Zarudny A.S. (1863-1934), lawyer, public and political figure

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ZARUDNY Alexander Sergeevich (1863, St. Petersburg - 1934, Leningrad), public and political figure, lawyer. After graduating from the St. Petersburg Jurisprudence College in 1885, he worked at the St. Petersburg District Court; associated with various revolutionary societies, and in 1887 was arrested in connection with the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, but was released due to lack of evidence. In 1895-99, he held the post of Deputy Public prosecutor at the St. Petersburg District Court. In 1901, he was a defence lawyer in a number of major political trials (including the case of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies, 1906). He kept in touch with revolutionary groups, and his apartment served as a secret address and meeting place for St. Petersburg Social-Democrats. In 1905-06, he was a member of the Central Bureau for Unions. During the election of the Second State Duma, Zarudny ran for a seat on the left wing. Following the February Revolution of 1917, he joined the People's Socialistic Labour Party, and was appointed Deputy Minister of Justice in the Provisional Government. In this capacity he co-authored a bill to abolish capital punishment, and initiated and presided over the Commission on the Revision of Judicial Statutes of 1864. From 24 July through to 3 September 1917, he was the Provisional Government's Minister of Justice. Zarudny took part in the Democratic Conference, where he criticized the Government's passivity in the matter of making peace, and advocated the restriction of A.F. Kerensky's power, and the establishment of a large coalition government, including both Bolsheviks and Constitutional Democrats. After October 1917, he retired from politics. In the 1920s, he was a member of the Leningrad Board of Lawyer, and a legal adviser to the Leningrad Department of the All-Union Society of Former Tsarist Political Prisoners and Exiles. In the last years of his life he was often subjected to slanderous attacks in the press.

G. S. Anoprieva, N.D. Erofeev. Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich
Zarudny Alexander Sergeevich
Law School
First of March 1887
February Revolution of 1917
Provisional Government of 1917