The burial ground in the Varnek settlement was organised in 1930 for the deceased prisoners and free workers of the OGPU’s Vaigach expedition. It was located on the shore of the Varnek Bay in a small enclosure near the village. Those who died were buried in coffins and grave markers were placed on their graves. There is no complete list of the prisoners and free workers buried there; a list of 36 names has been compiled.

A concrete monument on a common grave of 24 prisoners has survived. It commemorates those who froze to death on the ice of the bay in autumn 1932 while loading zinc ore onto the Gleb Boky steamship. There also are buried four prisoners convicted by the OGPU Collegium and shot in June 1934. After the camp closed the burial ground was used to bury the settlement’s deceased inhabitants.