Natural history collections have been developing in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for the last seventy years under specific conditions created by a totalitarian political and economic establishment. The principle lessons of this development are the following: 1) Natural history collections are a result of political ideology, but are heavily influenced by physicalist doctrine; 2) organizational and funding centralization makes natural history collections of peripheral status especially vulnerable; 3) one of the most influential factors is functional disintegration of the museums as natural history collections holders, which lead to the loss of professionalism in collection management; 4) historical (including cultural) environment is a prerequisite of normal natural history collections functioning; and 5) support of natural history collections means to support the people caring for them.