It was erected in memory of the suffering and death of numerous Russian prisoners who were buried by an enormous avalanche in March 1916 while building a mountain road over the 1,611 m mountain pass Vršič.
Je spomin na trpljenje in smrt ruskih ujetnikov, ki so gradili gorsko cesto čez 1.611 m visok preval Vršič, marca 1916 pa je mnoge od njih zasul in pod seboj pokopal plaz.