USSR Prosecutor General who served at Nuremberg and was removed for refusing to sanction Beria's arrest
On 30 June 1953, Safonov refused to sign the arrest warrant for Beria, saying: "He is a deputy of the Supreme Soviet. Deputies' immunity is written into the Constitution." He was removed that same day.
Born the son of a blacksmith in Rostov, Yaroslavl province, he graduated from Leningrad State University's law faculty in 1925 and worked as legal counsel for Leningrad factories while lecturing in civil law. Spotted by Vyshinsky, he entered the procuracy in 1935 and became Deputy Prosecutor of the USSR at age 35 in 1939, later serving as First Deputy Prosecutor and taking part in the Nuremberg trials. Appointed Prosecutor General in February 1948, he led the Soviet procuracy through the late Stalin years, but on 30 June 1953 he refused to sign the arrest warrant for Lavrentiy Beria, citing Beria's parliamentary immunity as a Supreme Soviet deputy, and was removed the same day. He was demoted to minor posts in the Moscow regional procuracy and served quietly until his retirement in 1968.
Career Timeline
- 1925–1935Legal counsel and head of legal bureau, Leningrad enterprises; civil law lecturer, Institute of Soviet Law
- 1935–1939Prosecutor, Okulovsky district then Kirovsky district, Leningrad
- 1939Head of civil-judicial department, USSR Procuracy
- 1939–1948Deputy Prosecutor, then First Deputy Prosecutor of the USSR (Prosecutor General from 1946)
- 1945–1946Served on the Soviet prosecution team, Nuremberg International Military Tribunal
- 1948–1953Prosecutor General of the USSR
- 1955–1957Deputy prosecutor, Moscow District Transport Procuracy
- 1957–1968Deputy head of criminal-court supervision department, then prosecutor in investigations directorate, RSFSR Procuracy