Aron Naumovich Trainin (), also known as Moshe Aron Naumovich Trainin (), or Moshe Aron Nahimovich Trainin (; – 7 February 1957), was a Soviet

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and

criminologist Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...

Career

Trainin attended the of

Kaluga Kaluga (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It stands on the Oka River southwest of Moscow. Its population was 337,058 at the 2021 census. Kaluga's most famous residen ...

, graduating in 1903, the same year he

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used now ...

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

(), whence he graduated in 1908. At university he participated in the , student activist movement, during the pivotal, though failed,

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, th ...

. After graduation, Trainin worked in the MGU Department of Criminal Law, on track for a professorship, but he would resign his position in 1912 in connection with the , in which a great many academics resigned out of solidarity with the targets of Imperial Education Minister Lev Aristidovich Kasso. From 1912 to 1918 he taught at the

Shanyavsky Moscow City People's University Shanyavsky Moscow City People's University () was a university in Moscow that was founded in 1908 with funds from the gold mining philanthropist Alfons Shanyavsky. The university was nationalized in 1918 after the Russian revolution and merged in ...

in Moscow. From 1916 to 1917, he was an editor of the

Jewish newspaper A Jewish newspaper is a newspaper which focuses on topics of special interest to Jews, although Jewish newspapers also include articles on topics of a more general interest as well. Political orientations and religious orientations cover a wide ra ...

titled '' New Way''. He was a founding member of the Moscow chapter of the

Political Red Cross Political Red Cross was the name borne by several organizations that provided aid to political prisoners in the Russian Empire and later in Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. The first organization using this name was founded in St. Petersburg i ...

, which was formed in 1918. Trainin came to prominence in the inter-war years as critical of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

for not doing enough to prosecute those who waged war against peace. Scholars Francine Hirsch of the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, Kirsten Sellars of the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

, and Michelle Jean Penn of the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

credit him with establishing the international legal concept of "

crimes against peace The crime of aggression was conceived by Soviet jurist Aron Trainin in the wake of the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. Pictured: Stalingrad in ruins, December 1942 A crime of aggression or crime against peace is the p ...

In 1937, Trainin published his 'The Defense of Peace and Criminal Law' in which he castigated the League of Nations for failing to make aggressive war a criminal offense and not providing for any sort of international court to punish aggressors. Along with Major-General Iona Timofeevich Nikitchenko, who also served as a judge, Trainin was a signatory for the Soviet Union to the charter of the

Allies of World War II The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international Coalition#Military, military coalition formed during World War II (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers. Its principal members were the "Four Policeme ...

War Crimes Executive Committee which established the Nüremberg International Military Tribunal for "the prosecution and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis",Typed original
at

Truman Library The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and resting place of Harry S Truman, the 33rd president of the United States (1945–1953), his wife Bess and daughter Margaret, and is located on U.S. Highw ...

. known in Russian as the "London Agreement", ''. Trainin played a central role in establishing the legal framework for the Nuremberg Trials. He proposed that a new legal concept, "the crime of aggression", be used to hold Nazi Germany's military and political leadership accountable for the numerous countries they invaded and occupied. Along with the other jurists involved in crafting the Nuremberg Charter, Trainin was influential in establishing the new legal field of international law. Despite this foundational role, his contributions are often ignored or forgotten by Western scholars, largely as a result of Cold War perceptions of the Soviet Union. More recent scholarship has begun to acknowledge the influence of Soviet legal thought on international law, arguing that Trainin's contributions must be taken seriously, alongside an ongoing recognition of the crimes of the Soviet regime. Trainin later became a Corresponding member of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

(1946). In 1947 and 1948 he served as vice-president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. His major works were ''On Complicity'' (1941) and ''Elements of a Crime According to Soviet Criminal Law'' (1951). In 1945, in ''Fundamental Principles of Soviet Criminal Law'', he wrote, Trainin was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trainin, Aron Naumovich 1883 births 1957 deaths 20th-century jurists 20th-century Russian lawyers Criminology educators Academics from the Russian Empire Editors from the Russian Empire Lawyers from the Russian Empire Jewish educators Jewish human rights activists Jewish writers from the Russian Empire Jewish journalists Jewish non-fiction writers Russian legal scholars Russian newspaper editors Russian academics Soviet Jews Soviet jurists Moscow State University alumni Academic staff of Moscow State University People from Kaluga Writers from Moscow Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour

Career

See also

References

External links