The question of creating the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812 arose even before the end of the corresponding military campaign, but the implementation of the project had to be postponed for as much as 200 years. On the eve of the two-century anniversary of the war of 1812, it was decided to create such an institution on the basis of the State Historical Museum.

The museum's exhibits are divided into five sections. One of them covers the period between 1801 and 1812; the second covers in detail the Patriotic War of 1812 — its geography extends from Smolensk to the Neman; the third is called “The Road to triumph. Foreign campaigns of 1813-1814”; the two remaining sections are of a general nature.

The exhibition halls contain personal belongings of contemporaries of events and war veterans — swords and sabers, accessories and uniforms, orders and autographs, church utensils, optical devices, military musical tools, coins, books and household items. Fine art is represented by paintings by Vasily Vereshchagin, drawings by Plie and watercolor works by Georg Emanuel Opitz. Battle installations, icons, caricatures, lubok and portraits of participants in the confrontation — the museum contains real treasures of Russian culture. Horse ammunition, weapons, uniforms and insignia of the Russian and French armies allow us to imagine what the soldiers who stood on different front lines looked like and fought. Napoleonic and Russian orders, memorials of commanders, imperial and diplomatic seals — the exhibition space contains a huge number of authentic artifacts that can decorate the world's best museums.