Valeriy Soldatenko ( Ukrainian: Вале́рій Солдате́нко; born 4 April 1946) is a Ukrainian

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and professor, member of the

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; , ; ''NAN Ukrainy'') is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine that is the main center of development of Science and technology in Ukraine, science and technology by coordinatin ...

since 2006. Soldatenko was a member of

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU or KPU) is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 and claimed to be the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine, which had been banned in 1991. In 2002 it held a "unifi ...

, which he joined in 1969. In 2014, Soldatenko was appointed by then Ukrainian President

Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (born 9 July 1950) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. He also served as the prime minister of Ukraine several times between 2002 and 2007 and was a member of t ...

as the head of the

Ukrainian Institute of National Memory The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory (UINM, ), also translated as the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, is the central executive body operating under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Established on 31 May 2006 as a special org ...

, a decision which proved controversial due to Soldatenko's support for the Soviet Union and denial of the Holodomor as a genocide. After the Ukrainian Revolution, Soldatenko was forced to resign from his post, and since then, he has been a chief researcher at the I. F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Biography

Valeriy Soldatenko was born on April 13, 1946, in Selydivka (now Selydove in

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

). In 1970, he graduated from the Faculty of History of the

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

. Until 1976, he worked as an assistant, senior teacher and associate professor at the same university. At the same time, he studied at a graduate school and in 1973 defended his candidate's thesis. His scientific supervisor was Ivan Kuras. From 1976 to 1984, Soldatenko worked as a senior researcher at the Institute of Party History at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine — a branch of the Institute of Marxism–Leninism at the Central Committee of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

(CPSU). Soldatenko researched the history of Bolshevik organizations in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century and in 1917–1918; the history of the Party-Soviet press of this period, publishing several individual monographs and becoming a co-author of a number of collective works. In 1981, he defended his doctoral dissertation based on the materials of these studies. In 1984–1988, he headed the Department of Historical Experience of the CPSU of the Kyiv Higher Party School. From 1988 to 1991, he was the head of the historical and political research department of the Institute of Political Research of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. In 1992–2010, he was the head of the department of ethno-historical studies of the I. F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In 2010,

appointed Soldatenko as the head of the

, at a time where it went from being a governmental institution with a special status from 2006 to 2010 to a research budget institution under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. This appointment was controversial because Soldatenko, as a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine, was technically tasked with documenting the crimes of the Soviet Union in Ukraine, highlighting a

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

. He was a supporter of the non-genocidal theory of the

Holodomor The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian Famine, was a mass famine in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–193 ...

of 1932–33. He strongly opposed the granting of the

Hero of Ukraine A Hero of Ukraine (HOU; ) is the highest national decoration that can be conferred upon an individual citizen by the president of Ukraine. The decoration was created in 1998 by President Leonid Kuchma. As of 6 June 2025, the total number of re ...

Stepan Bandera Stepan Andriyovych Bandera (, ; ; 1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical militant wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B. Bandera was born in Austria-Hungary, in Galicia (Eas ...

. Prior to his appointment, he had been involved in drafting the new programme for the Ukrainian Communist Party. In 2014, following the

Revolution of Dignity The Revolution of Dignity (), also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, took place in Ukraine in February 2014 at the end of the Euromaidan protests, when deadly clashes between protesters and state forces in the capit ...

, Valery Soldatenko was forced to leave the post of director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, and

Volodymyr Viatrovych Volodymyr Mykhailovych Viatrovych (; born 7 July 1977) is a Ukrainian historian, civic activist and politician. Viatrovych was the Director of the Center for Research of Liberation Movement in 2002–2010. Viatrovych is a member of the board of ...

became his successor. Following this, since 2014, Soldatenko returned to the I. F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnonational Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where he currently works as a chief researcher for the institute. In 2015, he became co-chairman of the

Left Opposition The Left Opposition () was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) from 1923 to 1927 headed '' de facto'' by Leon Trotsky. It was formed by Trotsky to mount a struggle against the perceived bureaucratic degeneration within th ...

coalition, however this group was suspended in 2022, following the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. He is the author of more than 650 publications. Among them are about 50 monographs, 20 of which belong exclusively to him.

Awards

* Merited Science and Technology Functionary of Ukraine (May 20, 2011) — ''for a significant personal contribution to the development of national science, strengthening of the scientific and technical potential of Ukraine through many years of fruitful work'' *

Pushkin Medal The Medal of Pushkin () is a state decoration of the Russian Federation awarded to its citizens and to foreigners for achievements in the arts and culture, education, humanities and literature. It is named in honour of Russian author and poet Al ...

(

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, March 6, 2012) — ''for great contributions to the development of cultural ties with the Russian Federation, preservation and popularization of the Russian language and culture abroad'' * Medal "To the 140th anniversary of I. V. Stalin"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soldatenko, Valeriy 1946 births Living people People from Selydove 21st-century Ukrainian historians Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Communist Party of Ukraine politicians Holodomor deniers Corresponding members of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Biography

Awards

Further reading

References