Sidenko was born on 2 February 1953 in
Khabarovsk. He became a student at the Pacific Higher Naval School in 1970 and graduated from
Pacific Higher Naval School which was honourably named after
S.O. Makarov in 1975. Later on, in 1989, he graduated from the
Naval Academy after which he served with the
Pacific Fleet as deputy
commander in charge of
submarines. Five years later he graduated from the
Russian Military Academy of the General Staff and became
chief of staff for both a submarine flotilla and of a
squadron. He continued with that position through June 2000 when he became commander of the
North-Eastern Troops and Forces. In April 2002 Sidenko became first deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet itself and in May 2006 became commander of the
Baltic Fleet. In December 2007 he was promoted to the commander of the Pacific Fleet and in July 2010 became
commander-in-chief of the
Eastern Military District. As of 29 December 2010 under a
Decree of the Russian President Sidenko was appointed as commander at the same place. He graduated from the Makarov Pacific Higher Naval School (1970–1975), the
Higher Special Officer Classes of the
Soviet Navy (1982–1983), the Marshal Grechko Naval Academy (1987–1989), and the
General Staff Academy (1992–1994). He served within a ship's
operations department (BCh-3) (1975–1981), senior assistant to the submarine commander (1981–1982), the submarine crew commander, submarine commander(1983–1987), deputy commander (1989–1992), commander (1994–1996) 45th submarine flotilla. During his command of the 45th Submarine flotilla, he was promoted to
kontr-admiral (one star) (5 May 1995). His next post was chief of staff of the 2nd Submarine squadron (November 1996 - May 1998), Chief of Staff of the 16th submarine task group (May 1998 - August 1999), chief of staff (August 1999 - June 2000), Commander (June 2000 - December 2001) Northeastern Group of Troops and Forces. During his command of the NEGTF, he was promoted to
vitze-admiral (two stars) (9 June 2001. Chief of Staff of the Pacific Fleet (5 December 2001 - 6 May 2006), commander of the
Baltic Fleet (6 May 2006 - 6 December 2007) Commander
Pacific Fleet (6 December 2007 - 29 October 2010). He was promoted to Vice-Admiral on 12 June 2010. On 29 October 2010, he was named the first deputy commander of the Eastern Military District. He was promoted to Admiral soon after. ==References==