Starting in 1932 civil defense matters were performed by the Local Air Defense Units (Местная противовоздушная оборона PBO-C, Mestnaya protivovozdushnaya oborona PVO-S) under the nascent Soviet Air Defence Forces, which were transferred to the NKVD in 1940 (and served with distinction, together with the NKVD Fire Services Command founded in 1918, in the Great Patriotic War).

On April 17, 1991 the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Russia appointed Sergei Shoigu as Chairman of the State Committee for Extraordinary Situations (Государственный Комитет по чрезвычайным ситуациям, ГКЧС), which succeeded the RRC.

[6][7] On November 19, 1991 the State Committee was merged with the Headquarters for Civil Defense of the USSR (under the Ministry of Defense) to create the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence Matters, Extraordinary Situations and the Liquidation of Natural Disasters (Государственный комитет по делам гражданской обороны, чрезвычайным ситуациям и ликвидации последствий стихийных бедствий при Президенте РСФСР) and was subordinated to the President of Russia.

[8] On July 1, 2016, an EMERCOM firefighting Il-76 crashed after taking off from Irkutsk International airport while on its way to dump water as to help douse wildfires in Siberia.

He was appointed by President Yeltsin in November 1991 as Chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence Matters, Extraordinary Situations and the Liquidation of Natural Disasters.

President Yeltsin showed his faith in the importance of EMERCOM by designating Minister Shoigu a member of the Russian Security Council by Presidential Decree on February 1, 1994.

Yevgeny Zinichev tragically died on 8 September 2021, aged 55, during the filming of an interdepartmental exercise to protect the Arctic zone of Russia.