- Volodymyr Shcherbytsky
Volodymyr Vasylyovych Shcherbytsky ( _uk. Володимир Васильович Щербицький, _ru. Владимир Васильевич Щербицкий) (
17 February 1918 -17 February 1990 ) was a Ukrainian andSoviet politician. He was a leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine from 1972 to 1989.One of the most influential figures in the
Soviet Union , a member of Sovietpolitburo since 1971, he was a close ally to the Soviet leaderLeonid Brezhnev . His rule of Ukraine was characterized by the expanded policies of re-centralisation andsuppression of dissent . At the same time, he stil allowed Ukrainian-language to keep circulating side-by-side with Russian in this traditionally billingual region.He was one of the supporters of
Gorbachev in his takeover of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union which ultimately led to the implementation of reforms that dramatically altered the country and its future. At the same time, Scherbytsky opposed these democratic changes.He is also held responsible for concealing the real scale of the
Chernobyl Accident even to the central government in Moscow and for holding aMay Day demonstration inKiev only 5 days after the accident happened, when the public was still severely exposed tonuclear radiation .External links
* [http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/en/publish/article?art_id=1334114&cat_id=1290711 Shcherbytsky Volodymyr Vasylyovych] , from the Ukrainian Government Portal
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
