Panteleimon Ponomarenko

Panteleimon Kondrat'evich Ponomarenko (Russian: Пантелеймон Кондратьевич Пономаренко, Belarusian: Пантэляймон Кандрацьевіч Панамарэнка, Pantelajmon Kandraćjevič Panamarenka; 9 August [O.S. 27 July] 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 of Byelorussia. 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 and execute the officers. In this aspect the forces under Ponomarenko's command initiated a limited collaboration with the Nazi occupation forces informing on members of the Polish underground.

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.

From 26 October 1957 to 22 April 1959 Ponomarenko was the Soviet ambassador to India and Nepal, and from 30 June 1959 to 21 June 1962 to the Netherlands. He was deported from the Netherlands by the Dutch government after an incident with scientist Aleksei Golub and his wife. They asked political asylum, and Ponomarenko had a fist fight with Dutch police officers while trying to return the Golubs to the Soviet government offices.

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