Yuriy Mykolayovych Shcherbak (; born 23 October 1934) is a Ukrainian writer, screenwriter, publicist, epidemiologist, politician, diplomat, environmental activist and political analyst. Doctor of Medicine (1983), Laureate of Y. Yanovsky Literary Prize (1984) and O. Dovzhenko State Prize (1984).
Early life and family
He was born in Kyiv in 1934, about the time when his father was arrested by NKVD. 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 Shcherbak (1927–1998), famous scientist-zoologist, was head of the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and in his student's years was accused (1948) and condemned by KGB (1948–1954) for nationalism.
Epidemiological career
Yuriy Shcherbak graduated from Kyiv Medical Institute in 1958. From 1958 to 1987 he worked in the Kyiv L. Gromashevsky Research Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases as a junior and later senior researcher. His PhD (1965) and MD (1983) 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 (1971). Shcherbak is the author of about 100 scientific papers and more than 20 books.
Literary career
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" (1966) tells of doctor's everyday life. He has been a Member of the Writer's Union of Ukraine since 1966 (Secretary of the Board in 1987–1991), 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" (1968) 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 (1984) 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 Shcherbak became known with documentary novel about the Chernobyl tragedy. "Chornobyl" (1987–1991) was published in the US, Canada, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Japan and other countries.