Ukrainian SSR head of state during Chernobyl who pushed the evacuation of 526,000 children from Kyiv against Moscow's resistance
Recalling the interior deputy minister's report on the morning of 26 April 1986: 'The fire was put out, everything is fine. The people? Some are having a wedding, some are gardening, some are fishing in the Pripyat River.'
As Chairwoman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR during the Chernobyl disaster, she defied Moscow's directives and oversaw the evacuation of 526,000 children from Kyiv and contaminated zones in just five days. Born the daughter of a miner in Kryvyi Rih, she rose through Komsomol and the deputy ministry of education to become the republic's formal head of state in 1985, spending her tenure navigating between central information control and the realities on the ground. In 1989 she refused to sign the resolution banning the People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh), and after retirement led children's and women's welfare foundations while maintaining a sympathetic view of the Soviet system and a critical stance toward independent Ukraine.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1954–1957Pioneer leader, geography teacher, school Komsomol secretary in Kryvyi Rih
- 1957–1962Secretary of Kryvyi Rih city Komsomol, then Dzerzhinsky district party committee
- 1962–1969Secretary and department head, Komsomol Central Committee of Ukraine
- 1969–1972Deputy Minister of Education, Ukrainian SSR
- 1975–1985Deputy Chair, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Ukrainian SSR
- 1985–1990Chair of the Presidium, Supreme Soviet, Ukrainian SSR (head of state)
- 1985–1989Deputy Chair, Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, USSR
Related historical events
The Chernobyl disaster and the evacuation of children
After the Chernobyl nuclear accident on 26 April 1986, information and response in the Ukrainian SSR depended heavily on Moscow authorities and Soviet Union experts. Shevchenko recalled visiting Chernobyl on 28 April to check on evacuees and follow up on medical staff’s requests for iodine, laundering contaminated work clothes, and cleaning schools and hospitals. The authorities held a May Day demonstration in Kyiv on 1 May; Shevchenko said Moscow had instructed that there was no need to postpone it. This is part of the dispute over what leaders knew and the decisions for which they were responsible at the time.
Shevchenko said she advocated evacuating children from Kyiv, while the Soviet deputy health minister conveyed the view that evacuation was unnecessary. She recalled consulting Ukrainian medical personnel separately and, after seeing a map of contaminated areas presented by the head of the Soviet civil-defense service on 6 May, again urging Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, to evacuate them. According to her account, the authorities arranged departures by school and coordinated reception with other Soviet republics; 526,000 children from Kyiv and contaminated areas were evacuated over five days. This figure and description of her role are Shevchenko’s retrospective account in an interview.