Vitebsk Regional Museum was opened in the town hall of Vitebsk. Top of the museum's collection was laid in 1868. Then it opened the first museum in Vitebsk at the Regional Committee.

In 1918, the collection of AR Brody ushered in Vitebsk Provincial Museum. On the establishment of the museum it issued an order number 3407 of the provincial department of education. Brody, who gave the museum his collection became the first director of the provincial museum. The exposition located in a former residential housing Basilian monastery. Even then, there were more than 10 thousand exhibits.

November 4, 1924 the museum passed the town hall, has been appointed the new director II Vasiljevic and renamed the Museum Belgosmuzey. April 27, 1927 opened a new exhibition, which occupied three floors of City Hall. Funds of the museum there are 30 thousand exhibits.

In 1929 the museum collection was enriched Ural gems, French prints, porcelain from around the world, the best canvases of Belarusian artists. However, in 1930 all the museum staff have been laid off due to a low level of ideological work with the population. From this day all the original pictures were replaced with pictures and photographs, as in a museum, a large number of communist propaganda in the form of posters. The museum was named the socio-historical and tells the story of his native land from the perspective of socialist ideology.

During the Great Patriotic War Museum was lucky - his funds had to be evacuated to the rear - in Saratov. During the war, a lot of the exhibits were collected, illustrating the feat of the Belarusian people during the Nazi occupation. Immediately after the war was opened an exposition dedicated to the war years.

Now the Vitebsk Regional Museum has an interesting collection: archeology, military (World War II) and natural.