The Museum of the History of the City of Kotovsk was founded in 1977 and was initially located in a small house on Kotovsky Street. In 1980, it was awarded the title of "People's Museum."

In 1981, the museum moved to the building of the fur shop, constructed in 1917 for the Tambov Powder Factory. This two-story stone building in the style of classicized eclecticism is a monument of local historical and cultural significance.

In 1996, the museum received a new status and became known as the Museum Historical and Educational Complex. Today, its collection includes more than six thousand exhibits in the main fund and over three thousand items in the scientific auxiliary fund. The collections include various historically valuable sources: documents, photographs, rare books, paintings, graphics, sculptures, decorative and applied arts, numismatics, ethnography, and the history of technology. The exhibition covers the history of the city of Kotovsk from 1914 to the present day.

Particular attention in the museum is given to household and craft items. The main part of the exhibition allows visitors to interact with the exhibits. As part of the program "Folk Costume, with Your Own Hands," interactive tours are conducted on the history of the settlement of the Tambov region and the folk costume of the Tambov province. Participants can familiarize themselves with elements of peasant clothing and learn to weave traditional folk belts.

Almost every month, new exhibitions open at the museum: artistic, historical-documentary, and educational.