The State Russian Museum was established in Saint-Petersburg by the decree of Nicolas II to commemorate his father, Alexander III so that the first name of the museum was the following "The Emperor Museum of the Russian Art named after Alexander III". It was opened for visitors in 1898 and became the first State Museum of Russian fine art. The collection of the museum consists of 400,000 works of art covering the entire history of Russian fine art from the 10th century to the present day. The collection of State Russian Museum is housed in several buildings: Mikhailovsky Palace, housing the museum from the beginning of 19th century, and also Stroganov Palace, Marble Palace, Michael's Castle, which were awarded to Russian Museum between 1989 and 1994. Originally the museum was located in the halls of the Mikhailovsky Palace which was designed by K.Rossi for Mikhail Pavlovich - the son of the Tsar Pavel I. The museum's collection at that time numbered 1880 paintings, sculptures, drawings and Old Rusian art passed from the imperial palaces, the Hermitage and the Academy of Fine Arts.

The museum got its present day name of "The State Russian Museum" in 1917. The collection of the museum presented in a strictly chronological order, thereby giving the visitor a chance to retrace the path of development in Russian art. It is necessary to notice that collection includes a unique collection of Old Russian icons, works of painting, graphic art and sculpture, decorative and applied art, folk art and numismatics, as well as the world's finest collection of Russian avant-garde. However, the Russian Museum's international supremacy is based on its extensive collection of Greek and Old-Russian icons by Andrei Rublev and Simeon Ushakov, artists Brullov, Repin, Surikov, Vereshchagin, Venetsianov, Petrov and Serov and its famous picture gallery, that formed the core of the Museum during the period of its foundation in 1895-97 and over the next decade or so. In 1992 the museum became a special object of national cultural heritage.