In 1940-1942 Poles deported from the western regions of Ukraine, about 300 families of “settlers” and “refugees” were relocated to the Vetka special settlement. Documents of the Komi NKVD for April 1940 and July 1941 record high mortality rates among the deportees, especially the children. Local inhabitants recall that there were about 200 crosses marking the graves in the cemetery. The total number buried there has not been established. The names of 102 people who died in Vetka are known. In August 1941 the special settlement regime was lifted. During 1942 the Poles left, and the graveyard was abandoned.

In the 1970s the grave markers were used as firewood by seasonal workers. In 2002 the graveyard was studied by an expedition of the Memorial club at the children’s centre in the town of Yemva, director P.I. Litus. The members of the expedition erected a memorial cross in the graveyard.

(NOTE: the town of Zheleznodorozhny (lit. Railroad), renamed Yemva in 1985, was formerly at the heart of the Sevzheldorlag camp system. Until 1941 it was known as Knyazhpogost.)