The Memorial Association has operated since 1989 striving to preserve the memory of the victims of Stalinist repression and the subsequent political repressions in countries of the former USSR. Memorial carries out documentary, archival and historical research, legal and educational activities on political imprisonments and exile, as well as monitors human rights violations. Thanks to the Association, publicly available exhibitions, collections of documents and specialist libraries that gather materials on political repressions during totalitarian communist system, were created. In 1991, on the initiative of the Memorial, the Act on Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression was enacted to restore the honour of thousands of citizens of the former Soviet Union and 30 October was set the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Political Repression.