Michel Robert Gerard Tereshchenko (; born 15 September 1954) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as Mayor of

Hlukhiv Hlukhiv (, ; ) is a small historic List of cities in Ukraine, city on the Esman River. It belongs to Shostka Raion of Sumy Oblast of Ukraine. Population: It is known for being a capital of the Cossack Hetmanate after the deposition of Ivan M ...

from 2015 to 2020.

Biography

Michel Robert Gerard Tereshchenko was born on 15 September 1954 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, His father was Pierre Terestchenko, while his grandfather was landowner and sugar baron Mikhail Tereshchenko, who served as foreign minister and finance minister of the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Empire and Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II on 2 March, O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="5 ...

. Tereshchenko spent much of his life in the United States before moving to Ukraine in 2002. He moved to the city of

, where the

Tereshchenko family Members of the Tereshchenko family have achieved prominence in Ukraine and the world as businessmen, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and landowners, beginning in the 18th century. The family has Cossack roots and comes from the city of Hlukhiv (n ...

had been landowners prior to the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

. There, he worked in the flax and hemp industry. In March 2015 Tereshchenko was granted Ukrainian citizenship by President

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiiovych Poroshenko (born 26 September 1965) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician and Oligarchy, oligarch who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine), Minister ...

, and in October of the same year he was elected as mayor of Hlukhiv. Terestchenko's campaign was based on solving corruption and establishing Hlukhiv as a leading city of historical tourism in Europe, as well as strengthening democracy within Ukraine. He won the mayoral election with 64.58% of the vote, a two-to-one margin over his next-closest candidate (incumbent Yurii Burlaka, a

Party of Regions A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

politician tied to Andrii Derkach). Tereshchenko's victory was widely celebrated on Ukrainian social media, with one user referring to it as "miraculous news". Tereshchenko struggled to reform Hlukhiv's smuggling-based economy over the next two years, something he attributed to the status of entrenched elites in the city. However, he was successful in reducing corruption in Hlukhiv, as well as strengthening the city's infrastructure. He ultimately resigned on 1 October 2018, in line with a campaign promise to only hold office for two years. He subsequently announced his participation as a candidate in the

2019 Ukrainian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 March 2019. As none of the 39 candidates on the ballot received an absolute majority of the initial vote, a runoff was held on 21 April between the top two vote-getters: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a t ...

. Tereshchenko criticised incumbent President Poroshenko, saying that he had not done enough to fight corruption. Following the

Kerch Strait incident The Kerch Strait incident was an international incident that occurred on 25 November 2018 in the Kerch Strait, during which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels after they ...

Tereshchenko returned to office as mayor of Hlukhiv. He dropped out of the race on 3 January 2019 and instead placed his support behind

Andriy Sadovyi Andriy Ivanovych Sadovyi (; born 19 August 1968) is a Ukrainian politician and businessman who has served as the mayor of Lviv, the administrative centre of the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine, since 2006. He is the former leader of the Self Re ...

, joining the

Self Reliance "Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of his recurrent themes: the need for each person to avoid conformity and false consistency, ...

party. He did not seek re-election in the

2020 Ukrainian local elections The 2020 Ukrainian local elections took place on Sunday 25 October 2020.Ukrai ...

, and was succeeded by Our Land candidate Nadia Vailo.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tereshchenko, Michel 1954 births Living people American emigrants to Ukraine Businesspeople from Paris Candidates in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election French emigrants to the United States French people of Ukrainian descent Mayors of places in Ukraine Politicians from Paris Self Reliance (political party) politicians