The building of the Zoological Museum on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, constructed between 1896 and 1902, is considered one of the outstanding works of architect Konstantin Mikhailovich Bykovsky. He created one of the first buildings in Moscow specifically designed for museum exhibitions and storage of collections.

The museum consists of two wings arranged at a right angle along Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street and Nikitsky Lane. At the intersection of these streets is a semi-rotunda, one story high, adorned with Tuscan half-columns. The decor of the building features animalistic and plant motifs.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow University was founded in 1791 as the Cabinet of Natural History at Moscow Imperial University. Its development was significantly influenced by renowned scientists such as zoologist G.I. Fisher, founder of the Russian school of ecologists K.F. Rulie, as well as professors A.P. Bogdanov, A.A. Tikhomirov, G.A. Kozhevnikov, and others.

In the 1920s, the working premises of the Research Institute of Zoology were located here, and in the 1930s, the museum became part of the Biological Faculty of Moscow State University. In the following years, its administrative structure and subordination changed multiple times, and in the early 1990s, it was granted the status of a Research Zoological Museum.

The Zoological Institute became the setting for Mikhail Bulgakov's novella "The Fatal Eggs." In this work, Professor Persikov invented a red ray that accelerates the development of organisms. Contemporaries saw in the novella a satire on the communist idea: in the image of Persikov, one could discern Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, while the red ray symbolized the socialist revolution, which, promising a better future, brought terror and dictatorship.

Today, the Zoological Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University continues to operate in this building.