By Richard Galpin,
BBC News, Moscow
The Soviet Union's last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, has signed a petition for a museum to commemorate the millions of victims of communist repression.
Mr Gorbachev said the special museum should be set up inside what was one of the most notorious Soviet detention centres, the Butyrka prison in Moscow.
The petition's organisers, Memorial, said Russians today were in danger of forgetting the brutality of the past.
They also criticised the glorification of former leader Josef Stalin by some.
In 1937, Stalin launched his Great Purge, intensifying his campaign against anyone he saw as a threat to his regime. Those included political opponents, but also the army, the intelligentsia, members of the clergy and peasants.
Overlooking purges
The leader famous for introducing the reforms which eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union now wants to ensure that the worst excesses of the communist regime are not forgotten.
Mr Gorbachev, along with other political figures, scientists and human rights activists, signed a petition calling for the museum to be built inside the Butyrka prison in the centre of the Russian capital.
During the purges ordered by Stalin, 20,000 political prisoners were held at a time inside this jail.
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