The paper describes the history of meningioma surgery at Burdenko Neurosurgical Institute, analyses of accumulated series of patients and assesses effectiveness of different techniques for meningioma diagnosis and treatment of. We analyzed 15413 patients with meningiomas operated in Burdenko Neurosurgical Institute from 1932 to 2011. Mathematical analysis was performed using Statistica 6.0 program. Mortality rate during World War II reached a disastrous level of 45,8%, in 21st century it is below 1%. Temporary and permanent morbidity has also decreased. While in 1961 Karnofsky performance score was 71, in 2011 it became 83. The probability of postoperative tumour recurrence also diminished, from 40% in 1960-s to 29% in 1996 and presumably to 25% nowadays. Independent factors that influence the risk of recurrence are primary gross total resection, grade of anaplasia and radiation therapy. However, unreasonably aggressive surgery leads to significant increase of morbidity. Further improvement of surgical results in patients with meningiomas depends on implementation of new technologies for neurovisualization, abandoning extensive surgical approaches whenever possible, finding the "balance" between radical removal and expected functional outcome, wider application of radiosurgery and three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy.