Vadym Hetman

Vadym Petrovych Hetman was born in the village of Snityn, located in Poltava Oblast (at the time in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), in 1935.{{cite web |url=http://www.rada.gov.ua/zakon/new/DEPUTAT1/425.htm |title=Biography of people's deputy |access-date=2007-04-25 |work=Verkhovna Rada website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930211714/http://www.rada.gov.ua/zakon/new/DEPUTAT1/425.htm |archive-date=2007-09-30 |url-status=dead }}

In 1956, he finished the Kyiv Financial-Economic Institute, after which he worked in various financial institutions in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. In 1975, Vadym Hetman was named the first vice-president to the Head of the Government Committee of Pricing of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1987, he became the head of the Agricultural-Industrial Bank of the Ukrainian SSR (since 1990 Ukraine Bank).

On 24 March 1992, Vadym Hetman was accepted as the Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine.{{cite web |url=http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=2228%2D12 |title=On the Head of the National Bank of Ukraine |access-date=2007-04-25 |date=March 24, 1992|work=Verkhovna Rada website }} He supervised early monetary reforms in newly independent Ukraine through 1993, when he resigned from his position as the head of the supervisory board of the National Bank of Ukraine. However, he maintained close ties with his successor, Viktor Yushchenko. Hetman's signature appears on the original banknotes of Ukraine's national currency, the hryvnia, which was introduced in September 1996.

Hetman was also a member of the Verkhovna Rada{{Efn|Parliament of Ukraine}} from 1990 to 1998. He went for his second term as deputy in 1994 from the Talne electoral district of Cherkasy Oblast as a nonpartisan. He received 50.97% of the vote in the first round of voting.

He ran for a third term in the 1998 Ukrainian parliamentary election, but failed to get re-elected, receiving only 21.85% of the vote, 3.87% below the required percentage to win. His opponent was First Deputy Minister of Information Mykhailo Onofryichuk.{{cite web |url=http://www.zn.ua/1000/1050/16453/ |author=Drobiazko, Anatoliy |title=This country now has less choice |access-date=2007-04-25 |date=April 25 – May 1, 1998 |work=Zerkalo Nedeli |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194631/http://www.zn.ua/1000/1050/16453/ |archive-date=September 27, 2007 }}

He is also known to have complained to the then-President Leonid Kuchma about voting irregularities within the Verkhovna Rada itself.

Hetman was shot by an apparently professional killer in the elevator of his own apartment block in Kyiv on 22 April 1998.

The alleged assassin, 29-year-old Serhiy Kulev, a member of the "Kushner gang" from the Donbas, was only arrested in 2002. He was later sentenced to life imprisonment without bond in April 2003. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has claimed that the assassination was ordered and paid for by Pavlo Lazarenko, a former Prime Minister of Ukraine.{{cite web |url=http://news.pravda.ru/economics/2004/03/02/60874.html |title=Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Lazarenko appeared to be a killer |access-date=2007-04-25 |date=March 2, 2004 |work=Pravda |language=ru }} Lazarenko has denied responsibility for the killing.

Despite the Luhansk City Court's verdict, the case remains far from being certain. In early August 2005, the media reported that the convict filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine on grounds that he had been forced to make a false confession. His lawyer subsequently made a public statement that the case was entirely fabricated.

Vadym Hetman was posthumously conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine by President Viktor Yushchenko on 11 July 2005.{{cite web |url=http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=1072%2F2005 |title=On the naming of Vadym Hetman as Hero of Ukraine |access-date=2007-04-25 |date=July 11, 2005 |work=Verkhovna Rada website |language=uk }}

On 12 July 2005, a memorial plate was established in his honour on House № 13, where Hetman lived and was assassinated.

In 2005, The Kyiv National Economic University was renamed in honour of Vadym Hetman, which he attended in the 1950s.

On 19 April 2006, the Industrial Street in Kyiv was renamed in his honour.{{cite web |url=http://prezident.gov.ua/news/data/1645.html |title=In Kyiv, a street was renamed in honour of Vadym Hetman |access-date=2007-04-25 |date=July 11, 2005 |work=Official website of the President of Ukraine |language=uk |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928204303/http://prezident.gov.ua/news/data/1645.html |archive-date = 2007-09-28}}

A regatta cup, "Vadym Hetman Cup" bears his name.

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{{reflist}}

• [http://www.bank.gov.ua National Bank of Ukraine] — official website
• [http://www.hetman-cup.org/en/index.phtml Vadym Hetman Cup] — official website

{{ZN-2|Drobiazko, Anatoliy|Five years without Hetman|April 19–25|2003|[http://www.zn.ua/3000/3760/38296/ Russian]|[http://www.dt.ua/3000/3760/38296/ Ukrainian]}}

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{{succession box|title={{nowrap|Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine}}|before=Volodymyr Matvienko|after=Viktor Yushchenko|years=1992–1993}}

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Category:1935 births

Category:1998 deaths

Category:People from Poltava Oblast

Category:Ukrainian bankers

Category:Governors of the National Bank of Ukraine

Category:Assassinated Ukrainian politicians

Category:Deaths by firearm in Ukraine

Category:People murdered in Ukraine

Category:First convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada

Category:Second convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada

Category:Recipients of the title of Hero of Ukraine

Category:Kyiv National Economic University alumni

Category:Burials at Baikove Cemetery

Category:European politicians assassinated in the 1990s

Category:Politicians assassinated in 1998