In December 1941 a division of Pechzheldorlag (Pechstroi, after 1950 Pechorlag) was set up at the Kozhva station on the North Pechora railroad. Prisoners who died were buried on the left bank of the Pechora river in the south part of Kozhva. In 1941-1942 they were buried in common graves. In 1943 a plot of land was set aside and fenced off for use as a cemetery. Thereafter, it seems, the dead were buried in coffins and in individual graves.

In 1961 after the camp closed inhabitants of Kozhva were buried for several more years in the cemetery. In the 1970s it was no longer in use and by 1979 a large part of its territory was given over to the growing of vegetables or building. In 1991 the settlement administration decided to clear and fence off the remaining part of the cemetery. (Subsequently the fence disappeared.)

On 22 June 1991 a memorial was placed there to commemorate the prisoners who had built the Northwest Railroad and the bridge over the Pechora river. The inscription reads, “In memory of the tragic events that affected human lives during the war and in peacetime construction”.