The cemetery in the Balino settlement, then on the outskirts of Ivanovo, was used from 1934 until its closure in the 1970s. During the Great Terror those sentenced by extra-judicial bodies (troika, Special Board, etc) and shot in Ivanovo Prison were buried here. Subsequently the area was used for further burials.

On 25 June 1991, a monument was erected at the intersection of the main walkways through the cemetery, a Labradorite pillar with a stylised barred window, a star, and barbed wire. The inscription reads: “To the victims of Stalinist repression. Their memory will survive as long as we remain human beings”. The monument was erected through the joint efforts of the Ivanovo Region administration’s commission for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Political Repression and the Ivanovo Region Memorial society and was funded by the regional and city executive committees of the Council of People’s Deputies, and donations from the workforce of industrial enterprises, other organisations and individuals.