| Nikolay Rychkov | |
| Native Name: | instead.--> |
| Office: | People's Commissar of Justice of the Soviet Union |
| Term Start: | 19 January 1938 |
| Term End: | 15 March 1946 |
| Predecessor: | Nikolay Krylenko |
| Successor: | Office abolished Himself as Minister of Justice of the Soviet Union |
| Office2: | Minister of Justice of the Soviet Union |
| Term Start2: | 19 March 1946 |
| Term End2: | 29 January 1948 |
| Predecessor2: | Office established Himself as People's Commissar of Justice of the Soviet Union |
| Successor2: | Konstantin Gorshenin |
| Office3: | Prosecutor of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic |
| Term Start3: | August 1937 |
| Term End3: | January 1938 |
| Predecessor3: | Faina Nyurina |
| Successor3: | Ivan Golyakov |
| Birth Date: | 2 December 1897 |
| Birth Place: | Belokholunitskiy Plant, Slobodskoy Uyezd, Vyatka Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Death Date: | 28 March 1959 (aged 61) |
| Death Place: | Malakhovka, Lyubertsy District, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union |
| Party: | Communist Party of the Soviet Union (since 1917) |
| Awards: | Order of Lenin Order of the Red Banner |
| Awards: | is not set --> |
Nikolay Mikhailovich Rychkov (2 December 1897 – 28 March 1959) was a Soviet statesman and lawyer.[1] Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of the 2nd Convocation.
He came into conflict with the Head of the Department of Judicial and Prosecutorial Personnel of the Personnel Department of the Central Committee of the All–Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Anatoly Bakakin. A campaign was organized against Rychkov and in January 1948, he was removed from his post. The Commission for Acceptance and Delivery of Cases of the Ministry of Justice of the Soviet Union recognized Rychkov's work as unsatisfactory.
He took an active part in mass repressions as a member of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. Participant of the Moscow Show Trials of 1936–1938. In 1937–1938, he repeatedly traveled to the eastern regions of the Soviet Union, where he chaired major trials of "counter–revolutionary crimes" allegedly committed by the leading regional elite and local intelligentsia.
As People's Commissar of Justice of the Soviet Union, he repeatedly issued orders on the order of consideration of cases of counter–revolutionary crimes. At the same time, being guided by legal formalism and "insuring himself" against possible accusations, he ordered the courts to strictly observe procedural norms when considering any cases.
He took an active part in mass campaigns in cases of labor crimes (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of June 26, 1940), in cases of petty hooliganism and petty embezzlement at enterprises (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of August 10, 1940), in cases of labor crimes committed at military enterprises (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of December 26, 1941) and so on.
In 1947–1948, he headed the Permanent Commission for Open Trials on the Most Important Cases of former servicemen of the German army and German punitive bodies, exposed of atrocities against Soviet citizens in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union.[5]