At 1936 he matriculated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, and was soon appointed commander of the 118th Bomber Brigade.

[1] In January 1941, Rudenko was put in charge of the 31st Air Division of the Western Special Military District, an office he held when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

Rudenko remained in charge of the 16th Army until February 1947, when he was appointed a commander of an airborne corps.

(In April 1948, the New York Times reported that Rudenko would appear in a libel case in Paris on behalf of the defendant, French Communist Les Lettres Françaises, against Victor Kravchenko.

From May 1968 to August 1973, Rudenko headed the Gagarin Military Academy and then became an inspector in the Ministry of Defense.