The State Darwin Museum was founded in 1907 by Alexander Kots (1880-1964), a professor at the Moscow Higher Women's College. It became the first world's museum of evolution.

The basic purpose of the museum is development, preservation, and use of natural history collections, public education in the field of evolutionary theory, ecology, biological diversity, and conservation.

The pride of the museum is the world's biggest collection of aberrant mammals and birds, which has a unique scientific value. It includes 800 mounts with the rarest aberrations, and 34 pure albinos.

One of the largest collections of the museum is birds collection. It consists of many exotic species, such as hummingbirds and birds of paradise. There are specimens of the extinct Dodo, the Great Auk, the Passenger Pigeon, and the Majestic Huia in the Museum's collection. These specimens can be seen only in a few museums in the world.

The distinct feature of the State Darwin Museum is extensive use of wilflife art, in addition to regular specimens, in the exhibition. The founder of the museum A.Kots believed that wildlife art facilitates the public interest in biodiversity and its conservation. Today the Darwin Museum has the richest collection of wildlife art in Russia.

The museum has experienced many difficulties in the past. More than eighty years it had to wait for the construction of a new building. The valuable collections of the museum had been saved only because of the devotion and enthusiasm of the museum's staff. Premises given to the museum in 1913 in the building of former Higher Women's College (the Lenin Pedagogical Institute) were in unsafe condition by the 1980-s, and in 1984 the museum was closed for public.

Although the Government Decree for the construction of a new museum's building was issued as far back as 1926, the founder of the Darwin Museum A.Kots has not witnessed it. In 1960 Alexander Kots, who devoted all his life to the creation of the museum, was forced to say: "…because of sad reality all these expectations had not been realized...".

The construction of the current building of the museum began in 1974. However it lasted 20 years, and only in 1994 the museum moved to its new building on Vavilova Street.

The first new permanent exhibition was opened for visitors in September, 1995. The complete permanent exhibition was opened in 1997, at the 90th anniversary of the Darwin Museum.

Currently the exhibition area is 5,000 square meters, and more than 5000 specimens are displayed on three floors of the building. The museum's exhibition illustrates the origin, development and diversity of life on the Earth; the evolution of behaviour of animals, and their distribution on the planet; the origin of Man and history of his relationship with Nature.

Finally, visitors have an opportunity to get acquainted with the unique collections, which have never been displayed on a such large scale. The museum's exhibition, scientific and education activities continue to be developed. The brief list of the major achievements for the period 1996-2000 can be illustrated with the following figures:

- the Museum has organized 79 exhibitions.

- about 1 200 000 people have visited the museum.

- the museum's collections have almost increased by 33 000 specimens.

- For the first time in Russia the permanent exhibitions have been computerized. All computers in the museum are connected to the Internet. Since September, 1996 about 100 000 users have visited the web-site of the Darwin Museum on the Internet.

- Since October, 1996, for the first time in Russia the Darwin Museum has developed the Personal Training Guide booklet so that its visitors could learn about exhibitions themselves. Nearly 130 000 visitors have used the Guides to date.

For the first time in Russia temporary exhibitions have been accompanied by special cultural and educational programs. These programs include contests, lotteries and other activities for all ages. As a result, each visitor can become an active participant of the exhibition, demonstrating his abilities and talents.

The fast grows of the museum's programs and collections made the space shortage a problem once again. In 1994 the Moscow Government issued a Decree for the construction of an additional building for the Darwin Museum. Unfortunately, the construction is yet to begin. To the date a part of the collections remains to be moved from the old building to the museum's current building. Also, there are specimens that are kept in a hangar, i.e. practically on the street.

The new premises will house parts of the collections, two new exhibition galleries, and lecture halls for children (today children's programs are held in the foyer), cafe, and cloakroom for visitors. Both buildings will be connected by underground pass. In 2002, the museum will celebrate its 95th anniversary, and I hope that behind the windows of the museum we will see the construction of a long-awaited building by then.