Yuri Shcherbinin

Yuri Leonidovich Shcherbinin (; ), also known as Yury Sctherbinin (May 30, 1941 – November 17, 2019), was a Soviet and Ukrainian musicologist, curator, educator, and photographer. In 2014, he founded the Treasures of Musical Kharkiv Museum; it was renamed in Shcherbinin's honor in 2020. He was also an active Wikipedian and Wikimedian.

Biography The Shcherbinin family had been involved in culture and politics since the 18th century. An ancestor, Mikhail Andreyevich Shcherbinin, was a friend of Alexander Pushkin and had been the dedicatee of one of his poems. Another ancestor, , was a governor-general of Sloboda Ukraine. By the mid-19th century, the Shcherbinin family's prominence and wealth declined, whereupon they settled in Alexandrovsk. Shcherbinin himself disdained taking pride in the achievements of one's family, telling friends that "what matters most is what you are, not who your ancestors were."

Shcherbinin died on November 17, 2019, in Kharkiv. As a musicologist, he promoted contemporary Ukrainian classical music and revival of interest in the culture of Sloboda Ukraine throughout his career. Starting in the 1960s, he produced radio and television programs, as well as authored over 200 publications on music.

Museum Shcherbinin at a Wikimeetup in Kharkiv; December 10, 2013. On the table below his right hand is a program for a concert conducted by Nicolai Malko On August 30, 2014, Shcherbinin, with the help of the city of Kharkiv, founded the Treasures of Musical Kharkiv Museum at the House of Culture of Ivan Kozhedub National Air Force University. The creation of the museum was a personal ambition that he and his friends had worked on for decades. In 2013, Shcherbinin and a friend, Mikhail Krasikov, petitioned the mayor of Kharkiv to erect a museum dedicated to the region's musical history. Local journalists heard about their efforts; one of them broadcast a report about it on local television, which was seen by the rector of Ivan Kozhedub National Air Force University. He later approached Shcherbinin expressing surprise about the extent of his personal collection and told him that the university would be willing to host his museum. some personal belongings of Yakiv Stepovy, and a pair of ballet slippers owned by . In 1967, Shcherbinin had been gifted a number of Slatin's belongings, including his baton, by , one of the conductor's students. Many items were also donated to the museum by the families of prominent Ukrainian musicians.