ABSTRACT
The re-emergence of returnees in the eighties and nineties, like the emergence of earlier returnees, posed demands on the government—demands for rehabilitation, restitution, privileges, information about the fate of lost loved ones, and revenge. The Memorial initiative group had begun collecting signatures in support of a monument to victims of totalitarianism. A rather consistent trend has presented itself with regard to former victims of Soviet terror. A new generation of prisoners and returnees was created. The political atmosphere in the Soviet Union of the eighties proved to be anything but a predictor for what was to come. Once public discussion of the camp and returnee themes had been initiated, overt and covert efforts at damage control did little to stem the tide, or rather tidal wave of revelations. Organizations like Memorial and Vozvrashchenie have aided in further promoting the moral-ethical, non-material expression of rehabilitation.
