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He Devoted His Life to the Don Country

On June 5, it is the 90th anniversary of Ivan Afanasyevich Bondarenko, the First Secretary of the Rostov Region CPSU Committee, a person who made a great contribution into development of the Rostov Region.

Ivan Afanasyevich devoted his life to people. He began working in 1943 as check man in the collective-farm “Trudovaya Kolonna” (labour column) of the Yegorlyk District. He took part in the Great Patriotic War. Demobilized he graduated from the Salsk Agricultural Technical School and worked as agronomist in the Atamansk Machine and Tractor Station. Later he worked as chief agronomist of the Yegorlyk Station of Forest Protection. In 1956, on graduating from the Azov -Black Sea Agricultural Institute he was appointed director of the training and experimental farm.

Two years later he was appointed Secretary of the Communist Party Committee of the Azov-Black Sea Institute, then he worked as instructor in the Rostov Region CPSU Committee, the First Secretary of the Neklinovsky District CPSU Committee, member of the Rostov Region CPSU Committee, Secretary and Bureau member of the Rostov Region CPSU Committee, then the Second Secretary and Bureau member of the Rostov Region CPSU Committee.

From December 1964, he worked as chairman of the Rostov Region Executive Committee, and from November 1966, – the First Secretary of the Rostov Region CPSU Committee. He was a Candidate of Economical Sciences.

I.A.Bondarenko was often elected Deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet. For his contribution he was awarded three orders of Lenin, orders of the Labour Red Banner and of the Great Patriotic War the II Degree and many medals.

In 2013, in the park named after the October Revolution, in Rostov-on-Don, there was erected a monument to I.A.Bondarenko, the honoured citizen.

For 18 years the Rostov Region lived and worked under the guidance of Ivan Afanasyevich. In those years, big plants, factories and mines were built, modern equipment was produced and big crops were grown. In Rostov there were built Severny and Zapadny housing areas, Theatre Square, a railway station, an airport, a river station, the Don embankment and Voroshilovsky Bridge.

The plant “Rostselmash” was reconstructed, the Donetsk excavator plant, the mine named after Linin’s Komsomol and the Azov plant of baby food were built.

The Atommash, the Volgodonsk Atomic Power Station and the Shakhti textile plant were announced the All-Union construction sites. The Rostov Region was one of the country’s leading regions in terms of well-being.

For long years I.A.Bondarenko had been in friendly relations with Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov. The writer supported the efforts of the regional leader for raising the living standards of the people, for social and economic development and environment improvement in the district and the region. He was concerned about the situation of fish stocks in the Tsymlyansk Sea and the Azov Sea, about the agricultural conditions of the farm fields, and about many other problems.

Being the First Secretary of the Rostov Region CPSU Committee I.A.Bondarenko attended numerous meetings of M.A.Sholokhov with the Party leaders, statesmen, public figures and writers; he took part in jubilee celebrations and awarding ceremonies. In 1975 and 1980, Bondarenko was present at the meetings and banquets in honour of the 70th and 75th anniversaries of the writer. On October 19, 1975, he took part in the ceremony of awarding M.A.Sholokhov the Mongolian Order of Sukhe-Bator for outstanding achievements in development of literature, for the great contribution into consolidation of the Mongolian and Soviet friendship and cultural cooperation between the Mongolian People’s Republic and the USSR. In 1978 he was present at the ceremony of awarding M.A.Sholokhov the International Literary Prize “Lotus” established by the Association of Writers of Asia and Africa. In 1980, he handed the writer the Order of Lenin and the second Golden medal “Sickle and Hammer”, and in 1982, he handed a memorial sign “50 Years’ Membership in the CPSU”. In 1981, he took part in the ceremony of opening the bust of M.A.Sholokhov at the embankment of the River Don in Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya. On September 19, 1983, he was among the guests in the house of M.A.Sholokhov, where the 60th anniversary of the writer’s literary work was celebrated.

Ivan Afanasyevich Bondarenko entered the history as an active politician, effective manager and a person of a great organizing experience.

Larisa Bukina