The Ostafyevo Estate is located 30 km to the south from Moscow and it belongs to the number of the most famous estates around Moscow. In 1792 it was bought by Aleksey Vyazemskiy. A lot of outstandings figures of Russian culture were often visiting this place. Since 1804 a well-known historian N.M. Karamzin was living there for 12 years, being married to Vyazemskiy's daughter. In Ostafyevo he was writing his famous "History of the Russian State".

In the 20's and 30's years of the XIXth century the famous poet A.S. Pushkin used to visiting the estate often.
The room of Karamzin became memorial in some time. Prince Peter Vyazemskiy and his successors stored invaluable relics in there. But the charges connected to purchase of a collection and actual creation of a museum absorbed a significant part of means of the family. The situation changed happily in 1868, when the count Sheremetev married the daughter of Pavel Vyazemskiy, Yekaterina. Sergey Sheremetev quite realized the significance of the estate and done a lot to preserve it. In 1899, on centenary of Puskin's birthday, Sheremetev has announced the estate to become a popular museum.

In 1929 a decision to close the museum in Ostafyevo was made. The exhibits from the estate collection were distributed among other museums in and around Moscow. But in 1989 the Ostafyevo museum was re-opened, and today the estate is one of the centres for study of the estate culture of Russia.