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Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov has published a draft order proposing changes to the enforcement of the “Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions” act — a key document outlining state policy aimed restoring rights and providing compensation to individuals who were wrongfully persecuted or repressed for political reasons during the Soviet era.
Krasnov’s amendments call for the “establish a permanent process for identifying and revoking” rehabilitation decisions if state investigations determine that the rehabilitated individuals were guilty of committing serious crimes.
In his order, Krasnov refers to amendments introduced by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on June 20 to the State Policy Concept on Commemorating the Victims of Political Repressions, which was adopted in 2015. The recent amendments claim that an amnesty declared in the Soviet Union in 1955 “led to the rehabilitation based on formal criteria and the exoneration of Nazi collaborators and traitors to the Motherland, who served in punitive units formed along national lines in the Baltic states, Ukraine, and other regions, as well as participants in underground nationalist and bandit groups.” The updated concept also included the provision that “rehabilitation and justification of individuals guilty of serious crimes, war crimes, and crimes against peace and humanity are unacceptable.”
In light of these changes, the Prosecutor General’s Office is now proposing the establishment of a permanent process for identifying and reversing these Soviet-era rehabilitation decisions. Cases overturning the rehabilitation of foreign citizens will reportedly be forwarded to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Boris Vishnevsky, an opposition politician and columnist at the independent Russian publication Novaya Gazeta, recently commented on the amendments, calling them a sign of the Kremlin’s shifting policy towards Soviet-era political repressions amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine:
“In the current version [of the State Policy], the language is so vague that it remains unclear who exactly carried out the repressions, who is responsible, what they entailed, how many people were affected, and how many were rehabilitated.
However, there is ample space for discussions of ‘national interests,’ ‘strengthening traditional spiritual and moral values,’ and protecting society from ‘destructive informational and psychological influence.’ And, of course, mention is made of Baltic and Ukrainian Nazis, traitors to the Motherland, and members of underground nationalist groups.”
Tens of millions of people were subjected to political repressions in the Soviet Union through means such as executions, imprisonment in forced labor camps (the Gulag), exile, and other forms of persecution. Key periods included the forced collectivization and famine from the late 1920s to the 1930s, Stalin’s Great Purge (1936-1938), and the post-WWII era, during which certain ethnic minorities and returning Soviet POWs were targeted.
Following Stalin’s death in 1953, the Soviet state released millions of people from prison as part of General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev’s broader de-Stalinization efforts, which attempted to distance the USSR from Stalin’s legacy.
A 1953 amnesty was introduced under the leadership of Lavrentiy Beria shortly after Stalin's death. This amnesty primarily targeted non-political prisoners, focusing on those sentenced to less than five years for petty crimes. Around 1.2 million prisoners were released. Political prisoners and those convicted of more serious offenses, particularly during Stalin's purges, largely remained incarcerated.
A second amnesty in 1955, carried out by Nikita Khrushchev, included a significant number of political prisoners — even some alleged Nazi collaborators.
As noted by Vishnevsky, the 1955 amnesty did not entail any form of exoneration. Many former convicts were formally acquitted — in many cases posthumously — but had their rights restored only in the late 1980s with the emerging Soviet policy of “perestroika.” The rehabilitation trend continued in most post-Soviet states after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
Both the modern Russian Federation (“On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions”) and Ukraine (“On the rehabilitation of victims of repression of the communist totalitarian regime of 1917-1991”) have passed laws that serve as the legal foundation for the ongoing post-Stalinist rehabilitation of victims. While the law in Ukraine has largely remained unchanged, Moscow appears to be reversing its prior policies.