Yuriy Shcherbak


Yuriy M. Scherbak – Ukrainian writer, screenwriter, publicist, epidemiologist, politician, diplomat, and environmental activist. Doctor of Medicine, Laureate of Y. Yanovsky Literary Prize and O. Dovzhenko State Prize.

Biography

He was born in Kiev in 1934, about the time when his father was arrested by NKVD, predecessor of KGB. During World War II the family was evacuated to Russia. He returned to his native city in the beginning of March 1944. His older brother, Mykola Scherbak, famous scientist-zoologist, was head of the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and in his student's years was accused and condemned by KGB for nationalism.
Yuriy Scherbak graduated from Kiev Medical Institute in 1958. During 1958–1987 he worked in the Kiev L. Gromashevsky Research Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases as Junior and then Senior Researcher. His PhD and MD theses devoted to the epidemiology of especially dangerous infectious diseases. He took part in the fight against epidemics of cholera and other diseases in Ukraine and Uzbekistan, for which he was awarded the Order of Red Banner of Labour.
Yuriy Scherbak is the author of about 100 scientific papers and more than 20 books. His career in literature began in the mid-1950s at the literary association of his medical school. His first stories were published in the magazine "Yunost" and illustrated by his own illustrations. The first story "Like at the war" tells of doctor's everyday life. He has been a Member of the Writer's Union of Ukraine since 1966, and a Member of the Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine since 1971. His debut as a playwright was with the play "Discovery" at the Kharkiv Pushkin academic theatre in 1975. He has an excellent command of Polish, and translated Polish poetry and writers, often lecturing to students at Warsaw University.
In the novel "The Chronicle of Yaropol Town" he described the grotesque, fantastic story of the small town of Yaropol, chronicling and describing all manner of real and incredible events which happened there over several centuries. The story combines elements of science fiction, legends and fairy tales. He has also written several fantastic stories: "Interrogation", "Synthesis", "Odyssey −2482" and many others.
Most of his works can be attributed to the conventional genre of "urban prose". He is the author of the novel "The Barrier of Incompatibility" which concerns the moral problems of heart transplantation, the documentary novel "The Causes and Consequences" regarding the struggle against rabies, novels, digests of short stories, poems and plays, screenplays and a number of artistic, scientific and documentary movies. He was awarded the Y. Yanovsky literary prize for a collection of short stories "The Bright Dances of the Past", and the O. Dovzhenko state prize for the screenplay of the film "Public Attitudes". Soviet period books were published in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and other countries. As a publicist Yuriy Scherbak became known with documentary novel about the Chernobyl tragedy. "Chornobyl" was published in the US, Canada, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Japan and other countries.
During the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's independence, he moved away from the literary work and engaged in politics. Never having been affiliated with the Soviet Communist Party, Yuriy Scherbak is one of the founders and Chairman of the Ukrainian Environmental Association "Green World", and the first leader of the Green Party of Ukraine. During the period 1992–1998 he was engaged with diplomatic work. In 1998, the Institute of Ukrainian Studies at Harvard University published his book "The Strategic Role of Ukraine", and subsequently in 2003 his other political book "Ukraine: Challenges and Choices " was published. He is internationally recognized as one of Ukraine's foremost specialists on geo-political strategic issues, and is the author of numerous studies, articles and books on Chornobyl, ecology, public health, NATO and Ukraine's relations with Russia, the European Union and the United States. Throughout the years he has been internationally sought as a political analyst and commentator by all media outlets, conferences and seminars, and is a respected diplomat in the international arena. Yuriy Shcherbak was elected a member of the World Academy of Art and Science in 2013. He is married and has daughter and son, speaks Polish and English.

Public career

A TV film "Once in December" was made after Scherbak's story "Harmonic inspiration".