Nikolai Kondratenko was born on 16 February 1940 in the village of Plastunkovskaya in
Dinskoy District,
Krasnodar Krai. He graduated from the
Kuban Agricultural Institute and the Rostov Higher Party School and became a candidate of agricultural sciences. From 1969, he was involved in party work. From 1984 to 1987, he was the head of the Department of Agriculture, then the Second Secretary of the Krasnodar Krai Committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1987 to 1990, he was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Krasnodar Krai Soviet of People's Deputies. In 2008, he was again elected to the Federation Council. ==Personal life==