The Russian Ethnographical Museum is situated in the eastern wing of the Mikhailovsky Palace, which was especially built for this purpose between 1902 and 1913. The museum started its history as the Ethnographical Department of the Russian Museum in 1905 to showcase the cultures of the various people of the Russian Empire, however it was only opened to the general public in 1923. In 1934 the museum became independent of the Russian Museum, being renamed in the State Ethnographical Museum of the Peoples of the USSR in 1948 and then the Russian Ethnographical Museum in 1992.  

The museum has various departments dedicated to Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Moldovans and the people of the Baltic, Caucasus, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Volga, Ural, Siberia and Far-East.