The Vetluga Local History Museum is the first of the district museums established in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Its status was defined by a resolution of the Vetluga Revolutionary Military Council on October 28, 1918, which provided for the opening of a local history museum. The founder and first director was Ivan Ivanovich Razumov. In the initial period, the museum had an educational focus and included several departments: geography, physics, geology, and natural sciences. In 1930, the museum began to reorient itself towards local history.

Among the museum's exhibitions are: "The Animal and Plant World of the Vetluga Region," "The Archaeological Past of the Region," "Life and Everyday Life of Vetluga Peasants," "Orthodox Vetluga," "Vetlugans during World War I," "Establishment of Soviet Power in the Vetluga District," "There is a Memory that Will Not Be Forgotten," and "The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945." The exhibition hall features household items of the local nobility and weapons from the time of Peter I, which were donated to the museum from former estates and landowners' houses. Artistic exhibitions and various events are also held here.