In 1927 he graduated from the Krasnodar
Rabfak and in the same year entered the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. Since 1930 he has been an inspector for the acceptance of steam locomotives at the
Michurinsky steam locomotive repair plant in
Tambov. From 1931 to 1932, he continued his studies and in 1932, he graduated from the Moscow Electromechanical Institute of Railway Engineers, which was formed from
MIIT in 1931. After graduation, he served as assistant to the director of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. From 1932 to 1937, he served in the Red Army as
battalion commander in the
Belarusian Military District, the
Separate Red Banner Far Eastern Army, and the
Moscow Military District. In 1936, he was appointed as an engineer at the Design Bureau of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute, secretary of the party committee of the institute. On 1938, he served the apparatus of the
Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
As the head of Belarus From 1938 to 1947, Ponomarenko was the First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Belorussia, During this time he also assisted the National Jazz Orchestra in
Minsk, inviting
Eddie Rosner to lead it. Following the outbreak of
Operation Barbarossa in 1941, he became a member of the Military Council of the
Western Front. From July to May 1942, he served as a member of the Military Councils of
Central Front,
Bryansk Front and
3rd Shock Army of the
Kalinin Front. During
World War II, he was one of the leaders of the
Communist partisan units within
Nazi-occupied Belarus. From May 1942 to March 1943, Ponomarenko served the Chief of Staff of the
Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement at the Headquarters of the Supreme Command. In this aspect, the institute claims, the forces under Ponomarenko's command initiated a limited collaboration with the Nazi occupation forces informing on members of the Polish underground. On 22 June 1943, on his behalf, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus took the plenum in Moscow resolution on the undertakings to further develop the partisan movement in the western oblasts of Belarus, stating that The western oblasts of Soviet Belarus are an integral part of the Republic of Belarus. The nationalist divisions and groups formed by Polish reactionary circles should be isolated from the population by creating Soviet troops and groups consisting of working people of Polish nationality. Nationalist units and groups should be fought by all means."
After the war , 1959 From 1944 to 1948 he was a member of the Council of People's Commissars in the
Belarusian SSR, which he chaired. In the Central Committee of the CPSU he worked as a secretary from 1948 to 1950, while at the same time he was a candidate for the Politburo of the CPSU from 1948 to 1952. In 1946, the Soviet authorities ordered the central control of economic and financial activity of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. The audit revealed a number of abuses and mismanagement in the management of the party's treasury. The Party Control Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union discovered that Ponomarenko was building a villa for himself using party money. He was also accused of a number of other abuses, including creating self-worship: "Ponomarenko created an environment of flatterers around him, unable to bear the criticism he addressed. His portraits are often published in newspapers and magazines, various welcome letters are sent to his address, and he is elected to various honorary presidencies." Faced with the accusations, Ponomarenko expressed self-criticism. Soon, however, he and his team were recalled. In the position of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPB, he was replaced by
Nikolai Gusarov. 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. After the
death of Joseph Stalin, he fell into temporary disgrace. 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. 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. at
Schiphol Airport in
Amsterdam, 1961 From 26 October 1957 to 22 April 1959 Ponomarenko was the
Soviet ambassador to India and
to Nepal, and from 30 June 1959 to 21 June 1962
to the Netherlands. During his time as ambassador to Netherlands, he was declared as
persona non grata by the Dutch government. And in October 1961 Ponomarenko was recalled back to USSR, in connection with the following incident: Soviet scientist Alexei Golub and his wife worked at the Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Sverdlovsk, and dealt with the effects of radioactivity on the human body. While visiting Netherlands, they decided to ask for political asylum. When Golub's wife was taken to the police station at the
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to ask if she also wanted to stay in the Netherlands, ten employees of the Soviet Embassy headed by Ponomarenko broke into the police station and forcibly took her to the
Aeroflot office. At the same time, during a confrontation with a Dutch police officer, Ponomarenko received a blow to his nose. In the end, Golub's wife announced that she wanted to go back to the USSR, and six months later Alexey Golub himself returned to USSR. From 1963 to 1967, Ponomorenko served as the Representative of USSR to the
International Atomic Energy Agency in
Vienna. In his later years, Ponomarenko was a professor at the between 1964 and 1974. From 1978, he was a
personal pensioner of federal significance. Ponomorenko died on 18 January 1984. He is buried at the
Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. ==Honours and awards==