The Contemporary History Section is part of the Modern and Contemporary History Department, established in 1965. The long years of collecting activity of the museum curators covers the political, economic, cultural and everyday life of Ruse in the period of socialism and post-socialism. The newest tendency in the collecting work of the section is the recording of oral narratives from the period of socialism and democracy, using the "Oral History" method for their storing and examination. The overall fund collection of the section contains approximately 10 000 inventory pieces.

The section has no permanent exhibition, but presents different temporary exhibitions: “The Political Poster”, “125 Years of Maritime Fleet”, together with the Modern History Section and the Maritime Museum in Varna, etc.
The research activity of the specialists covers issues of the political, cultural and public life of Ruse and the region, as well as an ethnological research on the problems of the everyday culture of the industrial town.
The curators at the section "Contemporary History" in 2017 are Vladislav Atanasov and Iskren Velikov, both working at the section since 2009.