Lubyanskaya Square (, Lubyanskaya ploshchad'), or simply Lubyanka in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

lies about north-east of

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...

. History first records its name in 1480, when Grand Prince

Ivan III Ivan III Vasilyevich (russian: Иван III Васильевич; 22 January 1440 – 27 October 1505), also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus'. Ivan served as the co-ruler and regent for his blin ...

of Moscow, who had conquered

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

in 1471, settled many Novgorodians in the area. They built the church of St Sophia, modelled after

St Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod The Cathedral of Holy Wisdom (the Holy Wisdom of God) in Veliky Novgorod is the cathedral church of the Metropolitan of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy. History The 38-metre-high, five-domed, stone cathedral was built ...

, and called the area ''Lubyanka'' after the Lubyanitsa street of their native city.

Name

The square was renamed Dzerzhinsky Square for many years (1926–1990) in honor of the founder of the Soviet security service

Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( pl, Feliks Dzierżyński ; russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and official, born into Poland, Polish n ...

Square center

A fountain used to stand in front of the building, at the center of the Lubyanka Square. In 1958, the fountain at the center of the Lubyanka Square was replaced by an 11-ton statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky ("Iron Felix"), founder of the Cheka, made by

Yevgeny Vuchetich Yevgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich (–12 April 1974) (russian: Евгений Викторович Вучетич; uk, Євген Вікторович Вучетич, ''Evhen Viktorovych Vuchetych'') was a prominent Soviet sculptor and artist. He is ...

. On October 30, 1990, the

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

organization erected the

Solovetsky Stone The Solovetsky Stone (russian: Солове́цкий ка́мень) is a monument on Lubyanka Square in Moscow to the victims of political repression. It is in close proximity to the Lubyanka Building, headquarters since 1918 of Soviet security ...

, a monument to the victims of the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

, a simple stone from the

Solovki prison camp The Solovki special camp (later the Solovki special prison), was set up in 1923 on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea as a remote and inaccessible place of detention, primarily intended for socialist opponents of Soviet Russia's new Bolshev ...

in the

White Sea The White Sea (russian: Белое море, ''Béloye móre''; Karelian and fi, Vienanmeri, lit. Dvina Sea; yrk, Сэрако ямʼ, ''Serako yam'') is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is su ...

. In 1991 the statue of Dzerzhinsky was removed by liberal protesters following the failure of the coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, and the square's original name was officially restored.

Lubyanka Building

Lubyanka Square is best known for the monumental

Lubyanka Building The Lubyanka ( rus, Лубянка, p=lʊˈbʲankə) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB, and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Ne ...

, designed by and constructed from 1897 to 1898. Originally built for the insurance company ''Rossiya'', it later became better known for housing the headquarters of the KGB in its various incarnations. the

Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) RF; rus, Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ России), Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Feder ...

(FSB) occupies the building.

Detsky Mir

Opposite the FSB building stands the massive Central Children's Store, known by its historical name of

Detsky Mir Children's World (russian: «Де́тский мир») or Detsky Mir is a Russian children's retailer. Founded in June 1957, as of March 2022, the company had 1125 stores. It is the largest children's goods retailer in Russia and the CIS, with ...

(russian: Де́тский мир, "Children World"),

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

's largest children's store, built between 1953 and 1957, and fully restored in 2014. It hosts in its main atrium the world's largest mechanical clock movement: Raketa Monumental.

Metro

The

Moscow Metro The Moscow Metro) is a metro system serving the Russian capital of Moscow as well as the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first unde ...

station Lubyanka operates under Lubyanka Square.

Gallery

Image:Lubyanka-ca1910.jpg, Lubyanka Square in the early 1900s Image:RIAN archive 11720 Dzerzhinsky Square.jpg, Dzerzhinsky Square in 1966, with the statue of

Image:KGB-Lubyanka-1983.jpg, KGB building in 1983 Image:Loubianka square memorial.jpg, The

monument Image:Lubyanka CDM view from Panoramic view point 05-2015 img01.jpg, A less common view

References

External links

{{Commons category Squares in Moscow