Roman Rudenko

Roman Rudenko
Рома́н Руде́нко
Procurator General of the Soviet Union
In office
1 July 1953 – 23 January 1981
Premier Georgy Malenkov
Nikolai Bulganin
Nikita Khrushchev
Alexei Kosygin
Nikolai Tikhonov
Preceded by Gregory Safonov
Succeeded by Alexander Rekunkov
Personal details
Born 30 July 1907
Nosivka, Chernihiv Oblast, Russian Empire
Died 23 January 1981 (aged 73)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality Soviet
Political party Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Profession Lawyer, civil servant

Roman Andriyovych Rudenko (Ukrainian: Роман Андрійович Руденко, Russian: Рома́н Андре́евич Руде́нко, July 30, 1907, Nosivka, Chernihiv Oblast, Russian Empire (modern Ukraine) - January 23, 1981, Moscow, USSR) was a Ukrainian 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 Lavrentiy 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.

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