The Russian State Literature Museums were established July 16, 1934 on the initiative of Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich (1873 - 1955), who became its first director and chief collector. Back in April 1931 a prominent political activist, a member of the newspaper "Iskra", "Pravda" and "Vpered", one of the founders of the first museum of Leo Tolstoy in St. Petersburg Bonch-proposed the creation of the Central Literary Museum, "the likes of which will not be not only in the USSR but also in the whole world. " It was assumed that it will be collected, "scattered and scattered manuscripts of literary works and biographical information" and will be kept "everything that is available in various museums in Moscow" in the literary subjects.