The Shcherbytsky Phenomenon

Mariya Matviyuk, The Day February 17 was the eightieth anniversary of the birth of Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, seventeenth leader of Communist Party of Ukraine and chair of the three-million strong organization for over 17 of its 72 years. For almost two decades he was in the Soviet leadership and for 32 years a member of Politburo of Central Committee of the CPU.

Six General Secretaries changed during Shcherbytsky’s political career. He started his career at the end of Stalin's era, continued it through Khrushchev's thaw, Brezhnev's stagnation, Andropov's attempts at reform, and Chernenko’s dead zone. He even managed to survive five years of Gorbachev’s perestroika. Considering all this, we can talk about the Shcherbytsky phenomenon (Ivan Kuras). And now that after the first years of independence the euphoria is over, we can give a fairer assessment of this extraordinary person, because only history can judge him as a politician.

At present we have every reason to honor his memory. He loved Ukraine, loved its people, he was always true to them and selflessly worked for them, according to Prof. Vitaly Vrublevsky, who served as Shcherbytsky’s aide from 1972 to 1989. We cannot avoid considering this point of view.

Still there are unpleasant extremes. Leftist publications seem to have forgotten the bitter results of Shcherbytsky’s later years at the helm and begin apologia, thus decreasing the caliber of his personality. On the other side there are people who claim to be a young Shcherbytsky.

All of this does not eliminate serious questions to the historians and political scientists: what was Shcherbytsky’s time for Ukraine? Is it over or did it just get smaller?

The Day photo archive:
Volodymyr Shcherbytsky and Leonid Brezhnev.
Daughter Olha traveled from Austria to honor her father's memory.