Soviet judge at the Nuremberg IMT, death-sentence arbiter of the Great Purge
Before the Nuremberg trials convened, Nikitchenko said: "If… the judge is supposed to be impartial, it would only lead to unnecessary delays."
Deputy Chairman of the USSR Supreme Court (1938–1949) and Soviet judge at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (1945–1946), he was a key executor of Stalin-era judicial repression. Joining the Bolsheviks in 1916, he began his career in military tribunals during the Civil War and rose to deputy chairman of the Military Collegium under Vasily Ulrikh, presiding over the Moscow show trials that sentenced Zinoviev and Kamenev to death in 1936. He was one of three principal drafters of the London Charter establishing the IMT's legal framework, and at Nuremberg filed the sole dissenting opinion against the acquittals of Schacht, von Papen, and Fritzsche. Reprimanded by the Party Control Commission in 1940 for 'conveyor-belt' procedural violations in Far Eastern trials, he retired in 1951 and died in 1967.
Career Timeline
- 1916Joined RSDLP (Bolsheviks)
- 1917–1918Acting commander, Red Guard detachment, Novocherkassk
- 1918–1920Political worker, 4th Army and Turkestan Front political directorates
- 1920–1924Deputy chairman and chairman, military tribunals of Semirechye Army Group and Turkestan Front
- 1924–1926Member, Military Court Collegiate, Moscow Military District
- 1926–1935Chairman, Military Tribunal, Moscow Military District
- 1935–1938Deputy Chairman, Military Collegium, USSR Supreme Court
- 1938–1949Deputy Chairman, USSR Supreme Court
- 1943Promoted to Major General of Justice
- 1945Soviet delegate to London Conference — drafter of IMT Charter
- 1945–1946Soviet judge, Nuremberg International Military Tribunal
- 1949–1951Head, Dept. of Linear Water Transport Courts, USSR Ministry of Justice