Alexander Sergeyevich Zarudny (russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Зару́дный, in

Tsarskoye Selo Tsarskoye Selo ( rus, Ца́рское Село́, p=ˈtsarskəɪ sʲɪˈlo, a=Ru_Tsarskoye_Selo.ogg, "Tsar's Village") was the town containing a former residence of the Russian imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the c ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

– 30 November 1934 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

) was a Russian lawyer and politician. In 1887 he was arrested regarding the assassination of

Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Fin ...

but was released due to lack of evidence. In 1902-1917 he worked as a lawyer and a judge. Soon he found that his conscience did not square well with the work of a prosecutor or a judge, and devoted himself to defense work in political cases involving miscarriage of justice, press censorship, or mistreatment of ethnic minorities. His colleague, Oskar Grusenberg, likened him to "a one-man rescue squad." Grusenberg recounts that Zarudny once compiled a list of 157 cases he handled all over Russia, from Eastern Siberia to the Caucasus and Moldavia, in the period 1885-1917, and then added, "there were also 265 other cases." He was one of several Russian lawyers who stepped forward gratis to defend Menahem Mendel Beilis, a Jew accused of

ritual murder Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherei ...

in the infamous

Beilis trial Menahem Mendel Beilis (sometimes spelled Beiliss; yi, מנחם מענדל בייליס, russian: Менахем Мендель Бейлис; 1874 – 7 July 1934) was a Russian Jew accused of ritual murder in Kiev in the Russian Empire in a not ...

. In 1917 he was the Minister for Justice in the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government ( rus, Временное правительство России, Vremennoye pravitel'stvo Rossii) was a provisional government of the Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately ...

but resigned twice. After 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 mom ...

he was protected by his election as an honorary member of a prestigious Association of Political Convicts, and did some defense work, but soon stopped in frustration and made his living giving lectures throughout the Soviet Union about his courtroom career, to large, enthusiastic audiences. In Petersburg society in the 1890s, Zarudny was known as "Zarudny furioso" because he was always the life of a party. He was briefly married and had one son, Sergey. Zarudny was remembered fondly by his niece, who recounts his visit to Harbin during a lecture tour. He was a wonderful sleight-of-hand magician, and a natural with young children. When his son married, Zarudny gave the newlyweds his apartment and lived the rest of his life in housing devoted to former political prisoners.Margaret Zarudny Freeman, Russia and Beyond: One Family's Journey, 1908-1935, Impala Press, London 2006. Zarudny mentioned in a letter that he had written memoirs, but these memoirs have not yet been found.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zarudny, Alexander 1863 births 1934 deaths People from Pushkin, Saint Petersburg People from Tsarskoselsky Uyezd Trudoviks Ministers of the Russian Provisional Government Lawyers from Saint Petersburg 20th-century Russian lawyers 19th-century lawyers from the Russian Empire