Orphaned by the Second World War, Shcherbakov entered the Soviet Armed Forces in the early 1950s, and trained at the Kiev Tank Technical School [ru].

It was during these tests that he made his first parachute jump, triggering an interest and subsequent move to the Soviet Airborne Forces, where he worked in its scientific and technical committee.

Over the next few years Shcherbakov was involved in the testing and trials of fifteen types of armoured vehicles, some Soviet, and some captured foreign examples.

[3] During this period he was part of a team handpicked by Colonel-General Yuri Potopov [ru], which joined in the evaluation of the BMD-1, a vehicle intended to be dropped by aeroplane in support of ground forces.

Despite fracturing his leg on landing, Shcherbakov recalled that he was "euphoric", and was greeted by his comrades with the traditional award of a certificate, 3 rubles and 50 kopecks, a paratrooper badge, and copious amounts of vodka.

On 23 January 1976 Lieutenant-Colonel Shcherbakov and Major Aleksandr Margelov [ru] became the first in the world to make an experimental landing inside the BMD-1 using a parachute-jet system.

[1] The nomination was not acted upon, and in 1977 Shcherbakov instead received the Order of the Red Banner for "achievements in increasing the combat readiness of the Airborne Forces".

[1] He returned to the North Caucasus Military District as deputy commander for armaments in 1988, and was involved in testing and evaluating equipment and vehicles in combat conditions during the Soviet–Afghan War.

[1][2] Retiring from active service in May 1992 with the rank of lieutenant-general, shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the preceding year, Shcherbakov settled in Moscow and worked for the Russian Development Fund.

On 22 August 1996 Shcherbakov was belatedly recognised for his "courage and heroism shown during testing, fine-tuning and mastering special equipment" with the award of the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.