Specposiołek (special settlement) Monastyriok was located on the Little Northern Dvina. From 1929, dispossessed peasants from Ukraine, Belarus and the southern regions of Russia lived here.

In 1940, Polish citizens - the so-called "settlers" (about 600 people) displaced from the Polish territories annexed to the USSR in 1939 - were placed in the then-abandoned barracks. In 1941, the Poles were transported to Kazakhstan.

Those who died between 1940 and 1941 were buried in the neighbouring village of Priwodino. The Polish part of the cemetery covered an area of 150 square metres. According to the recollections of local people, the Poles were buried without coffins, with crosses made of tied branches placed on the graves. The number of forced resettlers and interned Polish citizens buried here is unknown.

Today, the Polish part of the cemetery is overgrown with forest, and the graves have not been preserved.

In 2002, on the initiative of the headmaster of the secondary school No. 4 in Kotlas, A.I. Smolina, the area was cleared by pupils, and the place of Polish burials was marked with information plaques on trees.

In June 2012, a Polish delegation from Tarnów erected a temporary memorial cross at the cemetery.