The Museum of the Battle of Poltava on the Swedish Grave was opened on 26 June 1909 on the initiative of Ivan Pavlovsky, a history scholar at the Petrovsky Poltava Cadet Corps, with the assistance of the Poltava Church Historical and Archaeological Committee, Poltava Governor Count M.L. Muravyov, and the city’s public. I.F. Pavlovsky, a researcher of Poltava’s history, local historian, archivist, a well-known and respected person in the city at that time, whose heritage includes more than 150 different works, is rightly considered the ‘father’ of the museum. Working on the creation of the museum’s collection, I.F. Pavlovsky visited scientific institutions, archives, museums, and libraries; he also corresponded with the Royal Archives of Stockholm. Swedish officers A. Tama and Sparre provided the museum with portraits of Swedish generals, which had not been known in Russian publications until then. The Catalogue of the Museum of the Battle of Poltava on the Swedish Grave, published in 1910, contained 339 exhibits: portraits of Peter I, Charles XII, I. Mazepa, the command staff of both armies, paintings, engravings, weapons, and flags. Initially, it was planned to place the museum collection in specially designated rooms of the Sampsonian Church, but by the decision of the St. Petersburg interdepartmental commission, a small building was built for the museum according to the design of architect S.V. Nosov (east of the main entrance of the church). The October coup and the following Bolshevik invasion (1917-1921) had a strong impact on the museum’s activities. After several robberies, I.F. Pavlovsky transferred the rest of the collection to the Central Proletarian Museum of Poltava Region (now the V. Krychevsky Poltava Local Lore Museum), where it was listed as the Poltava Battle collection.

On September 23, 1950, the institution resumed its work under the name “Museum of the History of the Battle of Poltava”. In 1981, the museum and the complex of monuments related to the Battle of Poltava were declared the State Historical and Cultural Reserve “Battlefield of Poltava”.