Shcherbitskii, Vladimir

Born Feb. 17, 1918, in Verkhnedneprovsk, in what is now Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Soviet party and state figure. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1974, 1977). Member of the CPSU since 1941.

The son of a worker, Shcherbitskii graduated from the Dnepropetrovsk Institute of Chemical Engineering in 1941. He had engaged in Komsomol work in 1934 and 1935. Shcherbitskii served in the Soviet Army from 1941 to 1945 and fought in the Great Patriotic War. Beginning in 1946, he held a series of engineering and technical positions in Dneprodzerzhinsk.

From 1948 to 1951, Shcherbitskii served as second secretary of the Dneprodzerzhinsk city committee of the Communist Party (CP) of the Ukraine. He was party organizer of the Central Committee of the CPSU at the F. E. Dzerzhinskii Dnieper Metallurgical Plant in Dneprodzerzhinsk in 1951 and 1952 and first secretary of the Dneprodzerzhinsk city committee of the CP of the Ukraine from 1952 to 1954.

Shcherbitskii served as second secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast committee of the CP of the Ukraine in 1954 and 1955 and as first secretary from 1955 to 1957. He was a secretary of the Central Committee of the CP of the Ukraine from 1957 to 1961 and chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR from 1961 to 1963.

Shcherbitskii was first secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk oblast committee of the CP of the Ukraine from 1963 to 1965 and chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR from 1965 to 1972. In 1972 he became first secretary of the Central Committee of the CP of the Ukraine.

Shcherbitskii was a member of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU from 1956 to 1961, when he became a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was a candidate member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1961 to 1963 and in 1965 and 1966. He was chosen a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1966 and a member in April 1971. Shcherbitskii became a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CP of the Ukraine in 1957 and a member of the Politburo in 1966.

Shcherbitskii was a deputy to the fifth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was named a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1972. Shcherbitskii has been awarded six Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and various medals.