The Schusev State Museum of Architecture is the first in the world specialized museum of architecture. It was founded by the initiative of the Union of Soviet architects in 1934. Its collections reflect thousand years of Russian architecture's history; they are indeed a national treasure. By a decree of the President of Russia from January 24th 1995 it obtained a status of an "extra valuable object of cultural heritage of people of the Russian Federation". An idea of creation of an architectural museum in Russia had started up in the XIXth century, but the Moscow Archaeological Society set up a practical task only after a publication of the famous "Proclamation about preservation of the works of art" in March 1917. This act was made by the Commission of Cultural Questions headed by М. Gorky. The Society possessed a large fund of dimensions' data of architectural monuments, so, for a research, the Commission of Care of the Monuments of Old was created. The latter included at that date the architects I.V. Rylski, Z.I. Ivanov, I.V. Baklanov. In May 1918 among the pressing tasks of the architectural department of the Commission of Care of the Monuments of culture and history of the Mossovet (the City Soviet of Moscow) (N.A. Vsevoljskii (the president), I.V. Joltovskii, N.V. Markovnikov, I.V. Rylski, A.V. Schusev) was named: "...a creation of a grandiose museum - a permanent exhibition of results of studying the monuments of the Moscow region - pictures, engravings, dimensions' data, photos, models, copies etc. A new kind of museum has to be created where people will learn to understand the beauty of the architecture; we have to create passages, malls, galleries where passers-by will perceive intermittently, unwittingly the beauty of the crumbling all around treasures of architecture by means of works of art: There is still no Museum of Russian art of architecture - it is our duty to create it."

In 1919 a special commission was formed for a foundation of this museum which consisted of the representatives of Narcompros (National commissariat of education) and Mossovet (I.V. Rylski, I.V. Baklanov, I.P. Mashkov, G.N. Suhanov, A.V. Schusev). They interpreted the aim of the future museum larger - as a creation of an "architectural and artistic" fund of the Republic including both the historical material and the most notable projects of contemporary architecture. For the "promotion of young talents" it was supposed that the museum would purchase their drafts and dimensions' data of artistic value. It was announced that the new museum would obtain a building of the former English Club in the Tverskaya Street where people could bring for purchasing such items as plans, drawings, prospects of cities, models, engravings, photographs of architectural monuments. It was also proposed to organize showings of contests' projects there. In April 1919 the Commission considered a question of formation of several architectural museums (including a high-priority opening of the Moscow one) and roughcast a plan for organization of accounting, restoration and care of "survived artistic details of the old architecture" - cornices, grids, frescos, tiles, bas-reliefs, coats of arms. Formed in 1919 Narcompros's Department of Arts and Architecture (its head was I.V. Joltovskii) as artistic and architectural centre of the Republic resumed the work of further organization of the Museum of Architecture. The department proceeded from the necessity of advancement of architectural knowledge, of the implantation of architecture's outlines into the multitude: "The epoch of the Revolution has shaken the populace and awaken the consciousness of the common people, and, doubtless, it opens before the architecture a possibilities unknown until now. This is a hard and long work that needs a union of all our architectural powers in pursuit of this high aim. The first step will be an organization of the specialized State architectural museum."

The idea of foundation of the Museum of Architecture was picked up only after the formation of the Union of Soviet Architects. In June 1933 at the meeting of its executive board (including L.A. Vesnin, V.A. Vesnin, I.I. Leonidov, M.Ya. Ginzburg, D.F. Fridman, K.F. Alabyan) after the report of I.V. Rylski a decision was taken to found in Moscow a Museum of architecture. A Commission of the new organization consisted of architects I.V. Rylski, V.S. Balihin, V.N. Semenov, A.V. Schusev, historians of architecture D.E. Arkin, D.M. Aranovich, as well as representatives of the Institute of architecture and construction, the Mossovet, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Permanent All-union Building exhibition, the Narcompros and of the magazine "The Construction of Moscow". It was decided to use the Building exhibition as a basis for the future museum: a new institution had to become a part of it. But this decision was corrected after the creation of the All-Union Academy of Architecture under the aegis of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR in October 1933. It had to be a main Soviet establishment with educational and research functions in the sphere of architecture. As a part of it a Museum of Architecture was founded. It was situated on the territory of the former Donskoy Monastery. The gathering of collections for the new museum began with a search for original projects, drafts, engravings in the State Museum Fund, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts, the State Museum of History, the State Hermitage and in other museums, institutions and private collections. The collections of the Moscow Archaeological Society (1909-1919) and of the Central State restoration workshops (1917-1934) became an important part of the Museum's collections and laid the foundation of the country's greatest fund of the dimensions' plots of the monuments of the Russian architecture. A lot of materials of the Soviet architecture's history (projects for the grand contests, in the main) had come to hand from the archive of the Permanent All-union Building exhibition. Thereby the Museum turned to the modernity.

The State Museum of architecture while incorporating in 1964 funds of the Schusev Museum of the Russian architecture (the latter was founded in 1945 as a part of the Gosstroy's system) has come into a name of A.V. Schusev. For more than a half a century in the Museum's buildings in the Vozdvijenka street and in the Donskoy Monastery various research had been carried out, new exhibits had been gathered, numerous expositions had been held. Many digests of scientific works, reports of the conferences, monographs, catalogues of the Russian and international exhibitions - these are the evidences of the high professionalism of the Museum's staff who had dedicated their lives to research and popularization of the Russian architecture's history. The difficulties of the last decade have only slowed down the pace of the Museum's development, but they haven't extinguished the scientists' sincere affection to the objects of their research. Today, at the beginning of the third millennium The State Museum of architecture has taken up an active attitude. Now it is intended not only to realize traditional museum programs but also to turn the Museum into an up-to-date centre of research and arts. Among the new directions of its work is an organization of architectural contests and conferences, promotion of the restoration of architectural monuments and foundation of museums of the outstanding Russian architects.

Based on the materials of I.A. Kazus'