The cemetery was established in 1833. It has got its name from the nearby Baikovo estate. The oldest part of the cemetery is located south of the present Baikova Street. The biggest part is located north of the street and was established in the 1880s. It is partly surrounded by a wall. Besides the Orthodox graves there are also Catholic and Lutheran sections.

In Soviet times the Baikove cemetery became the main necropolis of the Kyiv's intelligentsia, middle and upper classes. Many of the headstones became pieces of monumental art. Also after the Ukrainian independence the cemetery has remained the most prestigious burial ground in the city. 87 are on the List of national landmarks of cultural heritage in Kyiv.

An Orthodox Church (Ascension of the Lord) in Byzantine style was built at the cemetery in 1884–1889. It was built on the proceeds from the sale of burial places. During the Soviet times it was preserved as a memorial hall for funeral ceremonies. Today it is again used as a church. In 1975 a new crematorium in modern style was built in the western part of the cemetery.

• Leonid Kravchuk (1934–2022) – politician and president of Ukraine (1991–1994).
• Mykhailo Hrushevsky (1866–1934) – politician, academician, historian and president of Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1918).
• Lesya Ukrainka (1871–1913) – poet and writer.
• Viacheslav Chornovil (1937–1999) – politician and Soviet dissident.
• Slava Stetsko (1920–2003) – politician.
• Viktor Ivanov (1909–1981) – film director.
• Oles Honchar (1918–1995) – writer and politician.
• Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky (1838–1918) – writer.
• Oleg Antonov (1906–1984) – aircraft designer.
• Danylo Lyder (1917–2002) – theatre director.
• Olena Pchilka (1849–1930) – writer and ethnographer.
• Mykhailo Starytsky (1840–1904) – writer.
• Leonid Kadeniuk (1951–2018) – astronaut.
• Mykola Lysenko (1842–1912) – composer and pianist.
• Oleksandr Bilash (1931–2003) – composer and author.
• Ostap Vyshnya (1889–1956) – writer.
• Yuriy Mushketyk (1929–2019) – writer and journalist.
• Ivan Mykolaichuk (1941–1987) – actor.
• Vikentiy Khvoyka (1850–1914) – archaeologist.
• Volodymyr Shcherbytsky (1918–1990) – politician.
• Leonid Telyatnikov (1951–2004) – Chernobyl firefighter.
• Mikhail Vaschenko-Zakharchenko (1825–1912) – mathematician.
• Vadym Hetman (1935–1998) – statesman and politician.
• Volodymyr Zabolotnyi (1898–1962) – architect.
• Hryhoriy Veryovka (1895–1964) – composer and choir director.
• Viktor Bannikov (1938–2001) – football player and official.
• Valeriy Lobanovskyi (1939–2002) – football manager.
• James Mace (1952–2004) – American historian and researcher of Holodomor.
• Aleksey Kovalev (1926–1997) – the soldier who raised the Soviet flag over Berlin.

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  The writer Lesya Ukrainka's grave
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  The composer Mykola Lysenko's grave
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  Vikentiy Khvoyka's grave

• People buried at the Baikove
• List of cemeteries in Kyiv
• List of cultural heritage landmarks of national significance in Kyiv
• Kuialnyk Cemetery in Odesa

• Ruta Malikenaite (ed): Touring Kyiv. Guidebook, pp. 153–157 (Baltija Druk 2002). ^{[ISBN missing]}

• Entsyklopediya Kyiv
• Mysterious places of Kyiv: Baikove Cemetery (Загадкові місця Києва: Байкове кладовище). ForUM. 28 November 2011
• Habdrakhimov, D. Baikove Cemetery: so who is being buried at the elite necropolis? (Байкове кладовище: так кого ж ховають на "елітному некрополі"?) Ukrainian National News (UNN). 12 June 2012
• In Kyiv hunters for metal destroyed the Baikove Cemetery (У Києві мисливці за металом розгромили Байкове кладовище). Segodnya. 8 October 2015.
• Malenkov, R. Baikove Necropolis (Байковий некрополь). Ukraina Incognita. 2007
• Baikove Cemetery at Find a Grave