Shcherbina was born in Debaltsevo, Ukrainian SSR (now Debaltseve in Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine) on October 5, 1919 to the family of a Ukrainian[3] railroad worker.[4] He joined the CPSU in 1939 and volunteered for army service during the Winter War with Finland.[5] He was married to Raisa Pavlovna and the two had one son, Yuri Borisovich.
Shcherbina is credited with co-founding the oil and gas industry in Western Siberia while serving as the CPSU first secretary in Tyumen Oblast and later as the Minister of Construction of Oil and Gas Industries (1973–1984).[6] In 1976, Shcherbina had become a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and kept the position until his death.[citation needed]
In 1984, he became a Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and as such was in charge of dealing with the Chernobyl disaster outcome in 1986. Shcherbina played a crucial role in the extensive cleanup and damage control from the Chernobyl disaster, alongside scientists such as Valery Legasov.
Shcherbina served in a similar role after the catastrophic 1988 Armenian earthquake.[7] He proposed inviting international rescuers – from Austria and Czechoslovakia – who had thermal imagers and specially trained dogs at their disposal to search for living people.[citation needed]
In 1990, he opposed the election of Boris Yeltsin to the chairmanship of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, describing him as "a man of low moral qualities", whose election would "pave the way for the darkest period in our country's history".[8]
Shcherbina died in Moscow in 1990, aged 70.[1][2] It is speculated that his death resulted from a radiation-induced cancer caused by his work at the Chernobyl disaster site. Officially, however, it is unknown whether his death was related to radiation, as a 1988 decree that he drafted prevented Soviet doctors from citing radiation as a cause of death or illness.[9][10]
"Boris Shcherbina". Yahoo UK. 29 April 2019. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2019. He died in 1990 at age 70, and it's not clear if he died of radiation or not, given that he ordered the construction of a new town in the highly contaminated area. In a secret 1988 decree that he helped form, Soviet doctors could not cite radiation as a cause of death or illness.
