Shcherbytsky ruled as a neo-Stalinist, overseeing Russification of Ukrainian society as well as a rapid shift to nuclear power, ultimately resulting in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Shcherbytsky graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk Chemical Technology Institute in 1941 and in the same year became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

[3][4] 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.

As a result of the purge, which was co-orchestrated by Valentyn Malanchuk [uk], 5% of the KPU's members were removed,[9] 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.

[12] Through the Helsinki Accords the dissident movement reemerged and strengthened its position despite continuous attacks by Shcherbytsky's government.

[14][2] Karen Dawisha and Bruce Parrott have argued that Shcherbytsky's rule was among the most corrupt and conservative among the Soviet republics.

[16][9] During Shcherbytsky's rule mass arrests were carried out that incarcerated any member of the intelligentsia that dared to dissent from official state policies.

[16] Shcherbytsky also made a point of speaking Russian at official functions while Shelest spoke Ukrainian in public events.

[8] Following Brezhnev's death, he was replaced as General Secretary at first by Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko before the ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev.

[19] Shcherbytsky was likewise a strong opponent of Gorbachev, saying in one instance: What fool (durak) invented this word perestroika?

[9] After the disaster, Shcherbytsky was ordered by Gorbachev to go ahead with the annual International Workers' Day parade on the Khreshchatyk in Kyiv, in an effort to show people that there was no reason for panic.

[22] 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'.

"[23] The continually-worsening state of the Ukrainian economy, particularly in the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, also undermined his popularity.

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.

[28] Eight days later, upon the personal intervention of Gorbachev,[29] he was removed as First Secretary of the KPU and replaced by Vladimir Ivashko, who took a more conciliatory line towards the growing protests.

[30] Shcherbytsky died on 16 February 1990[31] - 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.

[34] In January 2003 Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine on humanitarian policy Dmytro Tabachnyk signed a (first Yanukovych Government) resolution to celebrate Shcherbytsky’s 85th anniversary with the erection of a monument in Kyiv.