Ivan Andreevich Taranenko (Russian: Иван Андреевич Тараненко; 28 April 1912 – 4 March 1995) was a Soviet fighter pilot, flying ace, and regimental commander in World War II who went on to become a general.

After completing his seventh grade of school he worked as a carpenter at a factory in Dnepropetrovsk and later as secretary of the Komsomol committee of a plant in Pavlograd before entering the military in August 1933.

[1][2] Immediately after the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Taranenko entered combat, initially as a senior political instructor in the 12th Fighter Aviation Regiment.

In June 1943 he was nominated to for the title Hero of the Soviet Union, having been credited with four solo and four shared shootdowns at the time; by then his regiment surpassed 100 enemy aircraft shot down, seeing heavy combat in the intense aerial battles over Kuban.

[1] Shortly after the end of the war he married Serafima Amosova, an officer from the prestigious all-female 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment.