Kurgan Regional Natural History Museum is the largest depository of historical, cultural and natural collections in Kurgan region. The museum was opened in November 10, 1951 in the building of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky`s Cathedral. Since 1991 the main building of the museum has been placed in the former House of political enlightenment. At present the museum has 5 branches. It has permanent exhibitions of Nature and History departments of the museum. The planetarium, that first appeared in Kurgan in 1957, was again open for the visitors in April 2011. There are 177995 units in the museum funds- they make up 40 collections covering the period from the primitive society till the present day. The most valuable collections are those of manuscripts, printed books of the 17th century, rare books till the 18th century, postcards with the views of pre-revolutionary Kurgan (the XIXth – beginning of the XXth c.), clothes of the XIXth c., national and military clothes, arms and awards.

    More than 85 thousand people visit the museum every year. They are mainly children of pre-school institutions and schoolchildren. Especially popular are slide-lectures with the use of modern computer technologies and different museum events such as excursions with elements of dramatization, Lessons of Courage, educational games, museum festivals.

    Since 1993 the museum has been an ecological cultural centre with ecological clubs where popular lectures on ecology are delivered. Since 2003 on the initiative of Kurgan regional museum and Kurgan state university the scientific-practical conference called “Zyryanov Readings” has been held annually in Kurgan, it has become an All-Russia conference since 2006. The outcome of the conference is the journal with the collection of scientific articles