They began with the establishment of a library and, in 1871, the Moscow city council set aside half a million rubles for the museum project.

The Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich Romanov chaired the committee that established the Polytechnic Museum, opening with an exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of Peter the Great.

[clarification needed][2] Shchurovsky travelled extensively throughout the Russian Empire, writing about its geology and inhabitants.

In 1871, Alexei Fedchenko named Mount Shchurovsky (Пик Щуровского, Pik Shchurovskogo) and its Shchurovsky Glacier (Ледник Щуровского, Lednik Shchurovskogo) at 39°36′N 70°36′E / 39.600°N 70.600°E / 39.600; 70.600 on what is now the Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan border in honor of G. E.

In 1882, the botanists Eduard August von Regel and Johannes Theodor Schmalhausen published Schtschurowskia, naming a genus of Central Asian flowering plants in the family Apiaceae in honor of G. E.