Ivan Taranenko

Ivan Andreevich Taranenko (; 28 April 1912 – 4 March 1995) was a Soviet fighter pilot, flying ace, and regimental commander in World War II who went on to become a general.

Early life Taranenko was born on 28 April 1912 to a Ukrainian peasant family in Gubinkha. After completing his seventh grade of school he worked as a carpenter at a factory in Dnepropetrovsk and later as secretary of the Komsomol committee of a plant in Pavlograd before entering the military in August 1933. Upon graduating from the Kharkov Military Aviation School of Pilots in 1934 he worked as an instructor and flight commander at the school. During the 1939-1940 war with Finland he flew 22 sorties on the I-153 as a squadron commissar in the 149th Fighter Aviation Regiment, but gained no confirmed aerial victories.

Postwar and personal life Taranenko stayed in the Air Force after the end of the war, and in 1946 he graduated from officer training at the Air Force Academy in Monino. He went on to hold a variety of high posts in the military, graduating from Military Academy of General Staff in 1955 and holding a variety of high posts before retiring from the air force with the rank of general-lieutenant in 1972. He then worked as an engineer at the Ilyushin Design Bureau from 1973 to 1982. He died on 4 March 1995 and his remains were placed in the Novodevichy cemetery.

Awards Hero of the Soviet Union (2 September 1943) Two Order of Lenin (2 September 1943 and 31 October 1967) Five Order of the Red Banner (4 March 1940, 12 February 1942, 23 July 1943, 24 September 1944, and 3 November 1953) Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 2nd class (28 April 1945) Two Order of the Patriotic War 2nd class (2 May 1943 and 11 March 1985) Order of the Red Star (20 June 1949) Medal "For Battle Merit" (3 November 1944) campaign and jubilee medals