The Armory Chamber was named after the state treasury, which in 1720 included the Kremlin workshops. Since 1806, it has functioned as a museum, initially accessible to the nobility, and from 1918, to all who wished to visit. The collection is primarily composed of jewels that were kept in the royal treasury and the patriarchal sacristy for centuries, created in the Kremlin workshops, as well as gifts from foreign embassies. To house the collection, a building in the Russian-Byzantine style was constructed in 1851 on the Kremlin grounds, designed by architect Konstantin Ton.

The collection of the Armory Chamber began to form in the 14th century as a private treasury of the Moscow princes and tsars. With the expansion of the Russian state, the treasury also grew: in 1484, it was decided to build a separate building with a pyramidal roof between the Archangel and Annunciation Cathedrals for storing valuables. From that time, the institution began to be called the State Treasury, where all the treasures of the Moscow princes and the gold reserves of the Kremlin cathedrals were moved. The treasury lost its status as personal property and became an official state repository. It was replenished through territorial expansion, the property of disgraced boyars, gifts from foreign ambassadors, and presents from patriarchs.

After the revolution, the Soviet authorities created a Gokhran commission to seize items from the Armory Chamber's collection. By an act dated June 21, 1930, the 'Antiques' group seized more than 318 items for sale abroad, including eleven Fabergé Easter eggs. These actions are linked to the suicide of the director of the Armory Chamber, Dmitry Ivanov, in 1930. He had long resisted the seizure of valuables and, upon learning of the impending mass confiscation, left a suicide note stating: 'I did not embezzle, sell, trade, or hide the Chamber's valuables...'.