Roman Rudenko

Roman Andreyevich Rudenko (Russian: Рома́н Андре́евич Руде́нко, Ukrainian: Роман Андрійович Руденко, Nosivka, Chernihiv Oblast; July 30, 1907 - January 23, 1981, Moscow) was a Soviet lawyer. He was the prosecutor of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1944-1953 and Chief prosecutor of the entire Soviet Union from 1953. He is also well known for acting as the Soviet Chief Prosecutor at the main trial of the major Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials and Chief Prosecutor at the Trial of the Sixteen. He held military rank as a Lt.General at the time he served at Nuremberg.

Rudenko was also one of the chief commandants of NKVD special camp Nr. 7, a former Nazi concentration camp, until its closure in 1950. Of the 60,000 prisoners incarcerated there under his supervision, 12,500 died due to malnutrition and disease. No trial was held.

After Lavrenti Beria's arrest in 1953, Rudenko was the judge of his trial in which Beria was sentenced to death.

In 1961 Rudenko was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1972 he was awarded the Soviet honorary title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

References

• 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