He later served on the International Military Tribunal during the Nuremberg trials as a judge for the Soviet Union.

[1] As deputy chairman of Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, Nikitchenko presided over some of the most notorious of Joseph Stalin's show trials during the Great Purges from 1936 to 1938 and notably sentenced Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev.

"[4] Nikitchenko also found the majority judgments incorrect with regard to the Reich Cabinet, the German General Staff and the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.

In March 1946, Nikitchenko was re-elected to the Supreme Court of the USSR, and until July 1949 he worked as deputy chairman of this body.

From August 1949 to September 1951, head of the department of linear water transport vessels of the Ministry of Justice.