Panteleimon Kondrat'evich Ponomarenko(Пантэляймон Кандрацьевіч Панамарэнка; Пантелеймон Кондратьевич Пономаренко); 9 August 1902 18 January 1984) was a general in the Red Army before becoming a Soviet administrator in Belarus and then Kazakhstan. He was born in Krasnodar Krai, Russia.

From 1938 to 1947, Ponomarenko was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Belorussia, and from 1944 to 1948, also the Chairman of the Council of Ministers. During World War II, he led Communist partisan units within Nazi-occupied Belarus. He clashed with the Polish underground and gave orders for his troops to disarm them. This led to a number of deaths.

Ponomarenko allegedly facilitated the repression of Belarusian intellectuals, the Russification of Belarus and ethnic cleansing in that part of West Belarus annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939.

From 16 October 1952 until 6 March 1953, Ponomarenko was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He was made First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR in 1954 before becoming the Soviet ambassador to Poland between 1955 and 1957.

Ponomarenko also taught diplomacy and assisted in the creation of the National Jazz Orchestra in Minsk.

References

• This article is based in part on material from the Pantelejmon Ponomarienko