Semyon Vasilyevich Rudniev (; ) (February 27, 1899 – August 4, 1943) was one of the leaders of Soviet partisan movement during World War II and People's Commissar in the partisan group operating in Ukraine and led by Sydir Kovpak. Early life Rudniev was born in a peasant family in what is now Sumy region. As a teenager Rudniev moved to Saint-Petersburg and became an apprentice carpenter at the Russo-Balt Factory. Rudniev became an active member of the Bolshevik movement and joined the party in March 1917. For distributing Bolshevik leaflets, Rudniev was sent to the Vyborg prison. He participated in the assault on the Winter Palace during the October Revolution. In 1918, Rudniev joined the Red Army. At first, he served as a platoon commander, but later became secretary of party organization for the 373rd Rifle Regiment of the 42nd Rifle Division. He then became a commissar for the Donetsk Labour Army's political department. He then became assistant commissar of the 44th Rifle Regiment of the 15th Rifle Division. Rudniev fought on the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War. Interwar In 1929, Rudniev graduated from the Lenin Military-Political Academy. He became commissar of the 61st Coastal Defence Antiaircraft Artillery Regiment in Sevastopol. In 1932 he was transferred to become commissar of the 9th Coastal Defence Artillery Brigade in the Far East. In July 1933, he became military commissar of the De-Kastri fortified area, then under construction. In August 1937, he was appointed commissar of the 1st Military Construction Brigade there. On 7 February 1938, he was arrested by the NKVD and in May 1939 charged with committing crimes under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code, which carried the death penalty. Rudniev initially confessed to creating the Trotskyist organization in his fortified area but refused to confess to espionage and sabotage charges. He soon retracted his confession, stating that it was made under duress. In July 1939, his case was sent for review to the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, but was then sent back to the military tribunal of the 2nd Red Banner Army. After a retrial, Rudniev was released from prison. He was soon discharged for health reasons and returned to Putyvl. In 1940, he became the chairman of the OSOAVIAKHIM district council. World War II On 22 June 1941, German troops attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. They soon