 Podgorny became the Director of the Moscow Technological Institute of Food Industry in 1942 , during the Great Patriotic War ( World War II ) . After the liberation of Ukraine from the hands of Nazi Germany , Podgorny reestablished Soviet control over Ukraine on the orders of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( Ukrainian SSR ) and the Soviet Government . In the post @-@ war years Podgorny regained his old office of Deputy People 's Commissar for Food Industry of the Ukrainian SSR , but was later appointed in 1946 as a Permanent Representative to the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR . In April 1950 he was made First Secretary of the Kharkiv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine ( CPU ) . In 1953 Podgorny was elevated to Second Secretary of the Central Committee ( CC ) of the CPU . From 1957 to 1963 he was First Secretary of the CC of the CPU . In this role , Podgorny worked on reorganising and modernising the Ukrainian economy , which had been destroyed during the war years . He worked to increase the rate of industrial and agricultural production and to improve people 's welfare . He paid particular attention to improving party organisation and educating new cadres . 
