Hienadź Karpienka

On March 31, 1999 Karpienka was taken to the 9th Minsk city hospital with an apparent cerebral hemorrhage. On April 1 he was operated on, but did not regain consciousness. He died on April 6 at seven in the morning.

In 1998 Karpienka was head of the National Executive Committee, an oppositional shadow government. He was considered as the leader of the Belarusian opposition and as the most probable oppositional candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.

In 1996 Karpienka was leading the initiative to impeach President Lukashenka, although this initiative lacked significant support.

Karpienka was author of 50 inventions, which were implemented in 15 countries. In 1994 he was elected corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

In 1992 he became Head of Maladzyechna Executive Committee (i.e. the city mayor). Within two years of becoming mayor, Hienadz Karpienka introduced several local economic reforms, established musical and theatrical festivals, founded a local football club and performed a radical de-sovietization of the city's street names.

In 1990 Karpienka defended his doctorate dissertation "Technology of Materials".

In 1987 he was director of the Maladzyechna metallurgy plant.

Dr. Hienadź Karpienka (Belarusian: Генадзь Карпенка, [ɣʲeˈnadzʲ karˈpʲenka]; Russian: Геннадий Карпенко, Gennady Karpenko, September 17, 1949 – April 6, 1999) was a Belarusian scientist and an important politician in opposition to president Alexander Lukashenko.