Museums are one of the most important institutions in the system of preservation of cultural heritage. During periods of social and military conflicts, there are extreme threats of destruction of valuable collections and individual items as a result of acts of vandalism, looting, hostilities, unfavorable storage conditions, etc. The analysis of the historical experience of saving museum valuables in the conditions of revolutions and civil wars is relevant. The article examines the experience of the Perm Scientific-Industrial (Perm State) Museum against the background of the transformation of the imperial administrative and legal system into the Soviet one, the unfolding of the events of the Civil War in Russia (1918). The study is based on the principles of procedural and historical-anthropological methods. The source base of the work was a set of original documents (office materials; official correspondence with authorities, cultural institutions, etc.) from the funds of the State Archive of the Perm Region. The analysis of the sources showed that the activity of the Perm Museum in 1918 correlates with the general trends of the museum business of Russia at that time, but has a pronounced specificity. Significant problems were the lack of funds, material security, theft of exhibits, legal and administrative uncertainty. The museum staff managed to effectively interact with the authorities, which allowed them to get an additional building, increase the official status of the institution, and maintain the activity of educational work. In 1918 the museum's funds were significantly replenished due to the confiscated collections of the Church Archaeological Society and the library of the theological seminary, practices of documenting current events. The successful experience of the Perm Museum was largely due to the arrival of a new leadership, ready to experiment in the museum sphere and cooperate with the Bolshevik government.