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15th Premier of Alaska | |
| Predecessor | Ivan Edmarovsky |
| Successor | Iosef Antonov |
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3rd Leader of Moderate Party | |
| Predecessor | Antonin Akayev |
| Successor | Mikhail Ruzhin |
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President of the Duma | |
| Predecessor | Sergei Feodorov |
| Successor | Gregori Kulov |
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Duma Representative for 147th Constituency | |
| Predecessor | Sergei Mikhailov |
| Successor | Gennady Nobunov |
| Born | April 3, 1938 |
| Spouse | Natalya "Nana" Valenko |
| Political Party | Moderate Party |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Aleksey Dmitreyevich Valenko (Russ: Алексей Дмитриевич Валенко) (April 3, 1938-) was the Premier of Alaska from 1979 to 1988 and served in the Duma as one of the first leaders of the Moderate Party from 1969 until 1992. Valenko was Premier during a period of grave economic instability that coincided with the American Meltdown of '79 and ensuing economic depression only a month after his election, and Valenko is often credited with helping Alaska weather the depression and make the 1982 Olympic Games in Kialgory a success. He survived a government shutdown in late 1981 and early 1982 during a feud with Tsar Alexander III, instituted progressive tax reform, tried to push a failed bureaucratic reorganization through the Duma, and led an anticorruption crusade in the later years of his term. He resigned amid governmental scandals in November of 1988, remained in the Duma throughout the instability of the early 1990's and declined to run to retain his seat in the 1992 general election.
Valenko hails from a noted Alaskan political family that has spawned five generations of Duma members. His popularity, while low in the late 1980's, has risen in later years and historians agree that Valenko's policies in the 1980's eventually helped Alaska become a more democratic and fair society, and that the Revolution of 1991 was the only true way to purge the country of decades of corruption and stagnation. Valenko, since leaving government in 1992, is a noted humanitarian and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. His son, Stanislav Alekseyevich Valenko (1966-), currently is a ranking member of the current Moderate government elected in 2010, and his younger son, Boris Alekseyevich (1969-) is a first-term Duma member elected in 2010 in the Moderate landslide.
Early Life[]
Aleksey Dmitreyevich Valenko was born in 1938 in the Alaskan town of Sulpanya, roughly halfway between Feodorograd and Aleksandrgrad. His father, Dmitri Dmitreyevich Valenko (1900 - 1991) was the Mayor of Sulpanya from 1940 until 1952 and was also a Conservative Party Political Officer for Sulpanya District, chairing the local party chapter, during that same period. His father would serve a term in the Duma (1953-1957) as a Conservative, but his career never went particularly far in comparison to many members of his family. Valenko's paternal grandfather, Dmitri Gennadiyevich Valenko (1875 - 1950), was a member of the Duma along with his father G. N. Valenko (1852 - 1921) and brothers Trofim Gennadiyevch (1880 - 1962) and Gennady Gennadiyevich (1886 - 1970), making Valenko the heir to a prominent political family.
Valenko's mother, Ivana Ivanovna Valenko (1910-1941), died when he as only three and his father never remarried. Valenko was the youngest of five children, four of whom were male - Dmitri Dmitreyevich (1929-2004), Ivan Dmitreyevich (1931- ), Trofim Dmitreyevich (1934-1980), and Lyudmila Dmitreyevna (1936- ).
Valenko attended Sulpanya Regular School, the local public school, from the age of six until his graduation when he was seventeen. He attended the Evgenigrad Royal Academy for Engineering and Practical Sciences, earning a degree in engineering, before deciding to go to become a clerk at the Duma. Working in the politically volatile early 1960's in Sitka, Valenko developed a feel for the political ins-and-outs of the legislature and was personally dismayed by the partisan rancor and blatant corruption. He resigned as a clerk in 1964 shortly after the assassination of Alexander II and joined the Moderate Party, returning home to the now-booming oil town of Sulpanya to start a party chapter there.
He ran in the 1966 general election as a Moderate but lost to Evgeni Begaev, a member of the Industrial Party who would fill that seat. His father endorsed him and convinced many Conservatives in Sulpanya to join the Moderates over the next three years while Valenko split his time from grassroots organizing in the rapidly growing city and studying law at the Feodorograd Royal Academy of Law. Shortly after attaining a law degree in 1969, Valenko stood once again as the Moderate candidate for the then-102nd constituency, which included almost all of Sulpanya and much of its southern environs, and defeated Begaev in that fall's election, being elected to the Duma as one of numerous Moderates arriving for the first time in the Duma.
Duma Career[]
Premiership[]
Post-Political Career and Legacy[]
Personal Life[]
Valenko met Natalya "Nana" Valenko in Sitka in the early 1960's when she was working as a public relations coordinator for the Conservative Party to attract female voters in future general elections. They were married in the Orthodox Church in 1965 and had their first child, Stanislav, in 1966. They had a second son, Boris, in 1969.