In 1937-1938 NKVD “special site No. 6” was located on the territory of the Forestry Concern. It was one place where those shot in Yoshkar-Ola during the Great Terror were buried. There is information that executions took place there in August 1937, the very beginning of the terror. Local inhabitants knew about the shooting and the burials.

In 1989 the site was located thanks to the testimony of eyewitnesses. The Mari Memorial Society estimates that the site contains about 60 trenches, but the total numbers buried have not been established. Thanks to the efforts of the Mari Memorial society an official commission was set up in 1990 and this led to investigation of the site and the exhumation of the remains of 164 people from a single common grave. After forensic examination the prosecutor’s office was able to confirm the names of those shot and the date of their execution, 5-8 August 1937. The remains were reburied on 6 September 1990.

This date is considered the day on which the memorial was opened. A marble headstone was placed over the burial with the following inscription: “The common grave of the victims of Stalinist repression, 1930s-1940s”. In 2004 members of the Mari Memorial society reorganised the common graves, the reburials and the trenches. Two wooden commemorative crosses were erected, a granite boulder and an information board that read, “The memorial cemetery of the victims of Stalinist repression in the 1930s and 1940. A monument to the history of the Mari ASSR”.

In 2005 expert examination confirmed that among the remains lay Archpriest Sergy (Strelnikov), incumbent of the Orshan church, whom the Russian Orthodox Church canonised as a saint that year. After further examination in 2007 his remains were reburied.

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According to the Unified Register, by 2023 the site had been granted protection, and upgraded status to Republican/Regional significance.