Victor Khristenko (date of birth - August 28, 1957) is a well-known statesman of Russia in recent decades. Previously, he held senior positions in the government, today he heads the central governing body of the EAEU.
Amazing family story
Where did Viktor Khristenko begin his life? His biography began in Chelyabinsk, but the family in which he was born has its own unique and noteworthy story. His father, Boris Nikolaevich, was born in Harbin - the capital of the CER, in the family of a railwayman. In 1935, together with tens of thousands of other Harbin residents of the CER, the family of Boris Khristenko (parents and two sons) returned to the USSR. And then the same nightmare began, which was possible only in the country of victorious socialism. All Khristenko were arrested, the family father was immediately shot, the mother was tortured to death in the camps, and Boris’s brother went crazy in the NKVD prison. Boris himself survived a ten-year term in the camps and only after the war went free. Already a pensioner, Boris Khristenko, at the request of his son Viktor, described his life vicissitudes in an autobiographical book, which, although it was not published, still had some circulation among the people with whom Viktor Khristenko spoke. She fell into the hands of the famous screenwriter Eduard Volodarsky, who based on her wrote the script for the series "It All Started in Harbin." It is worth seeing, because everything that is shown in it is not just pure truth, but an almost documentary retelling of the real life history of Boris Khristenko (in the film, only his name was changed).
Even more surprising is the fact that Viktor Khristenko’s mother, Lyudmila Nikitichna, also comes from a family of repressed: her father was shot and she herself escaped arrest only because she was only 14 years old then. Such a family story.
The beginning of the way
Could all these unusual circumstances not affect the fate of such a famous person in our country as Viktor Borisovich Khristenko? His biography, however, looks quite usual for a Soviet person born in the late 50s. First, a school, then the building department of the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic (by the way, his father, Boris Nikolaevich, was an assistant professor at that time).
At the end of his studies, Viktor was assigned to his native university, worked as an engineer in the department, studied in absentia at the graduate school of the Moscow Institute of Management, then became a laborer, taught and in the late 80s was already an assistant professor. So Victor Khristenko would have continued his path in the footsteps of his father, but changes have come in the country.
The beginning of the state career
In 1990, a young scientist Khristenko Viktor Borisovich running for election to the city council of Chelyabinsk and defeating his rivals. An educated and energetic specialist is quickly moving up the career ladder, becoming a member of the presidium of the council, and leads the commission on the development of a development concept for Chelyabinsk. However, the time of the “soviets” was already drawing to a close, and Viktor Khristenko went to work in the executive branch, the city executive committee, where he was involved in the management of the city’s property. After the collapse of the USSR, he was appointed deputy, then the first deputy governor of the region. He does not waste time in vain; he studies at the Academy of N / A of the Russian Federation. Politically, he is an active supporter of Boris Yeltsin, leads the party "Our Home - Russia" in Chelyabinsk.
1996 Presidential Election
Today, few people recall the events when the Russians decided who would become president of the country - Yeltsin or Zyuganov. Khristenko Viktor Borisovich did everything in his power to ensure that Chelyabinsk citizens cast their votes for the re-election of the incumbent president for a second term. During the election campaign, he was a confidant of Boris Yeltsin, actively spoke at rallies and meetings, campaigning for him. After the re-election of the president on the second line, Khristenko is appointed as his authorized representative in the field.
The beginning of a government career
In the summer of 1997, Khristenko moved to Moscow and took the post of Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation in the government of Viktor Chernomyrdin. Crisis events were growing in the country, which in the spring of 1998 led to the resignation of Chernomyrdin and the formation of a new Cabinet under the leadership of Sergei Kiriyenko. The new prime minister, who, like Viktor Khristenko, only moved to the provinces (from Nizhny Novgorod) in Moscow in 1997, offered his peer the post of deputy prime minister responsible for developing financial policy.
After the default in the Russian Federation and during the crisis that followed, Khristenko headed the government for a couple of months as acting (so that in his biography there is also a premiership!), until Yevgeny Primakov came there.
Good premieres for all premieres needed
The new prime minister did not kick out the “valuable shot” - Khristenko returned to the post of deputy minister of finance. After replacing Primakov, eight months later, Stepashin again offered him the position of First Deputy Prime Minister. Vladimir Putin, too, soon sat down in the prime minister’s chair. Kasyanov, who came after him, left Khristenko in the same position that he had been in until March 2004, when the government was left without a prime minister for half a month. And again, albeit only for a couple of weeks, but Viktor Khristenko becomes acting Prime Minister of the Russian Federation - the second time in his career.
The head of the government, Fradkov, moves Khristenko to the post of Minister of Energy and Industry, which the latter retains at the time of Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov until May 2008. Vladimir Putin, who again headed the government of the Russian Federation, leaves him in the same ministerial position.
Transition to work in supranational structures
At that time, international cooperation of the Russian Federation with Belarus and Kazakhstan within the framework of the Customs Union was actively developing, and the creation of the EAEU was being prepared. Prime Minister Putin believed that Viktor Khristenko could be entrusted with the leadership of the executive body of the emerging community. In November 2011, he was elected chairman of the board of the EAEU Economic Commission, which is a unique analogue of the European Commission. So the post held by Viktor Khristenko is approximately the same as that in the EU by J.K. Junker. In December of this year, his term expires.
