Arkadiy Shestakov (politician)

Arkadii Shestakov
Аркадій Шестаков
Mayor of Sevastopol
In office 1 April 1990 – 5 February 1991
Succeeded by	Ivan Yermakov
Personal details
Born	(1939-02-06)6 February 1939 Kraskovo, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union
Died	April 10, 2002(2002-04-10) (aged 70) Ukraine
Political party	Batkivshchyna

Arkadii Mykolaiovych Shestakov (Ukrainian: Аркадій Миколайович Шестаков; 6 February 1939 - 10 April 2002), was a Russian-born Soviet and Ukrainian politician who served as Mayor of Sevastopol from 1990 to 1991.

Early life

Arkadiy Shestakov was born in Kraskovo, Moscow Oblast on 6 February 1939.

From 1953 to 1959, he studied at Kherson Maritime College, specializing in navigation.

Early career

Sailing business

In 1959, he began as an assistant captain of the emergency response unit in the motor fishing station near the city of Ochakiv. That year, he was promoted to 1st class sailor in Kerch before being demoted to 2nd assistant captain-director and transferred to Sevastopol.

In 1962, he was promoted to the senior assistant captain-director of ships "Yevpatoria" and "Argo", then in 1964 became captain-director of ships "Canopus" and "Natalia Kovshova". In 1977, Shestakov became the director of the association "Atlantika".

Entry into Politics

From 1983 to 1985, he was the student of the Academy of National Economy under the Council of Ministers of the USSR in Moscow.

From 1985 to 1989, he was the Representative of the USSR Ministry of Fisheries in Mauritania.

From 1988 to 1990, he was the head of the Yemen Industrial Expedition of the VRPO "Azcherryba", based in Sevastopol.

In April 1990, he was the head of a temporary creative team for the creation of a tuna seining flotilla of the Yuzhryba BPO.

Sevastopol City Council

In the same year, Shestakov was elected to the Sevastopol City Council. At the same time, a new structure of the City Council came to Sevastopol, which consisted of two main levels, legislative and executive, which were to be headed by the Chairman of the City Council and the Chairman of the Executive Committee, respectively.

For Shestakov, the election as chairman of the executive committee of the city council was a “consolation prize”, since before that he lost the election of the chairman of the city council to Yuriy Stupnikov, (losing 49 votes). Shestakov’s rivals for the chairman of the executive committee were the first deputy chairman of the previous executive committee, were V Parfisenko (29 votes for, 120 against) and the chairman of the executive committee of the Nakhimovsky District Council of People’s Deputies, V Sokolsky (33 votes for ” and 116 “against”), but having collected 85 votes “for” (with 64 votes “against”), he beat out quite serious and experienced competitors.

Having taken up his duties, Shestakov immediately decided to pursue a course towards complete independence of the executive committee: "the executive committee should not be only a representative body of the city council, it becomes in the new conditions a working, business, economic, commercial body, which is called upon to specifically manage the entire city economy as a whole". When the negative trends in the functioning of the city’s national economy failed, the chairman of the executive committee stated that “the executive committee of the city council has no executive power. There is only one responsibility for everything. This situation is no good.”

However, Shestakov was not going to refuse responsibility, reiterated, “I am not a supporter of blaming everything on the past leadership. This is the easiest way. My predecessors did a lot of useful things for the city. And it is not their fault that the general economic structure in the country negated many practical efforts. We, the current executive committee, are responsible for all troubles and disorders. The demand is from us, not from the past.” In the same interview, he identified the priorities of the city executive committee: "Now the main thing is to develop active commercial activity, solve many problems associated with foreign investment, with the organization of business tourism that is beneficial for the city and provides foreign currency."

However, the active commercial activities of the chairman of the city executive committee aroused the suspicions of the conservative majority of Sevastopol residents as of 1990, as Shestakov managed to become the president of the Crimea concern, as well as the vice-president of the business center created under the city council.

By the end of the year, the chairman of the executive committee himself lost interest in his position. At a meeting of deputy activists in November 1990, he made it clear that he was more inclined to foreign economic activity than to the practical activities of the chairman of the city executive committee. In December 1990, the Presidium of the City Council decided to change the structure of city governance, again combining the positions of the chairmen of the City Council and the City Executive Committee (the new position was to be taken by the Chairman of the City Council Yuriy Stupnikov), but the decision of the Presidium did not find support from the Council, as that issue was not even included in that agenda.

In February 1991, Stupnikov, resigned as the chairman of the city council, and Shestakov decided to run for chairman of the city council. His opponent was the director of one of the defense plants in Sevastopol, Ivan Yermakov, for whom 90 deputies voted (77 against). Shestakov received only 77 votes (90 against). Though win it was necessary to get at least 101 votes, the vote did not lead to anything, and realizing the lack of support for his candidacy, he announced that he was resigning as chairman of the executive committee of the city council, but remains an active deputy, which he did on 5 November 1991.

Later activities and death

In April 1992 to November 1994, he was the President of the Maritime Commodity Exchange of the city of Sevastopol.

He was a member of the All-Ukrainian Association "Fatherland".

As member of the hairman of the State Fisheries Committee of Ukraine.

As a member of the Sevastopol City Council, he was the President of the Sea Commodity Exchange until 2000.

He died in April 2002.