The history of the Bird Ringing Center began as early as the early 1920s, when, on the proposal of P.P. Sushkin, overall leadership of bird-marking work passed to the Central Station of Young Naturalists in Moscow (BYuN). In 1924, rings inscribed "Moskva, BYuN, number and series" were produced, marking the point from which the history of Russia's national Bird Ringing Center can be dated. N.I. Dergunov handled all the organizational work. In 1927, the Ringing Bureau acquired its first and only staff member and head, V.N. Vuchetich. From that point on, all coordinating work on bird ringing was concentrated in the Ringing Bureau. In 1934, the Ringing Bureau of the Biological Station of Young Naturalists was reorganized into the Central Ringing Bureau of the Committee for Nature Reserves under the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. From 1937 to 1941, four issues of the Proceedings of the Central Ringing Bureau were published, presenting work based on the ringing method. In 1940, A.V. Mikheev became head of the Ringing Bureau, and during this period the centralization of ringing across the country was completed. From the late 1940s, all rings were distributed only from the Bureau, which also concentrated all reporting. Between 1924 and 1949, about 300,000 birds of nearly 200 species were ringed in the USSR. During the war and in the post-war years, the Bird Ringing Bureau was supervised by G.P. Dementiev and V.F. Larionov.
In 1956, the Ringing Bureau was transferred to the Commission for Nature Conservation of the USSR Academy of Sciences and became known as the Center for Ringing and Marking of Birds and Terrestrial Mammals. From 1964, the USSR Bird Ringing Center became a member of the European Union for Bird Ringing (EURING). In 1964, thanks to the efforts of M.I. Lebedeva, the Bird Ringing Center moved to the Academy of Sciences, to the Zoological Institute, where the Center was curated by A.I. Ivanov.
From 1970, the Bird Ringing Center moved to the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Initially, the Bird Ringing Center was part of the laboratory of Dr. Sci. (Biol.) V.D. Ilyichev, and from 1984 it acquired independent status as a separate department of the Institute.