Liudmyla Kuchma

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Mykolaivna and the family name is Kuchma.

Liudmyla Mykolaivna Kuchma^[a] (née Talalaieva^[b]; born 19 June 1940) is the wife of second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and a former First Lady of Ukraine.^[1] She had previously worked as a design engineer.

Liudmyla Kuchma
Людмила Кучма
Kuchma in 2000
First Lady of Ukraine
In office 19 July 1994 – 23 January 2005
President	Leonid Kuchma
Preceded by	Antonina Kravchuk
Succeeded by	Kateryna Yushchenko
Personal details
Born	Lyudmila Nikolayevna Talalayeva (1940-06-19) 19 June 1940 (age 85) Votkinsk, Udmurt ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Udmurtia, Russia)
Spouse	Leonid Kuchma ​ (m. 1967)​
Relations	Gennady Fyodorovich Tumanov (stepfather; 1918–1989)
Children	Olena Pinchuk
Occupation	Former design engineer
Awards	Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas Order of Princess Olga First Class

Early life and education

Liudmyla Kuchma was born in Udmurtia, and studied at a music school located in the house-museum of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. She graduated from mechanical college.^{[citation needed]}

Career

For thirty years, she worked as an engineer in the design office of a production association in Dnipropetrovsk.

Personal life

In 1967, she married Leonid Kuchma, the president of Ukraine from 1994 to 2005. Her daughter Olena was born in 1970.^[2]

Honors

In 1998, Kuchma was awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.^[3] and Order of Princess Olga First Class (2010).^[4] Since 1996, she has been Honorary President of the National Fund for Social Protection of Mother and Child.^{[citation needed]}

Since 12 May 2004, she has been Special Ambassador of UNESCO to help young talents.^[5]

Notes

1. • Ukrainian: Людмила Миколаївна Кучма
   • Russian: Людми́ла Никола́евна Ку́чма, romanized: Lyudmila Nikolayevna Kuchma
2. • Ukrainian: Талалаєва
   • Russian: Талалаева, romanized: Talalayeva