Based on the new archive documents, the paper reviews the history of the Central Aeromuseum of the Society of Friends of the Air Fleet (ODVF) (now the Central House of Aviation and Cosmonautics) and analyzes the reasons behind the deterioration of the collection of this museum that for many years remained the only center for the history of aviation in the country. The paper demonstrates the impact of the 1937 repressions, the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945), the postwar campaign against cosmopolitanism, and the socioeconomic crisis of the 1990s on the fate of the museum and its collection.