Aron Naumovich Trainin Moshe Aron Naumovich Trainin Moshe Aron Nahimovich Trainin (russian: Аро́н Нау́мович Трайнин, Мовша-Арон Нау́мович Трайнин, Мовша-Арон Нохимович Трайнин, translit=Aron Naumovič Trajnin, translit-std=ISO, he, משה אהרן נחומאָוויטש טריינין) (, in

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest ci ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

– 7 February 1957) was a Soviet

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

criminologist Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

. Trainin attended the of Kalúga, graduating in 1903, the same year he

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

(), whence he graduated in 1908. At university he participated in the russian: студе́нчество, translit="studénčestvo", translit-std=ISO, label=none, links=no, cat=no, student activist movement, during the pivotal, though failed,

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

. After graduation Trainin worked in the MGU Department of Criminal Law, on track for a professorship, but he would resign his position in 1912 in connection with the , in which a great many academics resigned out of solidarity with the targets of Imperial Education Minister Lev Aristidovich Kasso. From 1912 to 1918 he taught at the in Moscow. From 1916 to 1917 he was an editor of the

Jewish newspaper A Jewish newspaper is a newspaper which focuses on topics of special interest to Jews, although Jewish newspapers also include articles on topics of a more general interest as well. Political orientations and religious orientations cover a wide r ...

'', ru, Новый путь (газета), preserve=1. He was a founding member of the Moscow chapter of the

Political Red Cross Political Red Cross was the name borne by several organizations that provided aid to political prisoners in the Russian Empire and later in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. The first organization using this name was founded in St. Petersburg i ...

, which was formed in 1918. Trainin came to prominence in the inter-war years as critical of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

for not doing enough to prosecute the those who waged war against peace. Scholars

Francine Hirsch Francine Hirsch is an American historian, specializing in modern Europe with a focus on Russia and the Soviet Union. She is a recipient of the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize for her book, ''Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of t ...

of the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, Kirsten Sellars of the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

, and Michelle Jean Penn of the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

credit him with establishing the international legal concept of "

crimes against peace A crime of aggression or crime against peace is the planning, initiation, or execution of a large-scale and serious act of aggression using state military force. The definition and scope of the crime is controversial. The Rome Statute contains an ...

In 1937 Trainin published his 'The Defense of Peace and Criminal Law' in which he castigated the League of Nations for failing to make aggressive war a criminal offense and not providing for any sort of international court to punish aggressors. Along with Major-General Iona Timofeevich Nikitchenko, who also served as a judge, Trainin was a signatory for the Soviet Union to the charter of the

Allies of World War II The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. ...

War Crimes Executive Committee which established the Nüremberg International Military Tribunal for "the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis",Typed original
at

Truman Library The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and resting place of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States (1945–1953), his wife Bess and daughter Margaret, and is located on U.S. Highwa ...

. known in Russian as the "London Agreement", ''. Trainin played a central role in establishing the legal framework for the Nuremberg Trials. He proposed that a new legal concept, "the crime of aggression", be used to hold Nazi Germany's military and political leadership accountable for the numerous countries they invaded and occupied. Along with the other jurists involved in crafting the Nuremberg Charter, Trainin was influential in establishing the new legal field of international law. Despite this foundational role, his contributions are often ignored or forgotten by Western scholars, largely as a result of Cold War perceptions of the Soviet Union. More recent scholarship has begun to acknowledge the influence of Soviet legal thought on international law, arguing that Trainin's contributions must be taken seriously, alongside an ongoing recognition of the crimes of the Soviet regime. Trainin later became a Corresponding member of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

(1946). In 1947 and 1948 he served as vice-president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. His major works were ''On Complicity'' (1941) and ''Elements of a Crime According to Soviet Criminal Law'' (1951). In 1945, in ''Fundamental Principles of Soviet Criminal Law'', he wrote, Trainin was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trainin, Aron Naumovich 1883 births 1957 deaths 20th-century jurists 20th-century Russian lawyers Criminology educators Academics from the Russian Empire Editors from the Russian Empire Jews from the Russian Empire Lawyers from the Russian Empire Jewish educators Jewish human rights activists Jewish writers from the Russian Empire Jewish journalists Jewish non-fiction writers Russian legal scholars Russian newspaper editors Russian professors Soviet Jews Soviet jurists Moscow State University alumni Moscow State University faculty People from Kaluga Writers from Moscow

See also

References