The Yelabuga State Architecture and History Reserve Museum was established based on Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) No.269 dated 30 August 1989 and equivalent Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (TASSR) No.67 dated 19 February 1990.
The Yelabuga State Reserve Museum was given the status of a federal historical and cultural heritage site by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No.176 dated 20 February 1995.
The Yelabuga State Reserve Museum has a protected area of 491.5 hectares. As of today, the area’s 184 historical monuments and cultural heritage entities include six sites of federal significance, 106 sites of regional significance and 72 sites of local significance.
The Museum comprises 14 museum and exposition facilities; of them twelve were established from 2003 to 2009. The Yelabuga State Architecture and History Reserve Museum incorporates the I. I. Shishkin House Museum; the N. A. Durova Estate Museum; the M. I. Tsvetaeva Memorial Complex, which comprises M. Tsvetaeva Square with a bronze bust of the poetess, the M. Tsvetaeva Literary Museum, the M. Tsvetaeva Memorial House, where she spent the final days of her life, the Silver Age Library, the Portomoynya Museum and the poetess’s grave at Peter and Paul Cemetery; the V. M. Bekhterev Uyezd Medicine Museum; the Local History Museum Complex, which includes the Town History Museum, Interactive Workshops and the Traktir Theater Museum; the Art Salon; and the Yelabuga Gorodishche historical and archeological monument to medieval Bulgar culture.
The Yelabuga State Reserve Museum is part of the single federal register of tour operators.
The Museum organizes annual cultural events, specifically the All­Russian Spasskaya Fair, the Bell Ringing Festival, the International Contemporary Painting Symposium, the republic­wide children’s drawing competition “I Paint like Shishkin”. The Museum is also responsible for holding the biennial International Tsvetaeva Readings, which feature a ceremony to award the Marina Tsvetaeva Literary Prize. The Museum also plays host to thematic art projects and jubilee events dedicated to I. I. Shishkin, N. A. Durova, and V. M. Bekhterev. In 2009, the Yelabuga State Reserve Museum received the Russian Government Culture Award in recognition of its activities.
In 2010, the Yelabuga State Reserve Museum was named among the 25 finalists of the European Museum of the Year Award. Also in 2010, the Museum won the Yury Senkevich National Tourism Prize as the Best Regional Museum.
In 2012, the Yelabuga State Reserve Museum won the Grand Prix of the Intermuseum 2012 International festival and was named the Best Russian Museum of 2012.