From 1932 onwards Bamlag, the Baikal-Amur camp complex, was administered from Svobodny (lit. “Freetown”). By the beginning of 1933 it held 31,000 prisoners and on 1 January 1938 the total number of inmates reached 201,000. During the Great Terror (1937-1938) executed Bamlag prisoners were buried in the town cemetery. The total number has not been established nor is it known whether they were shot there or elsewhere and then brought to the cemetery for burial. No one was buried there in later years.

In March 2012, after a fire at the cemetery, numerous human remains were found. Some of the skulls bore bullet holes. These remains were gathered together and reburied at the camp cemetery in Svobodny, on a hill next to the memorial to the “Innocent victims of Bamlag”. Staff at the town cemetery say that skulls with bullet holes are to be found in various parts of the grounds. The area where the executed were buried does not have a separate monument.