Lenin Museum in Moscow, Biographical museum in central Moscow, Russia

The Lenin Museum occupies the former Moscow City Duma building on Revolution Square, designed by architect Dmitry Chichagov: a long red-brick facade with white stone trim, two steep pale-grey pitched roofs with metal ridge railings, pointed gables above small arched windows, and two large banners on the upper facade. Since 2012 the premises have housed the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812.

The first display opened on 3 May 1924 at 24 Bolshaya Dmitrovka, and on 31 May the 13th Party Congress ordered a museum section at the Lenin Institute. In 1931 it moved to 8 Bolshoy Znamensky Lane. From 15 April 1936 the Central Lenin Museum occupied the former Moscow City Duma on Revolution Square, with Naum Rabichev as first director. Closed as an independent institution on 12 November 1993, it became a branch of the State Historical Museum.

The museum's name changed from the Central Museum of V. I. Lenin to the Lenin Museum in November 1993. Its collection includes the printing layout of the first issue of Iskra, published in Leipzig, and the first decree of the Council of People's Commissars drafted and signed by Lenin. A death mask made by Sergey Merkurov in the funeral hall is also held.

The museum occupies the former Moscow City Duma building on Revolution Square (Voskresenskaya Square before 1918), in Kitay-gorod. Since 2012 the same halls house the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812, so check which exhibition is open before setting out. The entrance faces the square, near Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro.

Among the holdings is the death mask Sergey Merkurov made for Lenin's lying-in-state, alongside the printing layout of the first issue of Iskra, produced in Leipzig, and the first decree Lenin drafted and signed as head of the Council of People's Commissars. The collection also keeps more than 6,000 posters gathered from 80 countries.