Ivan Sidorovich Lazarenko (Russian: Иван Сидорович Лазаренко; 8 October 1895 – 26 June 1944) was a Red Army major general and a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union.

Lazarenko was born on 8 October 1895 in the stanitsa of Staromikhailovka in the Labinsky Otdel of Kuban Oblast (now Mikhailovka, Kurganinsky District, Krasnodar Krai) to a peasant family.

[4] On 27 September 1917, due to illness, Lazarenko was evacuated from the front to Moscow, and from there was sent to the 3rd Machine Gun Regiment in Saratov, where he joined a Red Guard detachment on 12 October.

[4] In December, Lazarenko was transferred to the 2nd Atamanovsky Regiment, which was disarmed by White Cossack commander Krasnov's troops in Rostov-on-Don at the end of the month.

Lazarenko transferred to become a squadron commander in a detachment led by Rudolf Sivers during battles with White troops at Novorossiysk and Tsaritsyn.

He was treated in military hospitals and went back into combat in January 1919 as a platoon commander in the 63rd Cavalry Regiment, fighting against Anton Denikin's troops on the Southern Front.

During his time on the Southern Front in 1919 and 1920, Lazarenko fought in battles at Lugansk, Debaltseve, Novocherkassk, Rostov-on-Don, Manych, Krasnodar, and Novorossiysk.

With the unit, Lazarenko fought against Pyotr Wrangel's White army, and participated in the destruction of Colonel Fyodor Nazarov's diversionary landing force in the area of the Konstantinovskoye and Razdorskaya stanitsas.

In July and August, he fought in the repulse of Sergei Ulagay's landing operation, particularly distinguishing himself in battle at the stanitsa of Stepnoy,[4] where he captured troops of General Babiev.

After the defeat of the White forces Lazarenko fought against Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine in Taurida Governorate during late 1920.

He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1921,[3] and took part in the suppression of partisan forces led by Popov, Fyodorov, and Sychyov in the Donbas and Don Oblast.

Promoted to major general on 4 June, Lazarenko continued to command the 42nd after it was transferred to Brest in the Western Special Military District in early 1941, becoming part of the 4th Army.

In the first moments of the attack Lazarenko showed confusion and inaction, and, instead of taking action and repulsing the enemy, he went to the corps headquarters, leaving his units without proper guidance."

[6] Between 23 and 25 June, the 369th broke through heavily fortified German defenses, and crossed the Pronya and Basya Rivers, advancing 25 kilometers and inflicting heavy casualties.