was elected chairman of the People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) political party, having served as acting chairman since the end of March 1999, when the previous chairman of Rukh, Viacheslav Chornovil, had died in a car accident. He was reelected in 2001 and served as chairman of the party until May 3, 2003, having been succeeded by Borys Tarasyuk who had earlier also succeeded him as Ukraine's foreign minister. As member of Rukh, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada, the Parliament of Ukraine, in 1998. In the spring of 1999 the parliamentary faction of Rukh did split up in 2 different factions and the breakaway faction was led by Udovenko. In 2002, he again became Member of Parliament as part of the electoral list of Our Ukraine bloc, which had been created with active cooperation on the part of Udovenko. During the 3rd and 4th convocations of the Verkhovna Rada, he was chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Inter-ethnic Relations. In the 2006 parliamentary elections, he was again part of the Our Ukraine list, but declined laying down his parliamentary mandate during the political crisis in the spring of 2007, when more than 150 MPs from Our Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc resigned from the parliament, giving the president the legal grounds for dissolving the Verkhovna Rada. Aged 76, Udovenko chose not to participate in the new elections. Death and legacy Udovenko died in a Kyiv hospital on 12 February 2013; the cause of death was not publicly revealed. Udovenko had been hospitalized at the same hospital in early February 2013. In 2017, the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine was named after Hennadiy Udovenko. This adult life-learning postgraduate institution is dedicated to the training and continuous professional education of diplomats and public servants engaged in foreign relationships. Notes References 1931 births 2013 deaths Politicians from Kryvyi Rih Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly Burials at Baikove Cemetery Permanent Representatives of Ukraine to the United Nations Foreign ministers of Ukraine People's Movement of Ukraine politicians Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 3rd Class Candidates in the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election Ambassadors of Ukraine to Poland Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 4th class