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{{Short description|Soviet judge and jurist}}

factoids

1967226df=y}}| birth_place = Don Host Oblast, Russian Empire| death_place = Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union| image = File:Major General I.T. Nikitchenko - Soviet judges at Nuremberg, 1945 (cropped).jpg| caption = Major-General Nikitchenko at the Nuremberg trials| placeofburial = Vvedenskoye Cemetery, Moscow| nickname = | allegiance = | branch = | serviceyears = | rank = | battles = | awards = | laterwork = | office = Member of the Supreme Court of the Soviet UnionCommunist Party of the Soviet Union>CPSU| alma_mater = Moscow State University| term_start = 1938| term_end = 1951}}Major-General Iona Timofeevich Nikitchenko (Russian: Иона Тимофеевич Никитченко; June 28, 1895 – April 22, 1967) was a Russian judge who served on the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. He later served on the International Military Tribunal during the Nuremberg trials as a judge for the Soviet Union.

Early life and career

Iona was born to a peasant family in khutor Tuzlukov (now Rostov Oblast). He studied at his local Agricultural Institute and from 1916 was a Bolshevik. His court experience started in May 1920 when he was appointed as the chairman-deputy of the Military Court of Semirechye Army Group during the Civil War. During the Russian Civil War, he participated on the frontlines in Central Asia. In 1924, he was appointed as the member of the Military Court Collegiate of the Moscow Military District.As deputy chairman of Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, Nikitchenko presided over some of the most notorious of Joseph Stalin’s show trials during the Great Purges from 1936 to 1938 and notably sentenced Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev.Encyclopedia Krugosvet{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} {{in lang|ru}}Реабилитирован посмертно Belosenko.ru {{in lang|ru}}

Nuremberg trials

Nikitchenko was one of the three main drafters of the London Charter. He was also the Soviet Union’s judge at the Nuremberg trials and was president for the session at Berlin. Nikitchenko’s prejudices were evident from the outset. Before the Tribunal had convened, Nikitchenko explained the Soviet perspective of the trials:“We are dealing here with the chief war criminals who have already been convicted and whose conviction has been already announced by both the Moscow and Crimea [Yalta] declarations by the heads of the [Allied] governments.... The whole idea is to secure quick and just punishment for the crime.“on June 29, 1945 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041210174640www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/jackson/jack17.htm |date=December 10, 2004 }} (8. Report of Robert Jackson, United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, London, 1945 (Washington, DC: US State Dept., 1949), pp. 104-106, 303.; Whitney R. Harris, Tyranny on Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg (Dallas: S.M.U. Press, 1954), pp. 16-17.)(File:Panel of justices and attorneys Nuremberg Trials 1945.jpeg|thumb|Panel of justices and attorneys at the Nuremberg trials )Nikitchenko dissented against the acquittals of Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen and Hans Fritzsche; he also argued for a death sentence for Rudolf Hess, who was ultimately sentenced to life in prison by the tribunal. Nikitchenko said, in the lead-up to the trials, “If... the judge is supposed to be impartial, it would only lead to unnecessary delays.“BOOK, Grant, Thomas,www.worldcat.org/oclc/1140153773, Court Number One: the trials and scandals that shocked modern Britain, 2020, 978-1-4736-5163-0, London, 1140153773, Nikitchenko also found the majority judgments incorrect with regard to the Reich Cabinet, the German General Staff and the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. Having never before written a dissenting opinion—these being unheard of in Soviet jurisprudence—and being unsure of the form of such an opinion, Nikitchenko was assisted in writing his dissents by his fellow judge Norman Birkett.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}Nikitchenko feared a compromise on too lenient a level. At the point of final deliberation he reexamined Hess’ case and voted for a life sentence so that the opportunity for Hess to get away with a lesser degree of punishment did not occur.

Later career

File:RUSMARKA-2187.jpg|thumb|Russian postal card, issued on December 14, 2016 and dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, with images of Iona Nikitchenko and Roman RudenkoRoman RudenkoIn March 1946, Nikitchenko was re-elected to the Supreme Court of the USSR, and until July 1949 he worked as deputy chairman of this body. From August 1949 to September 1951, head of the department of linear water transport vessels of the Ministry of Justice. He retired in 1951. Iona Nikitchenko died in 1967 and was buried at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow.WEB, 2016-03-04, Фотоархив Введенское кладбище - Немецкое кладбище Москва - Участок № 28/Никитченко,www.vvedenskoe.pogost.info/displayimage.php?album=10&pos=144, 2024-01-02, 2016-03-04,www.vvedenskoe.pogost.info/displayimage.php?album=10&pos=144," title="web.archive.org/web/20160304090058www.vvedenskoe.pogost.info/displayimage.php?album=10&pos=144,">web.archive.org/web/20160304090058www.vvedenskoe.pogost.info/displayimage.php?album=10&pos=144, bot: unknown,

References

{{reflist}}{{Nuremberg Trial judges|Nikitchenko, Iona}}{{Authority control}}