The first issue of "Works" published by the Research Institute of Museum Studies is devoted to the history of museum work in the USSR. The Institute issued "Fundamentals of Soviet Museology," in which the first attempt is made to determine the subject of museology, its meaning and boundaries. However, the further development of the theory of Soviet museology is hampered by the lack of knowledge of the history of domestic museum business, due to which the rich experience of our museums accumulated in the past remains unanalyzed and uncommunicated. Currently, the institute has begun to develop the main problems of the history of domestic museum business, bearing in mind the preparation of a generalizing work on the history of museum business in the USSR. The creation of this work, as indicated in the decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR of January 11, 1954, is the most important task of the institute.