Semen Fedorovich Chernenko

Born Sept. 1 (13), 1877, in the village of Gremiachki, in what is now Sumy Oblast; died Jan. 17, 1974, in Michurinsk, Tambov Oblast. Soviet scientist and fruit breeder. Hero of Socialist Labor (1966).

In 1933, Chernenko graduated from the Fruit and Vegetable Institute in Michurinsk. In 1926 he joined the staff of the I. V. Michurin Central Genetic Laboratory, and from 1933 to 1952 he also worked at the Fruit and Vegetable Institute in Michurinsk. Chernenko developed winter-hardy apple and pear varieties with various ripening times. The best of these, the Oranzhevoe, Chernenko Pepin, Antonovka Novaia, and Progress apples, have been regionalized in the Central Chernozem Zone of the European part of the USSR, as well as in the Ukraine and the Lithuanian SSR. Chernenko was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1947. He received three Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.