In the 1920s-1950s Birilyussy village was a place of exile and resettlement. In the 1930s dekulakized peasant families lived there; in the 1940s deported Latvians. The forced settlers and deportees were buried in the village graveyard. The total numbers have not been established; a few names are known. In the late 1960s, the inhabitants of the frequently flooded village were moved to Novobirilyussy village and the graveyard gradually fell into disrepair.

In 2008 staff from the Birilyussy district history museum helped to determine the burial place of Bishop Vasily of Kineshma (V.S. Preobrazhensky) who died in exile. In 2010 a Latvian delegation erected a wooden memorial cross in the graveyard with the headboard in Latvian, Russian and English. It reads, “May we never forget the children of Latvia, the victims of deportation, 1941-1949”. On 21 August 2013 a chapel was erected over the grave of Bishop Vasily with a plaque that reads: “The holy prelate and confessor Vasily, Bishop of Kineshma, 19 January 1876 to 13 August 1945: Holy Father Vasily, Pray for Us!”