The article is centered at a case from the work of the Museum for the History of Religion of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., when the top managers of the Academy tried to put it out of the academic system. Founded in 1932, the Museum was regularly under criticism for not good enough research work. The reason was the very specific fot the Museum - on the point of view of the Academy’s top managers, the work of the Museum was connected more with the exhibition and educative activity, than the research one. The stenographic report of a meeting of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences from August 1937, which is published in the attachment, illustrates the conflict between the Museum and the top management of the Academy; it provides additional information on the history of the Museum and its activity, it reflects some complications of the process of the shaping of the Museum and searches for its place in the system of the Academy, as well as other problems - those which the research community faced at the epoch of the Great Terror.