Panteleimon Kondratyevich Ponomarenko (Russian: Пантелеймо́н Кондра́тьевич Пономаре́нко, pronounced [pənʲtʲɪlʲɪjˈmon kɐnˈdratʲjɪvʲɪt͡ɕ pənəmɐˈrʲenkə]; Ukrainian: Пантелеймо́н Кіндрáтович Пономарéнко; 9 August [O.S.

Ponomarenko was born in khutor Shelkovskiy in Kuban oblast to an ethnic Ukrainian peasant family coming from Kharkov governorate.

He fought in the Russian Civil War and took part in the defense of Yekaterinodar from units of the White Army.

[citation needed] From 1938 to 1947, Ponomarenko was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Belorussia,[1] and from 1944 to 1948, also the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Belarus.

[citation needed] During the Great Purge he successfully defended Belarusian-language poets Yanka Kupala and Yakub Kolas from repressions, personally travelling to Stalin to appeal for their protection.

[1][5][6] During this time he also assisted the National Jazz Orchestra in Minsk, inviting Eddie Rosner to lead it.

[3] According to his information, the partisan units under his control in Belarus eliminated around 300,000 German soldiers, including 30 generals, 6,336 officers and 1,520 air force pilots, within two years of fighting.

At the Plenum of the Central Committee on 27–28 February 1943, speaking of the goals of the Soviet partisans in Belarus, Ponomarenko stated that "the fight against the hostile Polish underground is inevitable".

In 1946, the Soviet authorities ordered the central control of economic and financial activity of the Communist Party of Byelorussia.

From 16 October 1952 until 6 March 1953, Ponomarenko was a member of the Politburo (called Presidium at the time) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.From 12 December 1952 to 15 March 1953, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the procurement of agricultural products and agricultural raw materials.

During his time as ambassador to Poland, he was granted the keys to the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw by the Polish authorities.

In his later years, Ponomarenko was a professor at the Institute of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU [ru] between 1964 and 1974.

In 2012, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus hosted an exhibition dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the birth of Ponomarenko.