Vadim Viktorovich Rudnev (russian: Вадим Викторович Руднев) (1874 – 19 November 1940) was a Russian politician and editor. On 11 July 1917,

Moscow City Duma The Moscow City Duma (russian: Московская городская дума, Moskovskaya gorodskaya duma) is the Regional parliaments of Russia, regional parliament (city duma) of Moscow, a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject and th ...

elected him Moscow's Gorodskoy Golova (Московский городской голова - literally "Moscow city's head").

In Russia

Vadim Rudnev studied medicine at

Moscow 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 ...

, but in 1902 was exiled to Siberia for his revolutionary activities. Amnestied in

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...

with other political prisoners, he became a member of the

Socialist-Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party, or the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries (the SRs, , or Esers, russian: эсеры, translit=esery, label=none; russian: Партия социалистов-революционеров, ), was a major politi ...

. In 1907 he was arrested again; after four years in Siberia he moved to Switzerland to complete his medical education. At the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the SRs (like other revolutionary parties) split into ' Defencist' and 'Internationalist' antiwar groups; Rudnev, like his colleagues AA Argunov and ND Avksentiev, took the former position, in opposition to the party's leaders,

Victor Chernov Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov (russian: Ви́ктор Миха́йлович Черно́в; December 7, 1873 – April 15, 1952) was a Russian revolutionary and one of the founders of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He was the primar ...

and

Mark Natanson Mark Andreyevich Natanson (russian: Марк Андре́евич Натансо́н; party name: Bobrov) (25 December 1850 ( N.S. 6 January 1851) – 29 July 1919) was a Russian revolutionary who was one of the founders of the Circle of Tchaikov ...

, and worked as a doctor on a hospital ship. During the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

he was a leader of the Moscow branch of the party and edited its newspaper ''Trud'', and in July he was chosen mayor of Moscow; he supported the policies of

Alexander Kerensky Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky, ; Reforms of Russian orthography, original spelling: ( – 11 June 1970) was a Russian lawyer and revolutionary who led the Russian Provisional Government and the short-lived Russian Republic for three months ...

. He opposed the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

, and after the dispersal of the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

(of which he was a member) he fled south, first to Kiev, then the Caucasus, and finally Odessa. In April 1919 he left Russia.

In emigration

Rudnev, like many Russian émigrés, moved to Paris, where along with his fellow SR

Ilya Fondaminsky Ilya Isidorovich Fondaminsky (''Илья′ Исидо′рович Фондами′нский'', February 17, 1880, Moscow, Russia — November 19, 1942, Auschwitz, Nazi-occupied Poland), was a Russian author (writing under the pseudonym ''I. B ...

he founded ''

Sovremennye zapiski ' (russian: Современные записки, "Contemporary Papers") was a politicized literary journal published from 1920 to 1940. A group of adherents of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party launched the journal during the Russian Civ ...

'' ontemporary Notes which became the main literary journal of the Russian emigration (publishing, for instance, most of

Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...

's Russian-language work).

Nina Berberova Nina Nikolayevna Berberova (russian: Ни́на Никола́евна Бербе́рова) (St Petersburg, 26 July 1901 – Philadelphia, 26 September 1993) was a Russian writer who chronicled the lives of anti-communist Russian refugees in ...

, in her memoirs, calls Rudnev "a very dear man" who did not understand literature. When the Germans captured Paris in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he moved to the south of France, where he died of cancer in Pau.

References

* Manfred Hildermeier. ''The Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party Before the First World War'', 1978, 2000. * Michael Melancon, ''The Socialist Revolutionaries and the Russian Anti-War Movement, 1914–1917'', 1990. * Nina Berberova, ''The Italics Are Mine'', 1969, rev. ed. 1991.

External links

Russian biography page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudnev, Vadim 1874 births 1940 deaths Socialist Revolutionary Party politicians Russian Constituent Assembly members Mayors of Moscow Russian military personnel of World War I Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France