The Moscow English Club, the oldest aristocratic assembly in Moscow, was founded around 1770, during the reign of Catherine II, by foreigners living in Moscow, modeled on the aristocratic clubs of England. By the end of the 18th century. the club primarily united representatives of the Moscow nobility. In 1797 it was closed by Emperor Paul I and reopened only 5 years later, after the accession of Alexander I. During its long history, the club changed several addresses, until finally on April 22, 1831 it moved to a mansion rebuilt after the end of the war with Napoleon on Tverskaya street. The club existed here until 1917.

On March 21, 1917, the famous journalist and literary critic, director of the museum of the All-Russian Union of Cities, Vladimir Kranikhfeld, suggested that Nikolai Kishkin, Commissar of the Provisional Government in Moscow, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Moscow Public Organizations, “urgently convene a meeting of representatives of historical science and museums existing in Moscow for the purpose of scientific and practical development the question of creating a Museum of the Revolution in Moscow ”.

The first director of the museum was a doctor by profession, publicist, revolutionary, one of the organizers of the Moscow Labor Union (1893), professor of Moscow University Sergei Ivanovich Mitskevich (1869–1944). Since 1920, Mitskevich worked in the field of public education, where he held a number of leading posts, read a course of lectures on the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia at Moscow State University, and took an active part in the activities of the Istpart under the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Therefore, his appointment as director of the Museum of the Revolution was not accidental. Giving the museum the status of an institution of all-Union significance imposed corresponding obligations on it. At the first stage of activity, the main task was to show the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia, starting with the peasant uprisings of the 17th century and before the October Revolution of 1917.

On June 22, 1941, the Museum of the Revolution of the USSR was to open a renewed exposition for visitors. In 1940, during the reconstruction of Gorky Street near the museum building, half of each of the side wings was cut off, so the exposition had to be redone. But instead of the grand opening on June 23, 1941, an entry appeared in the main inventory book about the first wartime exhibit - a leaflet purchased in a store with the text of VM Molotov's radio speech. In the first months of the war alone, the staff was reduced by more than a third. Of those who were not drafted into the army, many left voluntarily, enrolling in the people's militia. Despite this, the team quickly solved the problem of restructuring the museum in accordance with wartime conditions.

The post-war reconstruction raised the question of the concept and chronological framework in accordance with which the museum should conduct its activities - to form funds, build an exposition. Anastasia Innokentievna Tolstikhina, who took office as the director of the museum in 1946, believed that the museum should show the events of the Great October Revolution and socialist transformations throughout the USSR. This opinion was supported by the museum staff. As a result, in February 1947, by decision of the Committee for Cultural and Educational Institutions under the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the concept and chronological framework of the museum were changed. He ceased to deal with questions of the history of the revolutionary struggle in Russia from the 17th century. and moved on to the history of Russian social democracy, the three Russian revolutions and the development of Soviet society. The materials of the funds that did not correspond to the new concept (30 thousand museum items) were transferred to the State Historical Museum, the Library of Foreign Literature and the Main Archive Department.

All the years of its work, the museum has been at the forefront of the country's political life. Its exposition was regularly updated and revised taking into account new views on history, assessments of events and statesmen, changes in topics for fund acquisition, and the emergence of technical innovations. However, this gradually led to a reduction in the area for exhibiting, and constant additions and improvements to the constructed sections of the exposition, work with different artists - to an excessive variety of design. In 1976, the collegium of the USSR Ministry of Culture made a decision to completely rebuild the exposition of the USSR Center for Contemporary Arts. The draft of the general design of the exposition was developed jointly with the Union of Artists and in 1977, in accordance with it, the section “USSR in 1926-1941” was built in the museum.

At the end of December 2014, a discussion platform "Tverskaya - XXI" was opened at the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, where, along with professional moderators, well-known politicians, public figures, scientists and representatives of the sphere of culture, students and young teachers of history, political science, sociology, philosophy and economy. In addition, within the framework of the Tverskaya - XXI site, an open lecture hall is operating and a monthly popular science magazine "Living History" is published, which in an accessible language tells about the events of the national history of the last century and a half.