Roman Rudenko

{{Infobox Officeholder

| name = Roman Rudenko

| image = File:Главный обвинитель от СССР на Нюрнбергском процессе Р.А. Руденко (cropped).jpg

| caption = Rudenko opens the Soviet prosecution at the International Military Tribunal

| width =

| nationality = Soviet

| order =

| office = Procurator General of the Soviet Union

| term_start = 1 July 1953

| term_end = 23 January 1981

| premier = Georgy Malenkov
Nikolai Bulganin
Nikita Khrushchev
Alexei Kosygin
Nikolai Tikhonov

| predecessor = Grigory Safonov

| successor = Alexander Rekunkov

| birth_date = {{OldStyleDate|7 August|1907|25 July}}

| birth_place = Nosivka, Nezhinsky Uyezd, Chernihiv Governorate, Russian Empire

| death_date = {{death date and age|1981|1|23|1907|8|7|df=y}}

| death_place = Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

| party = Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1926–1981)

| profession = Lawyer, civil servant

| native_name_lang = ru

| native_name = {{nobold|Роман Руденко}}

}}

Roman Andreyevich Rudenko ({{langx|ru|Рома́н Андре́евич Руде́нко}}, {{Langx|uk|Роман Андрійович Руденко}}; {{OldStyleDate|7 August|1907|25 July}}[http://91.225.197.22/!_СПРАВИ%20(оцифровані%20ГТ%20Family%20search)/007768517/007768517_00802.jpg Метрическая книга Николаевской церкви м. Носовка. 1907]{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} // Государственный архив Черниговской области. Ф. 679. Оп. 10. Д. 1325. Л. 189об–190. (russian)A lot of sources give other dates of birth: {{OldStyleDate|July 30|1907|July 17}} or July 7, 1907. – 23 January 1981) was a Soviet lawyer and statesman.

Procurator-General of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1944 to 1953, Rudenko became Procurator-General of the entire Soviet Union after 1953. He is well known internationally for acting as chief prosecutor for the USSR at the 1946 trial of the major Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg. He was also chief prosecutor at the "Trial of the Sixteen" (Polish Underground leaders) held in Moscow the year before. At the time he served at Nuremberg, Rudenko held the rank of Lieutenant-General within the USSR Procuracy.

In 1961 Rudenko was elected to the CPSU Central Committee. In 1972 he was awarded the Soviet honorary title of Hero of Socialist Labour.

Ukrainian SSR to 1953

Rudenko was one of the chief commandants of NKVD special camp Nr. 7, a former Nazi concentration camp, until its closure in 1950.{{cite book |last=Utley |first=Freda |url=http://www.fredautley.com/nuremberg.htm |title=The High Cost of Vengeance |chapter= 6. The Nuremberg Judgments |publisher=Henry Regnery Company |year=1949 }} Of the 60,000 prisoners incarcerated there under his supervision, at least 12,000 died due to malnutrition and disease.{{cite web |url=http://www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/geschichte/speziallager/spezial01.htm |title=The Soviet special camp No.7 / No. 1 1945 – 1950 |accessdate=22 April 2009 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924110419/http://www.stiftung-bg.de/gums/en/geschichte/speziallager/spezial01.htm |url-status=dead }}

In October 1951, as Procurator-General of the Ukrainian SSR, he personally led prosecution in the trial of OUN member Mykhailo Stakhur who in October 1949 killed the writer Yaroslav Halan.

Soviet Union 1953–1981

After the arrest of Lavrentiy Beria in 1953, Rudenko was a judge at the closed trial at which Stalin's last secret police chief was sentenced to death.

In 1960, he acted as the chief prosecutor in U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers' espionage trial.{{Cite book |last=Powers |first=Francis |title=Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |year=2004 |ISBN=9781574884227 |page=120}}

As Procurator General of the Soviet Union, Rudenko played a major role in devising measures to deal with the growing dissident movement within the USSR.

File:RUSMARKA-1949.jpg

In 1967, he and then KGB chairman Vladimir Semichastny submitted proposals as to how to deal with those defending the writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky during and after their trial, without provoking a strong reaction abroad or within the country. This included mention of the "mental illness" suffered by several prominent dissidents.[https://bukovsky-archive.com/2017/06/07/27-january-1967-pb-325/ Joint KGB-Procurator-General's Memorandum to Central Committee, 27 January 1967 (Pb 32/5), Bukovsky Archive online]. One measure, proposed jointly with Yuri Andropov in late 1972, was to reduce the number of arrests and convictions by reinforcing the issue of "prophylactic" warnings to individuals, cautioning them that their activities could lead to prosecution under Articles 70 and 190¹ of the RSFSR Criminal Code.[https://bukovsky-archive.com/2016/07/02/16-november-1972-pb-67xviii/ Joint KGB-Procurator-General's Memorandum to Central Committee, 16 November 1972 (Pb 67/XVI), Bukovsky Archive online].

Roman Rudenko

Ukrainian SSR to 1953

Soviet Union 1953–1981

References

Further reading