There are 224 thousand items in the holdings of the National Museum of Karelia. The majority of the collection consists of historical everyday items that reflect different sides of political, economic, social and cultural life of the region in 19th – 20th centuries.

The holdings of the Museum also include:

• collection on natural sciences, including geology;
• archeological collection, including about 1000 items from the Middle Ages;
• ethnographical collection;
• collection of art. The works of the most interest in this collection is definitely the works of H.Vogeler. In his works the stages of socialist transformations of Karelia in 1930’s are shown. The art works on the topic of the Kalevala epos are also very valuable.

Moreover, the Museum owns:

• written manuscripts, including about 200 orthodox and Old Believer’s blackletter books going back to 16th – 18th century;
• photographs, including the photographs taken at the construction of the Murmansk railway during the period of World War I (650 photographs) as well as photographs from folk and ethnographical expeditions of 1920’s, construction of the White Sea – Baltic Canal in 1931-1933 (5500 photographs) and about 2 thousand photographs taken during the Great Patriotic War.