Bondarenko, Pyotr Tikhonovich

Born in 1901, Belarusian. He joined the RCP (B.) In 1919 , participated in the Civil War , and fought against the White Poles. Responsible conductor of the expedition and political fighter of the political department of the Dnieper Naval Flotilla (October 1919 - August 1920), then the naval political commander as part of the naval expeditionary division (August-November 1920). He served in the Special Maritime Border Division of the Special Chernoaz Detachment (November 1920 - February 1922), a Red Navy (February - May 1922) on the Azimut hydrographic vessel in the Baltic Fleet, then graduated from the Baltic Fleet helmsman and signalman school (May 1922 - May 1923) and served as foreman helmsmen (May - November 1923) on the same ship. In November 1923 he entered the Naval Political School. S. B. Roshal , graduated from it in November 1926 and was sent to the Black Sea Fleet , where he served as political officer of the company, executive secretary of the party bureau of the cruiser "Comintern" (November 1926 - January 1929), military minesweeper and and. about. the military commissar of the minesweeper division (January-December 1929), the military commissar of the submarine Politruk (December 1929 - January 1930). Then he entered the naval group of the Military-Political Academy. Tolmacheva (January 1930). After graduating from the Academy (May 1934), he was sent to the position of military commissar of the Courses for Advanced Training of the Black Sea Fleet command staff (May 1934 - September 1937), then became military commissar of the battleship "Paris Commune" , the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. February 15, 1939 appointed head of the political directorate (PU) of the Black Sea Fleet. March 17, 1941 received the military rank of division commissar . As the head of the PU Black Sea Fleet, he met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War , from the first days he participated in the hostilities (in the defense of Odessa, in the battles during the defense of Ochakov in August 1941), spent more than eight months in the besieged Sevastopol , where he was the head of the PU Black Sea Fleet at the same time Political Administration of the Sevastopol Defensive Region (October 1941 - June 1942).

After leaving Sevastopol (June 20, 1942) he was appointed military commissar of the Volga military flotilla (August 18, 1942; from October 16, 1942 - deputy commander of the flotilla for political affairs, head of the political department of the flotilla), where he participated in direct military operations throughout the Battle of Stalingrad , Mine Volga. December 13, 1942 was promoted to Rear Admiral ^[3] . From July 15, 1943 to July 1944, he was the head of the political department of the Directorate of Higher Maritime Educational Institutions of the Navy; from July 1944 to May 1947, he was the head of the political department of the Caspian Naval Flotilla . In May 1947 - September 1949 he was returned to his former position as deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet for political affairs, and lived in Sevastopol .

September 29, 1949 he was arrested for conducting "counter-revolutionary" conversations, accused of "wrecking and subversive activities in the party and state apparatus." On October 28, 1950, he was sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR to be shot, shot on the same day in Sukhanovsky Prison . The body is cremated in the Donskoy monastery. Burial place - New Don cemetery . Rehabilitated May 26, 1954 ^[4] .

We all loved Petr Tikhonovich Bondarenko very much (from July 22, when the institute of military commissars was reorganized and political agencies were reorganized - the head of the political department of the Black Sea Fleet). He served in the Navy for a long time, participated in the Civil War, sailed a lot and traveled by ship from the Red Navy to the battleship commissar. Sociable, very responsive, Pyotr Tikhonovich was simply invaluable in the team.

As is typical of straightforward, direct people, Bondarenko did not always know how to restrain his feelings. In a comradely circle, sometimes pain and bitterness erupted violently through the difficult situation at the front in the first months of the war. He furiously rained down on some works of literature, films, and especially songs, which, as it seemed to him, tuned our people to a too peaceful way. I remember that once in a cabin company someone had a gramophone before dinner and put down a record from one of the pre-war songs that had outraged Pyotr Tikhonovich then, and, having fired up, grabbed the record on the floor ... But it was impossible to be angry with him for that. ... People such as Bondarenko and Vasiliev, who had devoted the whole conscious life to the fleet from their very youth and knew them deeply, true sailors by vocation, had a beneficial effect on the rallying of the team of the flagship command post.

- Kulakov N.M. Trusted by the Navy.

• Lurie V. M. Admirals and generals of the Navy of the USSR during the Great Patriotic and Soviet-Japanese Wars (1941-1945) . - SPb. : Russian-Baltic Information Center BLITZ, 2001. - 280 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-86789-102-X .
• II Barsukov, V.M. Yoltukhovsky, A.B. Kondrashov. “Admirals and generals of the Navy. Heads of structures of political and educational work. Biographical Chronicles (1917-2013). " - M .: “Kuchkovo Field”, 2014. - 432 p. - ISBN 978-5-9950-0408-0 .
• Azarov I.I. besieged Odessa. - M .: Military Publishing, 1962.
• Kulakov N.M. Trusted to the Navy. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1985 .-- 320 p. - (War memoirs). / Literary edition of J. Ya. Lanin. // Circulation 100 000 copies.

• List of admirals, vice admirals, rear admirals of the USSR Navy (1940-1945)