Semyon Rudnev

Semyon Vasilyevich Rudniev (Семён Васи́льевич Ру́днев; Семе́н Васи́льович Ру́днєв, romanized: Semen Vasyliovych Rudniev) (February 27, 1899 – August 4, 1943) was one of the leaders of Soviet partisan movement during World War II and People's Commissar in the partisan group operating in Ukraine and led by Sydir Kovpak.

Rudniev was born in a peasant family in what is now Sumy region. As a teenager Rudniev moved to Saint Petersburg and became an apprentice carpenter at the Russo Balt Factory. Rudniev became an active member of the Bolshevik movement and joined the party in March 1917. For distributing Bolshevik leaflets, Rudniev was sent to the Vyborg prison. He participated in the assault on the Winter Palace during the October Revolution. In 1918, Rudniev joined the Red Army. At first, he served as a platoon commander, but later became secretary of party organization for the 373rd Rifle Regiment of the 42nd Rifle Division. He then became a commissar for the Donetsk Labour Army's political department. He then became assistant commissar of the 44th Rifle Regiment of the 15th Rifle Division. Rudniev fought on the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War. and in May 1939 charged with committing crimes under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code, which carried the death penalty. Rudniev initially confessed to creating the Trotskyist organization in his fortified area but refused to confess to espionage and sabotage charges. He soon retracted his confession, stating that it was made under duress. In July 1939, his case was sent for review to the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, but was then sent back to the military tribunal of the 2nd Red Banner Army. After a retrial, Rudniev was released from prison. He was soon discharged for health reasons and returned to Putyvl. In 1940, he became the chairman of the OSOAVIAKHIM district council. On 4 January 1944, Rudniev was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin for bravery in the partisan battles. In July 1946, a mass grave containing Rudniev's body was discovered in a forest near Deliatyn in Zarichchia. He was reburied in Yaremche.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, some historians began questioning the official version of Rudniev's life and death. Basing on disclosed Soviet archives, some researchers alleged that Rudniev was not committed to strategy and approaches (especially regarding civilians) dictated by the Moscow based Ukrainian Partisan Movement Headquarters (Український Штаб Партизанського Руху, УШПР)). This supposedly caused Rudniev's conflicts with both Sydir Kovpak and high ranked NKVD agent Ivan Siromolotnyi (the latter was interacting with Kovpak and Rudniev from Moscow over the radio). According to these researchers, Rudniev was attempting to collaborate with Ukrainian People's Army forces. suggest that Rudniev might have been assassinated by his personal radio operator, Anna Turkina (a woman trained in Moscow) by a direct order from Siromolotnyi. However, according to deputy head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance Dmitry Vedeneyev, this version of events is untrue.