Abstract: The object of the research is the Russian museums of dolls. The first museums like that were opened in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of developing pedagogics and professional puppet theatre. These have been actively developing at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries and are still continuing to develop now. Globalisation processes, in particular, growing popularity of doll arts and collecting fashion contribute to the development, too. The author of the present article pays attention to the variety of museums of dolls which is caused by different origins of dolls and numerous functions performed by the doll in general. The phenomenon is studied in terms of cultural research and the author analyzes classifications and typologies used by the museum community. The author emphasizes the importance of regular review and change of these classifications. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that despite the increasing interest in dolls as a collecting and exhibition item, there haven't been any researches devoted to Russian museums of dolls, in particular, their classification. As a result of the research, the author offers her own classification criteria depending on the origin of museums and contents of collections. In particular, the author describes four types of museums of dolls: museums of dolls that mostly exhibit art collections; museums of dolls and toys devoted to childhood studies; museums of theatre puppets run by the puppet theatres; and traditional museums of dolls. However, this classification should be extended in the future taking into account the growing number of such institutions.