Career
On 24 August Mikhail Gorbachev resigned, and on 29 August the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was suspended by the Supreme Soviet. Before becoming General Secretary he had been voted Gorbachev"s Deputy General Secretary within the Party on 12 July 1990, a newly created position as a result of the 28th Congress of the Communist Party
Stripped of its leading role in society, the party lost its authority to lead the nation or the cohesion that kept the party united. Ivashko led the Communists to victory in the first relatively free parliamentary election held in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which took place from 4 March to 18 March 1990, the Communists winning 331 seats to the "Democratic Blocks" 111 seats.
Ivashko was elected by the communist majority to the post of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on 4 June 1990.
Since the abandonment by the Communists of their 'leading role' in early 1990 this position now superseded that of First Secretary of the Communist Party as most powerful position in the Ukraine. He resigned his position as First Secretary on 22 June 1990 following opposition demonstrations against his occupation of both the First Secretary post and Chairmanship of the Rada.
However on 9 July 1990 he too resigned as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after declining to be recalled to Kiev during the 28th Congress of the Communist Party in Moscow, and a few days later successfully secured the position of Deputy General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Ivashko retired in 1992 and died on 13 November 1994, at the age of 62 after an undetermined "long illness".