Nosenko was born in the village of Berlevets in Bryansky Uyezd and joined the Nikolayev Shipyard as a messenger boy in 1914. He became a trade unionist, and after completing military service and graduating from the Nikolayev Shipbuilding Institute, returned to the yard as a manager. Nosenko joined the All-Union Communist Party (b) in 1925. Between 1938 and 1939 he was the managing director of the Baltic Yard in Leningrad. He was appointed Narkom (minister) of shipbuilding in 1940 and was also the 1st deputy commissar of the tank industry during the war. He was elected to the Supreme Soviet in 1954 and between 1954 and 1956 was also head of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building (Atomic Energy).

At his funeral, important leaders of the Soviet Union, including Nikita Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Kliment Voroshilov, formed the honor guard.^[1] He has been commemorated with a bronze plaque in the Kremlin wall.^[2]

• Three Orders of Lenin
• Order of Nakhimov, 1st class (1945)
• Three Orders of the Red Banner of Labour
• Order of the Red Star (1942)
• Order of the Badge of Honour (1938)

• IVAN NOSENKO DIES; SOVIET MINISTER, 54, New York Times, August 4, 1956, Saturday