From show trials to war:
A brief history of Ukrainian scientists
in portraits
An exhibit of drawings at Harvard explores the oppression and killing of Ukrainian scientists by the Soviet state and Russian army.
By Alicia Chen and Olesia Pavlyshyn | Portraits by Niklas Elmehed
S
ince Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, at least 147 Ukrainian scientists have been killed in the war, according to the Ukrainian news site censor.net. But the killing and repression of Ukrainian scientists by the government in Moscow long predates this conflict.
Before it gained independence in 1991, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, whose totalitarian government routinely jailed, exiled, and killed Ukrainian intellectuals deemed by Moscow to be enemies of the state. Many of them were scientists whose research had contributed to important advances in biology, neurology, physics, and other fields.
The scientific contributions of Ukrainians who have been killed by the Russian army or repressed by the Soviet state are the subject of “Freedom in the Equation,” an exhibition at the Harvard Science Center in Cambridge. Curated by the Science at Risk project, the show features portraits by Niklas Elmehed — official artist of the Nobel Prize — and biographical information that poignantly show how war and oppression stifled the work of some of Ukraine’s finest scientists.
Below are thumbnail biographies of eight of the scientists profiled in the exhibit. Their names are spelled using Ukrainian transliteration. The exhibition will run through April 10.
Liudmyla Shevtsova
Hydrobiologist and ecology professor
Killed by a Russian missile strike on Jan. 2, 2024
Shevtsova was an expert in canal hydrobiology who made important contributions to water management systems in Ukraine. For many years, she worked at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where she earned a doctorate in biology in 1999. Among other things, she devised methods for reducing mollusk infestation in irrigation systems.
At 75, long past the average retirement age, Shevtsova was a professor of ecology at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. On Jan. 2, 2024, a Russian missile struck Shevtsova’s apartment in Kyiv, killing her. She was 84. One of her students remembers her as “an excellent teacher” who “not only imparted knowledge but also shaped ecologists into true scientists and defenders of nature.”
Vasyl Kladko
Physicist and crystallographer who advanced X-ray optics
Killed during the Russian siege of Vorzel on March 13, 2022
Kladko had dedicated his career to advancing high resolution X-ray diffraction techniques. Kladko served as the deputy director at the V.E. Lashkaryov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, where he obtained both his PhD and DoS. A researcher who produced more than 300 scientific papers in collaboration with scientists from Russia and other countries, Kladko was recognized with numerous scientific awards, including the State Prize of Ukraine.
On March 13, 2022, Kladko evacuated his family from the besieged Vorzel settlement near Kyiv. While his loved ones managed to escape, Kladko was killed by Russian soldiers, according to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
“Kladko made a significant contribution to the development of the physical and physical-technical foundations of the formation of semiconductor nanostructures,” the NASU wrote. “As a true patriot, [Kladko] did a lot to strengthen the defense capabilities of our country.”
Bijan Sharopov
Biophysicist and neurophysiology educator who defended Ukraine in 2014 and 2022
Killed in combat in Kharkiv Oblast amid Russia’s 2022 invasion
With a biology degree from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Sharopov pursued a PhD at the Institute of Physiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where he later became a staff member. He researched the TRPV1 protein, which plays a key role in pain sensation. In 2021 American scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian earned the Nobel Prize for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.
In 2019, Sharopov became a neurophysiology educator, conducting tours for children at science museums and giving lectures during festivals. However, Russian aggression disrupted Sharopov’s work.
Following Russia’s invasion of the Donetsk region and Crimea in 2014, Sharopov joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine to defend the country. In the spring of 2022, he went missing and was later confirmed killed in the Kharkiv Oblast. The exact details of his death remain unknown. In his honor, the Ukrainian government established a memorial scholarship recognizing his contributions to science.
Hryhoriy Levytsky
Pioneering cytogeneticist who coined the term “karyotype”
Arrested several times amid crackdowns on geneticists and died in jail in 1942
Geneticists in the Soviet Union faced persecution and scientific suppression because the Communist Party viewed genetics as pseudoscience. Levytsky was one of the primary targets. Born in 1878 in Kyiv, he coined the term “karyotype,” referring to an image of a person’s chromosomes, and made significant contributions to analyzing mutations caused by ionizing radiation in plants. His research paved the way for others. American scientist Hermann Muller was awarded a Nobel Prize for his studies on the mutagenic effects of X-ray radiation in 1946.
Levytsky was arrested during a campaign against geneticists in 1933, but scientists from other countries secured his release. He was detained again in 1937 but freed soon after. However, he was imprisoned in 1941 and is believed to have died there a year later.
Hanna Zakrevska
First Ukrainian woman to earn a geology PhD
Imprisoned in 1938 due to accusation of “nationalism” during Joseph Stalin’s purges
Zakrevska researched the lands of Ukrainian Polissia and the forest steppe, conducted paleontological studies, and explored oil deposits in these areas. She described the only complete skeleton of a female steppe mammoth in the world, which was preserved in the museum of the Institute of Geological Sciences in Ukraine.
In 1938, Zakrevska was falsely accused of participating in a Ukrainian nationalist organization and engaging in subversive activities. After months of interrogations and imprisonment, she was released. During World War II, she immigrated to Canada.
Valentyna Radzymovska
Biologist known for her research on cell survival and tuberculosis pathology
Arrested during a Soviet show trial and later dismissed from her research positions
Radzymovska’s doctoral work on cell survival under varying acidic conditions laid the groundwork for advancements in artificial insemination and virus research. During the 1921 Ukrainian famine, she developed an electrode to measure cell acidity, leading to significant publications. Radzymovska’s studies on tuberculosis explored tissue changes and rehabilitation methods before antibiotics.
She was accused falsely of being part of a Ukrainian independence group. After a year-long imprisonment without trial, she was released. Though she did not regain her former position, she became a physiology professor and continued her pathbreaking research.
Volodymyr
Pravdych-Neminsky
Physiologist paving the way for electroencephalograms, or EEGs
Arrested by the Soviet regime in 1929
In 1913, Pravdych-Neminsky recorded the first brain cortex potentials from an intact dog’s skull, pioneering research on EEGs — a method used to measure brain activity. Sixteen years later, German psychiatrist Hans Berger, credited as the inventor of EEGs, observed brain waves in dogs nearly identical to the research by Pravdych-Neminsky.
In 1929, Pravdych-Neminsky was accused of being a counter-revolutionary and sentenced to three years in prison. After his release, he was labelled an anti-Soviet enemy and was fired every time he tried to teach at the university level. He was only allowed to resume his studies briefly before he died in 1952.
Lev Shubnikov
Known as “the founding father” of low temperature physics
Accused of espionage, arrested in 1937 and believed to have been executed shortly thereafter
After years of collaborating with world-leading physicists like Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Dirac abroad, Shubnikov returned to Ukraine to lead a cryogenic lab at the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology in Kharkiv, where he spent most of his career as an experimental physicist. He obtained liquid hydrogen and helium, discovered the intermediate state in superconductors, and detected antiferromagnetism, which his team was one of the first to discover.
Despite his groundbreaking work, Shubnikov was accused of espionage and arrested during Stalin’s purges in 1937. He was sentenced to 10 years without rights to correspondence. Authorities claimed that he died in prison, of heart failure, in 1945. Other reports say he was executed shortly after his arrest. After his death, Soviet scientists were not allowed to cite Shubnikov’s work for at least 20 years.
All portraits by Niklas Elmehed
Exhibition supported by Kunsht, a leading Ukrainian science media platform, the ZMIN Foundation, and the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University.
Text provided by Olesia Pavlyshyn, editor-in-chief at Kunsht, edited and verified by Alicia Chen, the 2025 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow at Globe Opinion.
Featured scientists selected by Oleksii Boldyrev, founder of “MyScience.ua,” and Krystyna Semeryn, a literary scholar and publicist.
Design by Heather Hopp-Bruce