'''Rehabilitation''' ({{lang-langx|ru|реабилитация}}, [[Romanization of Russian|transliterated]] in [[English language|English]] as ''reabilitatsiya'' or [[Scientific transliteration of Cyrillic|academically]] rendered as ''reabilitacija'') was a term used in the context of the former [[Soviet Union]] and the [[post-Soviet states]]. Beginning after the [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|death of Stalin]] in 1953, the government undertook the political and social restoration, or [[political rehabilitation]], of persons who had been repressed and criminally prosecuted without due basis. It restored the person to the state of [[acquittal]]. In many cases, rehabilitation was [[wikt:posthumous|posthumous]], as thousands of victims had been executed or died in labor camps.<ref>[http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CR%5CE%5CRehabilitation.htm Rehabilitation], [[Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine]]</ref>

Another wave of rehabilitations started about 1986 with emerging Soviet policy of ''[[perestroika]]''. Persons who were repressed [[extrajudicial punishment|extrajudicially]] were summarily rehabilitated. Also, Soviet civilian and military justice continued to rehabilitate victims of Stalin's purges (posthumously), as well as some people repressed after Stalin. After [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in late 1991, this trend continued in most post-Soviet states.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} [[Leon Trotsky]] (murdered in 1940) was rehabilitated on June 16, June 2001, by Russia.<ref>[http://memorial-nic.org/iofe/3.html В. В. Иофе. Осмысление Гулага.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110821184248/http://memorial-nic.org/iofe/3.html |date=21 August 2011 }} НИЦ «Мемориал»</ref>