Nikolay Rychkov

{{Short description|Soviet statesman and lawyer (1897-1959)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Nikolay Rychkov | native_name = {{nobold|Николай Рычков}} | native_name_lang =  | image = Rychkov_NM.jpg | image_upright = | alt = | caption = Rychkov in 1938 | order = | office = People's Commissar of Justice of the Soviet Union | status =  | term_start = 19 January 1938 | term_end = 15 March 1946 | subterm = | suboffice = | alongside =  | monarch = | president = | governor_general = | taoiseach = | chancellor = | governor = | co-leader = | deputy = | lieutenant = | succeeding =  | constituency = | majority = | predecessor = [[Nikolai Krylenko|Nikolay Krylenko]] | successor = Office abolished<br />Himself as Minister of Justice of the Soviet Union | prior_term = | order2 =  | office2 = [[Ministry of Justice (Soviet Union)|Minister of Justice of the Soviet Union]] | term_start2 = 19 March 1946 | term_end2 = 29 January 1948 | subterm2 =  | suboffice2 =  | alongside2 =  | monarch2 =  | president2 =  | governor_general2 =  | prime_minister2 =  | chancellor2 =  | taoiseach2 =  | governor2 =  | co-leader2 =  | vice_president2 =  | vice_prime_minister2 =  | deputy2 =  | lieutenant2 =  | succeeding2 =  | predecessor2 = Office established<br />Himself as People's Commissar of Justice of the Soviet Union | successor2 = [[Konstantin Gorshenin]] | parliamentary_group2 =  | constituency2 =  | majority2 =  | prior_term2 =  | office3 = Prosecutor of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic | term_start3 = August 1937 | term_end3 = January 1938 | predecessor3 = Faina Nyurina | successor3 = [[Ivan Golyakov]] | pronunciation = | birth_date = 2 December 1897 | birth_place = [[Belaya Kholunitsa|Belokholunitskiy Plant]], [[Slobodskoy Uyezd]], [[Vyatka Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] | death_date = 28 March 1959 (aged 61) | death_place = [[Malakhovka, Moscow Oblast|Malakhovka]], [[Lyuberetsky District|Lyubertsy District]], [[Moscow Oblast]], [[Soviet Union]] | citizenship = | party = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (since 1917) | other_party =  | height =  | partner =  | relations = | children = | parents =  | mother =  | father =  | relatives = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | known_for = | salary = | net_worth =  | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | awards = [[Order of Lenin]]<br />[[Order of the Red Banner]] | blank1 = | data1 = | blank2 = | data2 = | blank3 = | data3 = | blank4 = | data4 = | blank5 = | data5 = | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | website =  | nickname = | allegiance = | branch = | rank = | unit = | commands = | battles = | mawards =  | military_blank1 = | military_data1 = | military_blank2 = | military_data2 = | military_blank3 = | military_data3 = | military_blank4 = | military_data4 = | military_blank5 = | military_data5 =  | module = | module2 = | module3 = | module4 = | module5 = | footnotes = }} '''Nikolay Mikhailovich Rychkov''' (2 December 1897 – 28 March 1959) was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] statesman and lawyer.<ref name=":0">[http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_r/rychkov_nm.php Nikolay Rychkov. Chronos]</ref> Deputy of the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]] of the 2nd Convocation.

==Biography== *1909–1917 – Apprentice turner, metal turner at the Ural Nadezhdinsky Plant; *1917–1918 – Secretary of the Nadezhdinsky Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Commissar of Local Economy; *1918 – Delegate to the [[7th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]], joined the "Left Communists"; *1918–1920 – in the bodies of the [[Cheka|All–Russian Extraordinary Commission]] in the Urals; *1921–1922 – Deputy Chairman of the Military Tribunal of the 5th Army, [[Irkutsk]]; *1922–1927 – Prosecutor of the [[Siberian Military District]]; *1927–1931 – Deputy Prosecutor of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army; *1931–1937 – Member of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, divisional military lawyer;<ref name=":0"/> *1937–1938 – Prosecutor of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic;<ref>[https://sud.ua/ru/news/publication/39253-nikolaj-richkov-pyt-ot-tokarya-do-ministra-yustitsii Nikolay Rychkov. Judicial–Legal Newspaper]</ref> *1938–1948 – People's Commissar (Minister) of Justice of the Soviet Union.<ref>[https://arch2.iofe.center/person/33831 Nikolay Rychkov. Electronic Archive of the Iofe Foundation]</ref>

He came into conflict with the Head of the Department of Judicial and Prosecutorial Personnel of the Personnel Department of the Central Committee of the All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Anatoly Bakakin. A campaign was organized against Rychkov and in January 1948, he was removed from his post. The Commission for Acceptance and Delivery of Cases of the Ministry of Justice of the Soviet Union recognized Rychkov's work as unsatisfactory.

*1948 – in the reserve of the Main Directorate of Personnel of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union; *1948–1951 – Deputy Military Prosecutor of the Ground Forces; *1951–1955 – Deputy Chief Military Prosecutor;<ref name=":0"/> *Retired from May 1955; *Nikolay Rychkov died on March 28, 1959, in the village of Malakhovka, Lyubertsy District, Moscow Region.<ref>[https://lawbook.online/istoriya-prava/ryichkov-nikolay-mihaylovich-18971959-26488.html Nikolay Rychkov. Portal Lawyer]</ref> He was buried in Moscow, at the Vagankovsky Cemetery.

==Participation in mass repressions== He took an active part in mass repressions as a member of the [[Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union]]. Participant of the Moscow Show Trials of 1936–1938. In 1937–1938, he repeatedly traveled to the eastern regions of the Soviet Union, where he chaired major trials of "counter–revolutionary crimes" allegedly committed by the leading regional elite and local intelligentsia.

As People's Commissar of Justice of the Soviet Union, he repeatedly issued orders on the order of consideration of cases of counter–revolutionary crimes. At the same time, being guided by legal formalism and "insuring himself" against possible accusations, he ordered the courts to strictly observe procedural norms when considering any cases.

He took an active part in mass campaigns in cases of labor crimes (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of June 26, 1940), in cases of petty hooliganism and petty embezzlement at enterprises (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of August 10, 1940), in cases of labor crimes committed at military enterprises (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of December 26, 1941) and so on.

In 1947–1948, he headed the Permanent Commission for Open Trials on the Most Important Cases of former servicemen of the German army and German punitive bodies, exposed of atrocities against Soviet citizens in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union.<ref>[https://victims.rusarchives.ru/rychkov-nikolay-mikhaylovich Nikolay Rychkov. Federal Archival Project]</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== *State Power of the Soviet Union. The Highest Authorities and Management and Their Leaders. 1923–1991. Historical and Biographical Reference Book / Compiled by Vladimir Ivkin – Moscow, 1999 – ISBN 5-8243-0014-3 {{Prosecutors general of Russia}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rychkov, Nikolay}} [[Category:1897 births]] [[Category:1959 deaths]] [[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]] [[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner]] [[Category:Second convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Political repression in the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Left communists]]