View source for Procurator General of the Soviet Union

{{Short description|Highest prosecutor office in the Soviet Union}}
{{unreferenced|date=May 2013}}
{{Infobox official post
| post                     = Procurator General
| body                     = the Soviet Union
| native_name              = {{small|Генеральный прокурор СССР}}
| insignia                 = Insignia of Procurator General of the Soviet Union (1954).svg
| insigniasize             = 50px
| insigniacaption          = Insignia
| flag                     = 
| flagsize                 = 
| flagborder               = 
| flagcaption              = 
| image                    = Главный_обвинитель_от_СССР_на_Нюрнбергском_процессе_Р.А._Руденко_(cropped).jpg
| imagesize                = 
| alt                      = 
| imagecaption             = '''Longest serving<br />[[Roman Rudenko]]'''<br />1 July 1953 – 23 January 1981
| department               = [[Office of the Public Procurator of the USSR]]
| style                    = 
| type                     = [[Public procurator]]s
| status                   = Abolished
| abbreviation             = 
| member_of                = 
| reports_to               = 
| residence                = 
| seat                     = 
| nominator                = 
| appointer                = 
| appointer_qualified      = 
| termlength               = 
| termlength_qualified     = 
| constituting_instrument  = 
| precursor                = [[Procurator (Russia)|Procurator General of the Russian Empire]]
| formation                = 15 March 1924
| first                    = [[Pyotr Krasikov]]
| last                     = {{ill|Nikolai Trubin|ru|Трубин, Николай Семёнович}}
| abolished                = 29 January 1992
| succession               = [[Prosecutor General of Russia|Procurator General of the Russian Federation]]
| unofficial_names         = 
| deputy                   = 
| salary                   = 
| website                  = 
}}
{{Soviet Union sidebar}}

The '''Procurator General of the USSR''' ({{langx|ru|Генеральный прокурор СССР|Generalnyi prokuror SSSR}}) was the highest functionary of the [[Office of the Public Procurator of the USSR]], responsible for the whole system of offices of [[public procurator]]s and supervision of their activities on the territory of the [[Soviet Union]].

==History==
The office of [[Procurator (Russia)|procurator]] had its historical roots in [[Imperial Russia]], and under [[Soviet law]] ''public procurators'' had wide-ranging responsibilities including, but not limited to, those of public [[prosecutor]]s found in other [[Judiciary|legal systems]]. Offices of [[Public Procurator]]s were and are still used in other countries adhering to the doctrine of [[socialist law]].

The Office of Public Procurator of the USSR was created in 1936, and its head was called Public Procurator of the USSR until 1946, when it was changed to Procurator General of the USSR. According to the [[1936 Soviet Constitution]], the Procurator General exercised the highest degree of direct or indirect (through subordinate public procurators) control over the accurate execution of [[law]]s by all [[Ministry (government department)|ministries]], departments, their subordinate establishments and [[Organization|enterprise]]s, executive and administrative bodies of local [[Soviets]], [[cooperative]] organizations, officials (including judges in court proceedings), and citizens on behalf of the state.

The Procurator General was appointed by the [[Supreme Soviet of the USSR]] for a 7-year term and given a class rank of the Active state counselor of justice. His deputies and [[Procurator General of the Armed Forces]] were appointed by the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet]] of the USSR on recommendation from Procurator General. The Procurator General appointed public procurators of the [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet republics]] and, on their recommendation, public procurators of [[Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union|autonomous republic]]s, [[krai]]s, [[oblast]]s and [[Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union|autonomous oblast]]s. He also issued orders and instructions for all of the offices of public procurators, instructed on differentiation of their [[Jurisdiction|competence]], etc.{{Clarify|date=May 2010}}

The Procurator General had the right to present his issues to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet that needed to be solved in the [[legislation|legislative]] manner or demanded [[judicial interpretation|interpretation of the law]].

The Procurator General's participation in the [[plenary session]]s of the [[Supreme Court of the USSR]] was mandatory. He had the right to obtain on demand any case from any court for checking purposes, voice his protest over a law, verdict, decree, or definition, which had already come into force, of any court and to suspend them until the matter was resolved.

==Procurators General==
[[File:RIAN archive 821412 1st Congress of People's Deputies of USSR.jpg|thumb|Alexander Sukharev (left) at the 1st convocation of the [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union]] with investigator [[Telman Gdlyan]] (right) and [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] (center)]]
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan=2| {{abbr|No.|Number}}
! rowspan=2| Portrait
! rowspan=2| Name<br><small>(Born-Died)</small>
! colspan=3| Term of office
|-
! Took office
! Left office
! Time in office
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 1
| image             = Петр Красиков.jpg |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = [[Pyotr Krasikov]]
| born_year         = 1870
| died_year         = 1939
| term_start        = 15 March 1924
| term_end          = 20 June 1933
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1924|03|15|1933|06|20}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 2
| image             = Akulov ia.jpg |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = [[Ivan Akulov]]
| born_year         = 1888
| died_year         = 1937
| term_start        = 20 June 1933
| term_end          = 3 March 1935
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1933|06|20|1935|03|03}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 3
| image             = RIAN archive 7781 Vyshinsky.jpg |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = [[Andrey Vyshinsky]]
| officeholder_note = {{small|(from 1931 - the prosecutor of the RSFSR)}}
| born_year         = 1883
| died_year         = 1954
| term_start        = 3 March 1935
| term_end          = 31 May 1939
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1935|03|03|1939|05|31}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 4
| image             =  |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = [[Mikhail Pankratyev]]
| born_year         = 1901
| died_year         = 1974
| term_start        = 31 May 1939
| term_end          = 7 August 1940
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1939|05|31|1940|08|07}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 5
| image             =  |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = {{ill|Viktor Bochkov|ru|Бочков, Виктор Михайлович}}
| born_year         = 1900
| died_year         = 1981
| term_start        = 7 August 1940
| term_end          = 11 March 1943
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1940|08|07|1943|03|11}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 6
| image             =  |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = [[Konstantin Gorshenin]]
| officeholder_note = {{small|(from 1946—Procurator General of the USSR)}}
| born_year         = 1907
| died_year         = 1978
| term_start        = 12 March 1943
| term_end          = 4 February 1948
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1943|03|12|1948|02|04}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 7
| image             =  |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = {{ill|Gregory Safonov|ru|Сафонов, Григорий Николаевич}}
| born_year         = 1904
| died_year         = 1972
| term_start        = 5 February 1948
| term_end          = 8 August 1953
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1948|02|05|1953|08|08}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 8
| image             = RUSMARKA-1949.jpg |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = [[Roman Rudenko]]
| born_year         = 1907
| died_year         = 1981
| term_start        = 8 August 1953
| term_end          = 23 January 1981
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1953|08|08|1981|01|23}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 9
| image             = RIAN archive 33429 Alexander Rekunkov.jpg |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = [[Alexander Rekunkov]]
| born_year         = 1920
| died_year         = 1996
| term_start        = 9 February 1981
| term_end          = 26 May 1988
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1981|02|09|1988|05|26}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 10
| image             = RIAN archive 821412 1st Congress of People's Deputies of USSR (cropped).jpg |bSize = 70
| officeholder      = {{ill|Aleksandr Sukharev (prosecutor)|ru|Сухарев, Александр Яковлевич|lt=Aleksandr Sukharev}}
| born_year         = 1923
| died_year         = 2021
| term_start        = 26 May 1988
| term_end          = 22 September 1990
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1988|05|26|1990|09|22}}
}}
{{Officeholder table
| order             = 11
| image             =|bSize = 70
| officeholder      = {{ill|Nikolai Trubin|ru|Трубин, Николай Семёнович}}
| born_year         = 1931
| died_year         = 1996
| term_start        = 11 December 1990
| term_end          = 29 January 1992
| timeinoffice      = {{ayd|1990|12|11|1992|01|29}}
}}
|}

==See also==
*[[List of Prosecutor Generals of Russia and the Soviet Union]]
* [[People's court (Soviet Union)|People's Court of the USSR]]
* [[Supreme Court of the USSR]]
* [[Ministry of Justice (Soviet Union)|Ministry of Justice of the USSR]]
* [[Prosecutor General of Russia|Procurator General of the Russian Federation]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Procurator}}
[[Category:Government of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Law of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Politics of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1922 establishments in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union]]