In December 2025, it will be 200 years since the beginning of the thirty-year reign of Russian Emperor Nicholas I. This period was marked by many events that had a significant impact on the historical development of the country, including the fields of science, education and culture. The article provides a description and characterization of the University Charter (1835); features of the formation and activities of university museums are examined. A comparative characterization of museums focused on natural sciences, technology, and the humanities is presented. Methods of acquiring museum collections through expedition collections, purchases, and donations are discussed. The main forms of university museum activities, namely, research, educational, and outreach, are reflected. The most significant university museums of this period are identified.

The article presents the results of studies of a number of sections of Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) deposits in the Saratov Right Bank region (settlements Krasnyi Oktyabr’, Doktorovka, Kurdyum and Shirokoe), confined to the Yelshano-Kurdyum uplift. Oryctocenosis combines autochthonous (ichnofossils), subautochthonous (bivalves and gastropods) and allochthonous (ammonites, wood fragments) elements. Sedimentological and mineralogical indicators (ripple marks, desiccation cracks, wedge-shaped structures, cross-bedding, glauconite, and calcite veinlets), as well as fossil remains and features of their taphonomy, allow us to diagnose the coastal ecosystem of the epicontinental sea basin. In the ecosystem format, we see a variety of physico-geographical situations: areas of the bottom which are periodically actively bioturbated and hydrodynamically transformed into mature hardground; zones of active hydrodynamics with the formation of cross-bedding; and zones of subaerial surfaces with the possible development of stick soils. Reconstruction of the paleoecosystem is complicated by the presence of a number of natural facts that have not been unambiguously interpreted, images of which are given in the article. The studied sections are of interest from the standpoint of geoheritage. Selected natural facts are actively involved in the development of a number of geoscientific university museums.

The article analyzes geotourism perspectives based on natural history museums. Significant trends for the integrated development of geotourism and natural history museums are formulated. These trends allow revealing prospective views on the tourist potential of the territory. In order to clarify the geotourism development potential at the place of the Earth’s geochronological key stages, several museums were analyzed in conjunction with the geotoponyms of geological systems in the world. A geoheritage interpretation model, correlating ex situ museums and in situ objects, is developed. It includes territorial aspects and substantive formats of interpretation, depending on the target audience and the format of interaction with geoheritage. Geoheritage evaluation includes three groups of criteria (scientific, educational and geotourism), each being estimated to summarize approaches for the museum representation. The criteria are ranged according to the comparison purpose of in situ and ex situ forms. The variety of geoheritage interpretation forms allows suggesting recommendations for geotourism development. One symbolically significant way is the museumification of in situ and ex situ objects to correlate the museum network and the network of protected areas as a complex tourist infrastructure. For the Perm Region as a historically significant place of the Permian geological system discovery, the priority is to develop a complex plan to integrate the possibilities of geoheritage representation through museum forms and in the natural environment. In view of the objective scientific data, the Perm Region has no GSSP of the Permian system; therefore the role of the “symbolic stratotype” should have the Permian Period Museum as the basic object of the geotourism infrastructure and the starting point of tourist routes. The supportive role in the Permian geoheritage preservation and representation belongs to the network of municipal and university museums.

The paper is devoted to the influence of outstanding Russian scientists Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev and Vasily Vasilyevich Dokuchaev on the formation of the views of their brilliant student Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, his formation as a great Russian thinker and naturalist on a planetary scale, as well as their further creative interaction.

The article tells about the creation of a museum at the Institute of Developmental Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in a virtual format and about plans to open a permanent exhibition in a hall. The history of the Institute and the contribution of its outstanding employees are briefly considered.

The article discusses various forms of local history activities to be implemented in the interaction of natural science museums and secondary schools. The practical experience of employees of the Earth Science Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University in the field of local history is described, namely: conducting a professional development program (Summer School), thematic classes with students, and consultations on the creation of educational expositions in school museums. A thematic plan of the section “Nature of the Native land” in a school museum is given. The prerequisites for successful cooperation between natural science museums and secondary schools in the joint implementation of local history activities are substantiated.