Pyrohivka settlement was first mentioned in 1627, as a feudal domain of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, though archaeological evidence at the site confirms that the territory of Pyrohiv had been settled as early as the Bronze Age.

In his memoirs, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR O. Lyashko called Tronko not only the initiator, but also the soul of the creation of the museum.

Tronko, in an interview, described some of these issues: "It so happened that in order to create an exhibit, a dismantled windmill was taken in a truck along Ordzhonikidze Street, past the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

"Dismantling, conservation, transportation, restoration and installation on the site of monuments of folk architecture (houses, farm buildings, wooden churches, windmills, etc.)

The documentation regulating the activities of the museum, in particular the Statute, was approved by the order of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine dated May 14, 2009 No.

The collection includes 40 000 items of household and traditional culture such as costumes, old textiles, embroidery, carpets, ceramics, metal handicrafts, woodwork and glassware as well as musical instruments, paintings and houseware.

The museum's plan divided its grounds into several functional zones: the exposition area, where the monuments of ethnography and monuments of traditional folk architecture were located; ethnographic-scientific, including exhibition pavilions, a restaurant with approximately 300 seats, a singing field for 10,000 spectators, the research institute of ethnographic museology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; and industrial, including workshops for restoration work.

Local volunteers and modern Ukrainian artisans selling their wares dress in old-style clothes and demonstrating the use of authentic everyday items to visitors.

According to then Institute Director Hanna Skrypnyk and the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergencies, the fire was the result of arson, set to cover up the theft of a valuable collection of eighteenth-century cassoni which were exhibited in the burned building.

The land usage in the vicinity of the museum has become the centre of scandal as the local authorities approved several commercial construction projects, including a luxurious high-rise entertainment complex and a gasoline filling station.