a second time, to Volodymyr Abramovych Hrihian, at some point before 1960. When this second marriage was also dissolved, in 1963, Lyudmila returned to her first married name, as Lyudmila Telegina, while her daughter Yulia kept her father's surname, as Yulia Volodymyrivna Hrihyan, but she did use her mother's married name "Telehina" when graduating in 1979.[34]

Lyudmila's sister, Antonina Ulyahina, in 2008 published the book «Юля, Юлечка», about her memoirs surrounding the then Prime Minister. In the book, she does mention her parents (Tymoshenko's maternal grandparents) but she never names them, and their identities remain unknown. Chobit (2008) suggests that the reason is that Tymoshenko wanted to suggest her grandparents had an ethnic Ukrainian identity, while both her mother and her aunt, Lyudmila Mykolayivna and Antonina Mykolayivna, are Russian-speaking Ukrainians, noting that Tymoshenko herself only learned to speak Ukrainian in 1999.[35]

Volodymyr Hrihian

edit

Yulia Tymoshenko's father Volodymyr Abramovych Hrihian—who abandoned Liudmila Telehina and his daughter when Yulia was three years old[36]—was born December 3, 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk. His father was Abram Kelmanovych Kapitelman (Ukrainian: Абрам Кельманович Капітельман, born in 1914); His mother was Maria Yosypivna Hrihian, born in 1909, of Latvian nationality.[5] Volodymyr Abramovych was registered under his mother's surname of Hrihian as was commonly done at the time to avoid Jewish-sounding surnames.[37] Abram Kapitelman graduated from Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1940, and was sent to work in Western Ukraine, where he worked "one academic quarter" as the director of a public Jewish school in the city Sniatyn.[5] In the autumn of 1940 Kapitelman was mobilized into the army, he was killed while taking part in World War II on November 8, 1944, with the rank of "lieutenant communications".[5]

Volodymyr Abramovych Hrihian's maternal grandfather, Yosyp Yosypovych Hrihian (Ukrainian: Йосип Йосипович Грігян, also spelled "Hrihan", Гріган), was born in Riga, then in the Russian Empire, in 1884. In 1914, he moved to Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk), where he worked as a conductor on the train (the station "Lotsmanka" in Dnipropetrovsk). He was arrested in 1937 and again in 1938 (because of having received letters from Latvia) during the political repression in the Soviet Union. The prosecution of the criminal case stated: "Hrihan discredited the Soviet regime among the workers, praised the good life of the working class in the fascist countries: Germany and Poland").[5] Hrihian served 10 years in Soviet Gulags (1938–1948) and was rehabilitated in 1963.[5] It is known from Yosyp Hrihian's case file that at the time of his first arrest in 1937, he was married to one Olena Titivna Hrihian, of Ukrainian nationality, born in 1893 in Martynivka, Kishenkiv District, Poltava Province. It does not seem plausible that this Olena Titivna (b. 1893) was the mother of Maria Yosypivna Hrihian, Yulia Tymoshenko's paternal grandmother (b. 1909), because Volodymyr Abramovych Hrihian stated he came to Yekaterinoslav only in 1914. Chobit (2008) instead assumes that Maria Yosypivna was the daughter of an unrecorded first wife of Volodymyr Hrihian's.[5]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d e Ukraine's Gold-Plaited Comeback Kid, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (23 September 2008)
  2. ^ (in Ukrainian) Тимошенко - україно-латишка Archived 2005-11-03 at the Wayback Machine, Ukrayinska Pravda (2 September 2005)
  3. ^ Campaign gets dirty: Leaflets smear Tymoshenko as ‘Jew’, Kyiv Post (5 February 2010)
  4. ^ "Debate rages over whether Ukraine presidential hopeful is Jewish". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 8 December 2009. "Tymoshenko also received a dose of Jewishness in the campaign; the nationalist right labeled her "the Jewish woman with the braid." Not a flattering nickname. While rumors about Tymoshenko's Jewishness died down, those regarding Yatsenyuk are multiplying. Commentators in Ukraine see that as proof of their accuracy."
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Dmytro Chobit. "ЮЛІЯ ТИМОШЕНКО: І. РОДОВІД Ю. ТИМОШЕНКО (Yuliya Tymoshenko: [Part] I. Ancestry of Yu. Tymoshenko)", Броди — Просвіта (2008). "online version" (in Ukrainian). Makuha.info. Archived from the original on January 11, 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2014., online version (farysei.narod.ru)
  6. ^ "Citizenship". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Archived from the original on 2008-11-13. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
  7. ^ "Law on Citizenship of Ukraine". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Archived from the original on 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
  8. ^ Gender bias, anti-Semitism contributed to Yanukovych's victory, Kyiv Post (18 March 2010)
  9. ^ "Кампо Владимир". LIGA. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  10. ^ "Тимошенко наголошує, що її чоловік займається бізнесом". www.unian.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  11. ^ "Всеядна дружина Ющенка, співоча Янукович та терплячий "пташник" Тимошенко". ТаблоID. Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  12. ^ "Доходи Юлії Тимошенко: прем'єр багатіє, чоловік біднішає". Українська правда (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  13. ^ a b To a real man Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine, Blog of Yulia Tymoshenko (6 July 2010)
  14. ^ Tymoshenko still ready to run for president, Kyiv Post (10 December 2010)
  15. ^ Peter Rutland (1998). The Challenge of Integration. M. E. Sharpe. pp. 173–174. ISBN 0765603594.
  16. ^ a b "Олександр Тимошенко звинувачується в тому, що давав хабарі Лазаренку". ua.korrespondent.net (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  17. ^ a b 2003 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ukraine, US Department of State (25 February 2004)
  18. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Ключові слова: Олександр Тимошенко Archived 2012-10-22 at the Wayback Machine, UNIAN
  19. ^ "Husband of Ukraine's Tymoshenko wins Czech asylum". BBC. 6 January 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  20. ^ Czechs give asylum to spouse of Ukraine's Tymoshenko Reuters (6 January 2012)
  21. ^ (in Ukrainian) Тимошенко з чоловіком посиділи на іменинах Жужі-Білочки, Tablo ID (21 February 2011)
  22. ^ Report: Eugenia Tymoshenko's marriage is over, Kyiv Post (8 February 2012)
  23. ^ "Ukraine at a Crossroads: What's at Stake for the U.S. and Europe?". foreign.senate. 1 February 2012.
  24. ^ "Eugenia Tymoshenko to address Italian Parliament". tymoshenko.ua. 21 Mar 2012. Archived from the original on 2014-09-03.
  25. ^ "Tymoshenko's daughter to take part in the Bornholm conference". novostimira. 14 June 2013.
  26. ^ "interview Eugenia Tymoshenko". epp.eu. 17 December 2012. Archived from the original on 21 December 2013.
  27. ^ "Eugenia Tymoshenko to address CSU party convention in Germany". tymoshenko.ua. 10 Jan 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-09-03.
  28. ^ "Eugenia Tymoshenko meets with leaders of Italian Christian Democratic party". ukrainebusiness. 15 September 2013. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  29. ^ "Eugenia Tymoshenko: 'My mother can help to build a new Ukraine'". telegraph.co.uk. 7 Mar 2014.
  30. ^ "Ukraine: Eugenia Tymoshenko cries tears of joy for decision to release mother". youtube. 21 February 2014.
  31. ^ "Yevhenia Tymoshenko files statement with Prosecutor General's Office about torture of her mother". ukrinform. 10 February 2012.
  32. ^ "Eugenia Tymoshenko receives medal for contribution to protection of democracy and human rights". ukrafoto. 20 October 2012. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  33. ^ "Между Украиной, Арменией, Латвией и...: Юлия Тимошенко скрывает своё происхождение". ИА REGNUM (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  34. ^ Gazeta.ua (2010-06-08). "У Юлії Тимошенко однокласники списували контрольні з математики". Gazeta.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-04-18.
  35. ^ Chobit (2008), "Родовід по лінії матері" (ancestry on the mother's side): "For some reason, neither Ludmila Mykolaivna, nor her sister Antonina, nor Yuliya Volodymyrivna herself publicly talk about themselves and their family. Even the ubiquitous journalists could not obtain unquestionable information. Obviously, that is why various versions regarding the national origin of Yu. Tymoshenko's mother's branch of the family were spread in the mass media - with reference to authoritative persons, but, unfortunately, they did not provide documentary confirmation, so we will not repeat them, because there are no sufficient grounds to confirm or refute them."
  36. ^ (in Russian) Тимошенко Юлия Archived 2011-02-21 at the Wayback Machine, Korrespondent
  37. ^ Dmytro Chobit, МАКУХА або Штрихи до політичного портрета «Блоку Юлії Тимошенко», Броди — Просвіта (2008), Book 2, Книга друга ЮЛІЯ ТИМОШЕНКО, section Зміна прізвища ("change of surname"), online version: farysei.narod.ru.
edit