Rudnya (Russian: Ру́дня, Polish: Rudnia) is a town and the administrative center of Rudnyansky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Malaya Berezina River (Dnieper's basin) 68 kilometers (42 mi) northwest of Smolensk, the administrative center of the oblast.

After the First Partition of Poland in 1772 the area was included into newly established Babinovichsky Uyezd of Mogilev Governorate.

[10] On 12 July 1929, governorates and uyezds were abolished, and Rudnyansky District with the administrative center in Rudnya was established.

[9][11] Rudnya is known as the maiden battle target of the famous Soviet multiple rocket launchers Katyusha.

On July 14, 1941, an experimental artillery battery of seven launchers was first used in battle at Rudnya, under the command of Captain Ivan Flyorov, destroying a concentration of German troops with tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks at the marketplace, causing massive German Army casualties and its retreat from the town in panic.

Yegorov, who was born close to Rudnya, was one of the two Soviet soldiers who raised a flag over the Reichstag on 2 May 1945, after the Battle of Berlin.

Of the nearly 2000 Jews who remained in the village during WWII, most were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust after a ghetto was established in Rudnya.