The Makarikha cemetery in memory of the victims of political repression is located on the northern outskirts of Kotlas. The cemetery came into existence in the early 20th century and was closed for further burials in 1959. From the 1930s onwards those forced settlers, dekulakized peasant families, who died in the distribution centre located next to the cemetery, and prisoners who died in Kotlas Prison were buried there. In the 1940s up to the early 1950s prisoners of Kotlaslag, exiles, forced settlers, forced labourers and German POWs who died in the city’s military hospitals were all buried here in unmarked graves. With rare exceptions their names are not known. In the 1950s to the 1980s part of the cemetery was destroyed.

After an application from the Kotlas Sovest society, the city assembly issued a decision on 23 April 1998 that Makarikha would henceforth be a Memorial cemetery to the victims of political repression. Between 1995 and 2014 seven memorials have been erected here: a Catholic cross (17 November 1995), a memorial to the victims of the collectivisation of agriculture (13 May 1998; see photo), a triptych dedicated to “Those who died in captivity” (30 October 1998), a Cossack cross (16 August 2003) and others. There are also more than 20 personal memorials in the cemetery.