The Heroes of the First World War Memorial Park started out in 1915 as a war cemetery for Russian soldiers who fell in the First World War. In 1932 the cemetery was closed and mass executions even took place here in the years of the Great Terror. In 1948 a park was developed over the former burial ground and it was only during the time of Perestroika that First World War Memorials were once again erected here. In 1998 the Transfiguration of the Lord Chapel and four memorials were built in the park. Even more memorials were added and the park was officially renamed in 2004 as part of the 90th anniversary of the start of the First World War, a war which is often overlooked in Russia.