Volodymyr Shcherbytsky

Shcherbytsky was born in Verkhnodniprovsk on 17 February 1918 == Military career ==

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Shcherbytsky was mobilized into the ranks of the Red Army. Because he was a graduate with a major in chemical equipment and machinery, he was sent to attend short term courses at the Military Academy of Chemical Protection named after Voroshilov, which was evacuated from Moscow to Samarkand in Uzbek SSR. After graduation, Shcherbytsky was appointed head of the chemical unit within the 34th Infantry Regiment of the 473rd Infantry Division in the Transcaucasian Front. In November 1941, the division was formed in the cities of Baku and Sumgayit in Azerbaijan SSR. On 8 January 1942, the division was renamed as 75th Rifle Division, and in April of the same year, Shcherbytsky and the division took part in the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. On the same year, he served in a tank brigade. In March 1943, Shcherbytsky was transferred to the chemical department at the headquarters of the Transcaucasian Front, where he served until the end of the war. In August 1945, the Transcaucasian Front was reorganized into the Tbilisi Military District and Shcherbytsky's last military assignment was as an assistant chief of the chemistry department of the district headquarters for combat training. In December 1945, he left the military service at the rank of captain. == Political career ==

After World War II, he worked as an engineer in Dniprodzerzhynsk (now Kamianske). On 16 October 1965, after Brezhnev had risen to the supreme position as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Shcherbytsky was restored to his former position at the head of the Ukrainian government. == First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine ==

Indira Gandhi in Kyiv in 1982. In May 1972, Shelest was recalled from his post as head of the Ukrainian government, as part of a broader attack on the nationally-minded Ukrainian intelligentsia by the central Soviet government that had begun in January. He was instead transferred to Moscow and elected to be the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. As a result of this development, the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party elected Shcherbytysky as their new First Secretary; this was the highest political office in the Ukrainian SSR. While Shelest had pushed for increased Ukrainian autonomy from Moscow, and had been a supporter of increased Ukrainian cultural identification, Shcherbytsky was unfailingly loyal to Brezhnev, and conducted policy accordingly. Shcherbytsky's appointment was both a victory for the Soviet government and a personal victory for Brezhnev; Shcherbytsky was a member of Brezhnev's political clan, the Dnipropetrovsk Mafia, which was opposed to Shelest's Kharkiv Clan. In government, Shcherbytsky relied on a group of party cadres from both the Dnipropetrovsk Mafia and emerging Donetsk Clan, both of whom were more supportive of Russification than other political clans in Ukraine. The Kharkiv Clan was pushed out of government and marginalised. Ideologically, Shcherbytsky was a neo-Stalinist and hardline conservative. and several leading Ukrainian intellectuals, among them anti-communist leaders Viacheslav Chornovil, Ivan Svitlychnyi, and Yevhen Sverstiuk, were arrested. Described by Peter Reddaway as the "heaviest single KGB assault", the intelligentsia interpreted the purge as an effort to undo Shelest's rule and reestablish Russian control over Ukraine. Ivan Dziuba's book Internationalism or Russification?, which was critical of the role the Russian language played in the Soviet Union, was harshly criticised and suppressed by the Ukrainian government. Dziuba himself was later arrested and sentenced to five years of hard labour. Arrested dissidents were linked to the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, then operating abroad. The purge led to increased radicalism among the dissident movement, bringing many in the dissident movement to consider the outright separation of Ukraine from the Soviet Union rather than simply increased autonomy. Through the Helsinki Accords the dissident movement reemerged and strengthened its position despite continuous attacks by Shcherbytsky's government. Shcherbytsky was also an influential figure in the Soviet Union's larger government. In April 1971, he was promoted to membership of the Politburo, on which he remained a close ally of Brezhnev. On March 7, 1985, Shcherbytsky visited the United States, where he met with President Ronald Reagan to discuss the potential resumption of arms control negotiations. The talks between Reagan and Shcherbytsky were reportedly tense from the outset, with Shcherbytsky characterizing the United States as a "destabilizing force." Following the meeting, Reagan remarked that Shcherbytsky would return home with a clear understanding that the United States was open to negotiations. However, Reagan emphasized that the United States would not lower its defenses or permit the Soviet Union to expand its offensive capabilities unchecked. Russification His rule of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was characterized by the expanded policies of re-centralisation and suppression of Soviet dissidents, accompanied by a broad assault on Ukrainian culture and intensification of Russification. The expirations of political prisoners' sentences were increasingly followed by re-arrest and new sentences on charges of criminal activity. Shcherbytsky also made a point of speaking Russian at official functions while Shelest spoke Ukrainian in public events. In an October 1973 speech to fellow party members Shcherbytsky stated that as an "internationalist" Ukrainians were meant to "express feelings of friendship and brotherhood to all people of our country but first of all against the great Russian people, their culture, their language - the language of the Revolution, of Lenin, the language of international intercourse and unity". During Shcherbytsky's rule, Ukrainian-language education was greatly scaled back. == Downfall ==

Following Brezhnev's death, he was replaced as General Secretary at first by Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko before the ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1985, Shcherbytsky was in San Francisco, United States when he received news about Chernenko's death and that the Politburo was in the process of picking up a successor. By the time he is airborne, he received news about the election of Gorbachev as General Secretary. Gorbachev's liberal rule contrasted heavily with Shcherbytsky's hardline principles, and remaining Brezhnev loyalists either retired from their positions or were removed by Gorbachev. Shcherbytsky's removal was originally planned by Gorbachev, owing to the former's hardline rule. However, he decided to allow him to remain in office for several more years in order to keep the Ukrainian nationalist movement subdued. Shcherbytsky was likewise a strong opponent of Gorbachev, saying in one instance: An advocate of increased nuclear power, Shcherbytsky's position was significantly impacted by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. But he arrived late, and complained to aides: "He told me: 'You will put your party card on the table if you bungle the parade'." The continually-worsening state of the Ukrainian economy, particularly in the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, also undermined his popularity. In July 1989, a series of strikes by coal miners in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, spurred by strikes in Siberia, began. Shcherbytsky's government replied by discrediting the strikes in state media and downplaying their significance. As the strikes increased in intensity, so, too, did their demands, as increasing amounts of miners demanded Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union and the resignation of Shcherbytsky, as well as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR Valentyna Shevchenko. The People's Movement of Ukraine, a Ukrainian nationalist political movement inspired by the Lithuanian Sąjūdis, was also founded in September 1989 by dissident leader Chornovil, and gathered far-reaching support from its early days. In the face of the strikes and continued pressure to step down from Moscow, Shcherbytsky was quickly removed from all of his offices. On 20 September 1989, Shcherbytsky lost his membership of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in a purge of conservative members pushed through by Gorbachev. Eight days later, upon the personal intervention of Gorbachev, he was removed as First Secretary of the KPU and replaced by Vladimir Ivashko, who took a more conciliatory line towards the growing protests. His removal, however, was not enough to stem the rapidly-growing discontent with the Soviet system in Ukraine, which continued to grow until Ukraine achieved independence two years later. == Death and legacy ==

Shcherbytsky died on 16 February 1990 - one day before his 72nd birthday, which also when he was supposed to testify in the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR about the events related to the Chernobyl disaster. Although the official version claims that the cause of death was pneumonia, it was alleged that he had committed suicide by shooting himself with his carbine, "unable to deal not only with the end of his own career but also with the end of the political and social order he had served all his life" and had left a suicide note explaining to his wife how to deal with cash, medals and small arms that were kept in the family home. He was buried at the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv. In 1994 the first President of Ukraine of independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk in interviews stated his views about Shcherbytsky’s positive legacy. Due to Ukrainian decommunization laws a street named after Shcherbytsky in Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk) was renamed to Olena Blavatsky Street in 2015. In 2016 a street named after him in Kamianske was renamed to Viacheslav Chornovil Street for the same reasons. In Shcherbytsky's birthplace Verkhnodniprovsk a bust depicting him was dismantled on 18 January 2024. ==Personal life==

Shcherbytsky was married to Ariadna Gavrilovna Shcherbitskaya, née Zheromskaya (1923–2015) on 13 November 1945. The couple had two children; son Valery (1946–1991), who died due to alcohol and drug addiction just one year after Shcherbytsky's death, and a daughter Olga (1953–2014), who died at a hospital in Kyiv after a serious and prolonged illness. He also had numerous grand and great-grandchildren. Olga was married to Bulgarian businessman Borislav Dionisiev, who then was a soldier in the Bulgarian People's Army and a Consul General of Bulgaria in Odesa. The couple had a daughter before divorcing in an unknown date. ==Awards==

Volodymyr Shcherbytsky was twice awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour — in 1974 and 1977. During his public service he also received numerous other civil and state awards and recognitions, including the Order of Lenin (in 1958, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1983 and 1988), the Order of October Revolution (in 1978 and 1982), the Order of the Patriotic War, I class (in 1985), the Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus" (in 1944) and various medals. He was also awarded the Order of Victorious February by the Government of Czechoslovakia (in 1978). ==Notes==