Volkova village or Volkovo is mentioned in the Cadastre Books of the Izhora Land in 1640 in the description of the Spassky Pogost. By the Decree of the Senate of May 11, 1756, a cemetery was established here instead of the one that had existed since the 1710s at the Church of John the Baptist in Yamskaya Sloboda.

The cemetery was opened in the summer of 1756 and by the end of the year, 898 burials had been made there. The cemetery was poor, it brought in almost no income, but more and more people were buried there every year. At the same time, a wooden church on a stone foundation was laid, which was consecrated on December 3, 1759 in the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands.

By 1809, services in the Spasskaya wooden church were discontinued due to its dilapidation. It was decided to build a new church in the western part of the cemetery, south of the current Smotelskie Mostki. The new church warden, merchant P. I. Ponomarev, had to repair the old wooden church, where they began to serve again in 1812. In the next decade, increased income made it possible to build the Holy Gates and a fence from the side of Rasstannaya Street, according to the design of the architect P. F. Votsky, which still exist today.

In 1837, the foundation of a new church was finally laid, its builder was F. I. Ruska. The third stone church built was usually called "Ponomarevskaya" after the merchant P. I. Ponomarev, who financed its construction. The foundation was laid in 1850, and in 1852 the church was consecrated.

The name of another benefactor was preserved in the colloquial name of the fourth stone church, which was often called Kryukovsky. This is the only church currently operating at the Volkovskoye Cemetery. The Church of St. Job was founded in 1885 and was built with funds from P. M. Kryukova over the grave of her husband.

The last church to be built was the Assumption Church, which was built with funds donated by the widow of a tobacco manufacturer, T. V. Kolobovo, who dedicated the church to the memory of her deceased sister. Construction began in 1910. Services began in the church three years later.

To make it easier to move around the eternal mud of the necropolis, its paths were paved with boards, which gave rise to the name "bridges". In the 19th century, the number of paths reached 120, and their total length by the end of the century exceeded twelve miles. Around the churches, the paths-bridges were paved with slabs, and the rest were wooden.

The north-eastern part of the Volkovskoye Cemetery was called "Literary Bridges" in the second half of the 19th century, as it became a traditional burial place for famous literary and artistic figures. The first on this list was Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev. He was buried in September 1802. The grave was forgotten, but it is assumed that Radishchev was buried near the stone Resurrection Church. In memory of this, a memorial plaque was installed on the wall of the building in 1987.

In the XVIII-XIX centuries, the Volkovskoye Necropolis was the largest in St. Petersburg.

In addition to the Orthodox, the Volkovskoye Necropolis also includes the Old Believer and Lutheran cemeteries, many of whose tombstones are outstanding examples of ritual architecture.

In 1935, the "Literary Bridges" necropolis became a branch of the State Museum of Urban Sculpture. At various times, outstanding figures in science, culture and art were buried in this memorial cemetery.

Writers: N.S. Leskov, G.I. Uspensky, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak, O.F. Berggolts D.V. Grigorovich, L.N. Andreev.

Poets: A.N.Apukhtin, S.Ya.Nadson, A.A.Blok, M.A.Kuzmin, V.A.Rozhdestvensky.

Scientists: physiologists - V.M. Bekhterev, I.P. Pavlov, traveler, geographer - N.N. Miklukho-Maclay, radio inventor - A.S. Popov, scientist, lawyer, writer - A.F. Koni, chemist - D.I. Mendeleev.

Composers: S.M. Maykapar, V.P. Solovyov-Sedoy, V.A. Gavrilin.

Artists: E.A. Lebedev, V.V. Merkuryev, Yu.V. Tolubeev, E.I. Time-Kachalova, I.O. Gorbachev, N.K. Simonov, opera singers - S.P. Preobrazhenskaya, G.A. Kovaleva.

Ballet dancers: A.Ya.Vaganova, A.Ya.Shelest, N.M.Dudinskaya, K.M.Sergeev.

Directors: G.M. Kozintsev, A.A. Bryantsev, N.P. Akimov.

Architects, artists, sculptors: N.A. Trotsky, L.A. Ilyin, L.V. Sherwood, E.E. Moiseenko, M.K. Anikushin, E.S. Kruglikova, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin and many others.

Participants of political movements are also buried in the necropolis: G.V. Plekhanov, G.A. Lopatin, P.F. Yakubovich.

On the Literary Bridge there is a memorial to the Ulyanov family.