He acted to clear by official decree the names of Russians thrown into Soviet prison camps after World War II, Itar-Tass said.
Russian troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27, 1945. But Russians returning from camps in Germany and German-occupied Europe were named collaborators and spies by Stalin.
They were incarcerated in the gulag system of prison camps. Many died after spending years in brutal conditions.
The Yeltsin document described their imprisonment as a violation of basic human rights and "a political repression by the Communist Party," Itar-Tass said.
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