From 1929 to 1939 inhabitants of Mordovia sentenced to death were buried not far from the Chufarovo Monastery on the right bank of the river Chufarka. Those who died or were killed in the NKVD’s interrogation centre, located in the buildings of the closed monastery, were also buried there. Local inhabitants knew about the burials (which included the period of the Great Terror).

In 2005 a burial was discovered two kilometres from the monastery by the “Explorer” group for military-patriotic education of the young, led by I.A. Selivesterov. The found several mass graves, each containing 40-70 people. The burials spread over an area 180 by 250 metres and the human remains were found at a depth of 15 cms to 1.3 metres. Permission was not granted for the pits to be opened and or for exhumation of the remains. In 2006 monks of the Chufarovo Holy Trinity Monastery raised a wooden commemorative cross where the burials were found.

In 2008 members of the exploratory group made a memorial here in the form of a fragment of brick wall including barred windows and a plaque: “Burials of the victims of repression at the NKVD’s Chufarovo interrogation centre (1929-1939) and labour colony (1939-1954)”. In July 2017 the “Explorer” group led by N.A. Kruchinin again investigated the same territory. A total of 17 mass graves were discovered, with the remains of 38 people, dating back to the period of the prison’s existence. This time the excavations and exhumation were conducted officially. On 23 July that year the remains were reinterred in the same place in separate coffins. Father Nikolai Novotvortsev performed the Office for the Dead.