Editing Roman Rudenko

{{short description|Soviet lawyer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}}
{{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 [[Nuremberg trials|International Military Tribunal]]
| width               = 
| nationality         = [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]
| order               = 
| office              = [[Procurator General of the Soviet Union]]
| term_start          = 1 July 1953
| term_end            = 23 January 1981
| premier             = [[Georgy Malenkov]]<br>[[Nikolai Bulganin]]<br>[[Nikita Khrushchev]]<br>[[Alexei Kosygin]]<br>[[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 Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|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}}<ref>[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)''</ref><ref>A lot of sources give other dates of birth: {{OldStyleDate|July 30|1907|July 17}} or July 7, 1907.</ref> – 23 January 1981) was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[lawyer]] and statesman. 

[[Procurator General of the Soviet Union |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 [[List of Axis personnel indicted for war crimes|Nazi war criminals]] in [[Nuremberg trials|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 [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|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.<ref name="TNJ">{{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 <!--|accessdate=22 April 2009-->}}</ref> Of the 60,000 prisoners incarcerated there under his supervision, at least 12,000 died due to malnutrition and disease.<ref name="shiftung">{{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 }}</ref>

In October 1951, as Procurator-General of the Ukrainian SSR, he personally led prosecution in the trial of [[Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists|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 [[1960 U-2 incident|U-2]] pilot [[Francis Gary Powers]]' [[espionage]] trial.<ref name=Powers>{{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}}</ref>

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|thumb|Roman Rudenko on a commemorative Russian stamp]]
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.<ref>[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].</ref> 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 [[Anti-Soviet agitation|Articles 70 and 190<sup>1</sup> of the RSFSR Criminal Code]].<ref>[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].</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[[Robert E. Conot]], ''Justice at Nuremberg'', Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1984, {{ISBN|0-88184-032-7}}
* Александр Звягинцев. «Руденко». Молодая гвардия, 2007 г. {{ISBN|978-5-235-03081-7}}

{{Prosecutors General of Ukraine}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudenko, Roman}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
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