The dense grove outside the city became a place of execution in 1907. The first executed was the terrorist Nikolai Pchelintsev. At the beginning of the 20th century, he joined the socialist-anarchist group of German Velikopolsky. Initially, the leadership assigned him to procure weapons, and later he was involved in active actions. In September 1907, his group traveled through the villages of the Nizhnelomovsky and Penza districts, distributing propaganda leaflets and calling on peasants to fight against autocracy. One of the railway workers reported suspicious individuals to the gendarmes. The attempt to detain the revolutionaries led to a fierce shootout, during which officer Belyaev was killed.

A chase for the terrorists began. The ring around the forest tightened, ammunition ran out, and the exhausted anarchist-communists surrendered. They were all arrested and sent to Penza, where Nikolai Pchelintsev's tragic story began. Everyone faced long sentences, and the older comrades convinced the 17-year-old Pchelintsev to take all the blame on himself. He agreed. However, military field courts were already operating in the country, issuing verdicts within a day. Pchelintsev faced several years of hard labor, but the court handed down a death sentence by hanging. "This was the first case of capital punishment in the Penza province, so it particularly stuck in my memory," recalled Governor Ivan Koshko. The execution was scheduled to take place before dawn, in the state forest, so that no one would know the time of it.

Early in the morning on November 5, 1907, guards came to Pchelintsev's cell. He immediately understood that this day would be his last. The gendarmes brought a gag and handcuffs, but Nikolai behaved apathetically and went to his execution in silence. He was accompanied by a heavy guard, fearing an attack from revolutionaries.

A few minutes before the execution, Nikolai Pchelintsev wrote a farewell letter to his family at the gallows: "Goodbye dear father and mother, goodbye Tonya and all the kids. I am being hanged in the forest. Don't cry dear mother, it is not as scary as it seems. I die with hope that in the future everyone will be well. Kiss and bow to all relatives and acquaintances. Finita la comedia."

"The body was laid in a pre-dug grave, sprinkled with quicklime, buried, leveled with the ground, and covered with turf, so that the grave was not noticeable at all," wrote Governor Ivan Koshko in his memoirs. These measures were taken to prevent the burial site from becoming a pilgrimage site for revolutionaries.

However, the opposite happened. Later, not only revolutionaries but also ordinary criminals convicted of serious crimes were executed here. Over time, the Arbekov Grove became a place of pilgrimage.