The government also rehabilitated several minority populations which it had relocated under Stalin, and allowed them to return to their former territories and in some cases restored their [[Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union|autonomy in those regions]].

The government started mass [[amnesty]] of the victims of [[Political repression in the Soviet Union|Soviet repressions]] after the [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|death]] of [[Joseph Stalin]]. In 1953, this did not entail any form of exoneration. The government released thethose who were granted amnesteesamnesty into internal exile in remote areas, without any right to return to their original places of settlement.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

The [[amnesty of 1953]] was applied first for those who had been sentenced for a term of at most 5five years and had been prosecuted for non-political articles in the Soviet Criminal Code (for example, children of those repressed on political grounds were often prosecuted as "antisocial elements", i.e., on the same grounds as prostitutes). In 1954, the government began to release many [[political prisoner]]s from [[Gulag]] labor camps.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

In 1956, [[Nikita Khrushchev]], then in the position of [[GeneralFirst Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], denounced [[Stalinism]] in his notable speech ''"[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences]]''". Afterward, the government accompanied release of political prisoners with rehabilitation, allowing them to return home and reclaim their lives.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Several entirelarge nationality[[ethnic groups]] had been deported to Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia during [[population transfer in the Soviet Union|population transfer]]; these were also rehabilitated in the late 1950s. The government allowed many of those groups to return to their former homelands and restored their former autonomous regions. It did not restore territory to the [[Volga Germans]] and [[Crimean Tatars]].<ref>Robert Conquest, ''The Nation Killers: The Soviet Deportation of Nationalities'' (London: MacMillan, 1970) ({{ISBN|0-333-10575-3}}); S. Enders Wimbush and Ronald Wixman, "The Meskhetian Turks: A New Voice in Central Asia,", ''Canadian Slavonic Papers'' 27, Nos. 2 and 3 (Summer and Fall, 1975): 320–340; and [[Alexander Nekrich]], ''The Punished Peoples: The Deportation and Fate of Soviet Minorities at the End of the Second World War'' (New York: W. W. Norton, 1978) ({{ISBN|0-393-00068-0}}).</ref> The Crimean Tatars were [[Ukaz 493|decriminalized]] in 1967, allowed to return to Crimea in 1989, and [[On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples|rehabilitated]] in the RSFSR in 1991.

In most cases, the persons were released with the phrases "due to the lack of a criminal matter", and"for lack of [[corpus delicti]]", "based on previously unavailable information"., Some were released "due to the lack of a proof of guilt", etc. Many rehabilitations occurred posthumously, as thousands had been executed by Stalin's government or died in the harsh conditions of the labor camps.

Many individuals were subject to amnesty only, but not to rehabilitation (in particular those who had been prosecuted for "belonging to [[Trotskyite]] Opposition").{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Another wave of rehabilitations started about 1986 with emerging Soviet policy of ''[[Perestroikaperestroika]]''. 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 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>

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[[Category:Law of the Soviet lawUnion]]