The initiative to establish the Lenin museum originated from the people of the city of Tampere. As early as the in the 1920s the students in the workers' institute discovered they were studying in the same Workers' Hall where Lenin had pledged to a delegation of townspeople to further the cause Finnish independence. In the same building Lenin and Stalin met for the first time in 1905.

In January 1946 the political climate in Finland finally allowed the Lenin museum to be opened. Since that time the museum has expanded its task to span a whole historical period: the era of Soviet socialism. The museum has undertaken to preserve, exhibit and research the objects, documents and symbols of the Soviet era.

Museum is owned by the The Finland-Russia Society and the museum receives funds for its upkeep from the state as well as from the city of Tampere. The Lenin-museum is a member of IALHI (International Association of Labour History Institutions.