The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography is almost exclusively known by its original name of the Kunstkamera.  It was founded by Peter the Great in 1716 as a cabinet of curiosities and the building where is it still housed was completed in 1727.  Peter the Great had a fascination for collecting examples of deformed human and animal deformities, included deformed foetuses, and not just out of morbid curiosity.  He hoped his collection would educate his people and dispel their superstitions by explaining why the deformities occurred.  

This collection became part of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography which was founded in 1879 and was expanded to detail the lives and traditions of various people of the world, including models wearing traditional national costumes.  However it is still the foetuses in formaldehyde which attracts most visitors to the museum today.