The torrents of scorn poured on Mr. Yeltsin and his era by the Kremlin’s cheerleaders have given the complex an edgy appeal, helping it attract more than 700,000 visitors since it opened three winters ago.

It has become perhaps Russia’s most popular and certainly its most lavishly equipped outpost of alternative history and against-the-grain thinking.

On the surface, the complex — set next to a lake in the center of Yekaterinburg, the industrial city where Mr. Yeltsin lived for much of his life and where Czar Nicholas II and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks — is a showcase for how Russia has changed for the better under Mr. Putin.

It is shiny and modern, efficiently run and brimming with high-tech flourishes.

But at its core, the complex is a mournful requiem for the many things lost since Mr. Yeltsin stepped down on Dec. 31, 1999, and handed power to his chosen successor, Mr. Putin, with the words: “Take care of Russia.”