HOW DID UKRAINE LIVE UNDER SHCHERBYTSKY?

Leonid Kravchuk: The Shcherbytsky period did not differ much from that of Shelest, except perhaps that there was more party discipline, better organization, and diligence in complying with directives from upstairs. It was a one-dimensional period of the one-dimensional times... The decision-makers were in Moscow, so that the party functionaries in Kyiv were their obedient executors. The biggest tragedy of that period was Chornobyl. Of course, the CPU Central Committee and Politburo should have insisted on the fallacy of the nucleate power project located actually on the Dnipro. They did not. And so the Shcherbytsky period went down in history under the key word Chornobyl. All the rest will be mentioned fleetingly by future historians. It is true that Shcherbytsky was a modest person. I would say that he behaved decently, all things considered. But then came Chornobyl, reducing to nil every positive aspect..