With his mother and two siblings, he worked on the family farm until they were forced to give their land during the process of collectivization.

On 4 October 1941 near Leningrad he was wounded by an exploding bullet, which shattered bones of the pelvis and entered his spine.

He was awarded the Order of the Red Star, of the Great Patriotic War 1st class, and six other medals.

He wrote a wide variety of poetry and novels, some of his most famous being: The Last Sabre (1959), The Magic boomerang (1966), The Eagle's Ravine (1970), and the collection of poems about Holodomor The Cross in 1976.

He was convinced that De-Stalinization was not the answer, and that real problem was the Soviet ideology, not Joseph Stalin.

Rudenko began to petition all levels of the Party about the need for reform, even sending a letter to Nikita Khrushchev in 1960.

This led to his arrest on 18 April 1975 for Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, but was released on amnesty as a World War II veteran.

The group began publishing information about violations of human rights in Ukraine, including details about Holodomor and other repressions and atrocities.

On 5 March 1984 he was taken to the village of Mayma, in the present day Altai Republic, to serve his exile.