PROBLEMS OF REHABILITATION OF SOVIET CITIZENS IN THE USSR AND IN RUSSIA: SECOND HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY - EARLY 2000

Abstract

The process of rehabilitation of repressed Soviet citizens was inseparable from the socio-political changes that took place in Soviet society. In the article, based on an analysis of Soviet and Russian regulations, the author highlights the stages of the rehabilitation process, during which important government decisions were made in relation to citizens who suffered from political repression. The review of cases, which began actively in the mid-1950s, especially after the decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956), was essentially curtailed in the 1960s. Most historians and jurists agree that the main stage of rehabilitation occurs in the late 1980s – early 2000. New laws on rehabilitation were adopted; commissions were created to restore the rights of rehabilitated Soviet citizens. In the article, the author focuses on those government measures that were aimed at improving the social situation of rehabilitated persons. A description was provided of the documentary database available to the modern Rehabilitation and Information Departments of the Information Centers under the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Russia in the Russian regions, which handle rehabilitation issues in contemporary society. The author described the procedure and conditions for rehabilitation and showed the problems that employees of information centers face when making a decision on rehabilitation. The active process of rehabilitation of Soviet citizens that began in the mid-1950s has important historical significance not only in the official recognition of the illegality of the persecution of Soviet citizens, but also in the restoration of social justice, their civil rights, and good name. The article was written on the basis of an analysis of Soviet regulation documents from the Archive of the Information Center of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Kemerovo Region (Department of Archival Information and Rehabilitation)