The Nuremberg judges, left to right: John Parker, Francis Biddle, Alexander Volchkov, Iona Nikitchenko, Geoffrey Lawrence, Norman Birkett

Major-General Iona Timofeevich Nikitchenko (Russian: Иона Тимофеевич Никитченко) (1895 - April 22, 1967) was a judge of the Soviet Union. John Johnston Parker ( November 20, 1885 – March 17, 1958) was a U Francis Beverley Biddle ( May 9, 1886 – October 4, 1968) was an American lawyer and Judge who was Attorney General Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Fedorovich Volchkov (Russian Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Волчко́в was a Judge during the Nuremberg trials Geoffrey Lawrence 3rd Baron Trevethin and 1st Baron Oaksey, DSO, TD, KC ( December 2, 1880 - August 28, 1971 Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1500 - Portuguese Navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil. Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. A judge, or justice, is an Official who presides over a Court of law The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991

Nikitchenko presided over some of the most notorious of Stalin's show trials during the Great Purges of 1936 to 1938, where he among other things sentenced Kamenev and Zinoviev. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly Public trial. Great Purge (Большая чистка transliterated Bolshaya chistka) was a series of campaigns of Political repression and Persecution Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. ( Russian: Лев Борисович Каменев born Rosenfeld, Розенфельд ( – August 25, 1936) was a Bolshevik Gregory Yevseevich Zinoviev (Григо́рий Евс́еевич Зин́овьев alternative transliteration Grigorii Ovseyevish Zinoviev born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich

Nikitchenko was one of the three main drafters of London Charter. The London Charter of the International Military Tribunal (usually referred to simply as the London Charter or Nuremberg Charter) was the decree issued on August He was also the Soviet Union's judge at the Nuremberg trials, and was President for the session at Berlin. The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. Nikitchenko's prejudices were evident from the outset. Before the Tribunal convened, Nikitchenko explained the Soviet perspective of the trials:

"We are dealing here with the chief war criminals who have already been convicted and whose conviction has been already announced by both the Moscow and Crimea [Yalta] declarations by the heads of the [Allied] governments . . . The whole idea is to secure quick and just punishment for the crime. " on June 29, 1945 (8. Report of Robert Jackson, United States Representative to the International Conference on Military Trials, London, 1945 (Washington, DC: US State Dept. The London Charter of the International Military Tribunal (usually referred to simply as the London Charter or Nuremberg Charter) was the decree issued on August , 1949), pp. 104-106, 303. ; Whitney R. Harris, Tyranny on Trial: The Evidence at Nuremberg (Dallas: S. M. U. Press, 1954), pp. 16-17. )

True to form, Nikitchenko dissented against the three acquittals and argued for a death sentence for Rudolf Hess. Rudolf Walter Richard Hess ( Heß in German) (26 April 1894 &ndash 17 August 1987 was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany, acting as Adolf Hitler Nikitchenko also famously said, in the lead-up to the trials, "If . . . the judge is supposed to be impartial, it would only lead to unnecessary delays. " also on June 29, 1945

During the trials, the French judges suggested that a firing squad should be used for the military condemned. Execution by firing squad is a method of Capital punishment, particularly common in times of war Nikitchenko fiercely resisted this, arguing that the accused were common criminals who had disgraced their military ethos and tradition.

Judges of the Nuremberg Trials
	Geoffrey Lawrence (president)	Norman Birkett (alternate)
	Francis Biddle (judge)	John Parker (alternate)
	Henri de Vabres (judge)	Robert Falco (alternate)
	Iona Nikitchenko (judge)	Alexander Volchkov (alternate)