Building. FSB on Lubyanka KGB building on Lubyanka

• Other names: KGB/NKVD/VChK
• Date of construction: 1898
• Architect, sculptor, restorer: A.V. Ivanov, N.M. Proskurnin, V.A. Velichkin, reconstruction by A.V. Shchusev
• Address: Bolshaya Lubyanka st., 2
• Metro: Lubyanka
• Coordinates: 37°37′42.03″E; 55°45′38.56″N

One of the most beautiful and ominous buildings on Bolshaya Lubyanka was built in 1898 for the largest insurance company "Rossiya".

The insurance company acquired the construction site in 1894 from landowner N.S. Mosolova. At the same time, with the permission of the authorities, all the old buildings were demolished, and in their place the architect A.V. Ivanov (author of the National and Balchug hotels), in collaboration with N. M. Proskurnin and V. A. Velichkin, built a new five-story building intended for rental. There were turrets on the roof of the house, and the central clock tower was decorated with two female figures, symbolizing Justice and Consolation. Across Malaya Lubyanka Street in 1900-1902, a second house was built in the same style as the first building. The author of the project was again A.V. Ivanov. The premises of both buildings were rented out. The first two floors were occupied by various shops and shops, and on the rest there were apartments, the rent of which was 2-3 times higher than usual in Moscow.

In 1918, when all insurance companies were liquidated and their property and real estate were nationalized, the building on Bolshaya Lubyanka was transferred to the Moscow Council of Trade Unions, but literally a few days later the Cheka moved in here. Until 1991, the former apartment building of the Rossiya insurance company remained the main building of the state security bodies of the RSFSR and the USSR.

By the end of the 20s, the department expanded, which required an increase in space. A new building in the constructivist style appeared in 1932-1933. The building, designed by architects A. Ya. Langman and Bezrukov, was attached to the OGPU house. At the same time, the main building was built on two floors. The next reconstruction designed by architect A.A. Shchuseva passed in 2 stages. The rebuilding and reconstruction of the right side of the building with the development of Malaya Lubyanka lasted from 1944 to 1947. The building acquired its modern appearance only in 1983, after another reconstruction carried out according to Shchusev’s idea.

Due to the location of the KGB building on Lubyanka Square, its name became associated with KGB structures and security services.

For a long time, a monument to the founder of the Cheka/GPU Felix Dzerzhinsky stood on the square. But after the fall of Soviet power, the sculpture was moved to the Park of Arts next to the Crimean Bridge. Closer to the building of the Polytechnic Museum, another monument was erected - to the victims of political repression. This stone was brought from the Solovetsky Islands, places of exile and imprisonment.

The Federal Security Service currently owns not only this most significant house on the square, but a number of other buildings in the neighboring blocks, where, among others, the FSB public reception is located.

The word "Lubyanka" became a household name in the Soviet Union and for a long time had an ominous meaning. A huge number of rumors, fables and secrets are associated with the building on Lubyanka. In Soviet times, they joked that the tallest building in Moscow was the KGB on Lubyanka. Like, you can see Siberia from his windows.

The main attraction and calling card of Lubyanka is the monumental old FSB building. This powerful organization has changed its name more than once and, like the legendary building itself, has acquired many rumors and legends. Foreigners enthusiastically listen to the guide’s stories about thousands of people tortured in dungeons, and Russians, out of habit, glance warily at the gray hulk, calling it “cursed house” or “state horror” behind its back. The history of the “Big House”, which has become a legend, is known to few, but it is no less colorful than the chronicle of domestic special services.

BLOODY MEMORY OF A PLACE

The territory between Lubyanka Square and the Sretensky Gate has been known since the 12th century under the name of Kuchkov Field and is associated with the name of the rebellious boyar Kuchka, who met Grand Duke Yuri Dolgoruky “very proudly and unfriendly”, for which he was put to death. So the first mention of Moscow followed the execution, and the severed head of the boyar fell on the site of the future capital. Old-timers assure: the shadow of the proud boyar still wanders the streets and alleys of Lubyanka. From time to time, strange “ball lightning flying straight out of the ground” is observed here. Since then, this place has been ominous and frightening.

Historians still argue about the name Lubyanka. According to legend, after the forced annexation of Novgorod, in order to destroy the overly independent spirit of the Novgorodians, Ivan III resettled more than three hundred of the most noble Novgorod families to Moscow, to the territory of the current Lubyanka quarter. In memory of their hometown, where Lubyanitsa Street was located, the settlers brought this name to the capital.

Here, during the Time of Troubles, the militia of Prince Pozharsky gave two victorious battles to the Polish invaders.

A lot of blood was shed, but they forever forgot the way to us. 200 years later, on the site of the courtyard of Prince Pozharsky, the estate of the Moscow Governor-General Count F.V. Rostopchin was located. In 1812, on the day of the abandonment of Moscow, the innocent young man Vereshchagin was torn to pieces by a brutal crowd. The count was frightened by the crowd gathered in front of his house and turned the switch, sacrificing an innocent man. While the crowd was dealing with the victim, the mayor ran away from the back porch.

In 1662, Lubyanka became the epicenter of the Copper Riot. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and 30 instigators of the riot were executed on Lubyanka Square - retribution overtook the rioters at the same place where they had done wrong. Again blood was shed at this place.

On Lubyanka, at the Varsonofevsky Monastery, a “poor” cemetery was built, where the rootless, the beggars and suicides were buried. In the basement of the “dead” barn, a deep pit with ice was built, where the bodies of the unknown dead were placed. Twice a year a priest came, served a memorial service for all the dead, and they were buried together in a common grave.

On the corner of Kuznetsky Bridge and Bolshaya Lubyanka in the 18th century. The huge possession of Saltychikha, the “tormentor and murderer”, who tortured up to one and a half hundred serfs, began. In the depths of the courtyard stood her dungeon house, guarded by fierce guards and hungry dogs. She usually began to “punish” the yard girls herself, beating her with a rolling pin, sticks, logs, or a hot iron. Then, on her orders, the grooms beat the offender with whips and whips. In cases of special frenzy, she starved them, tied naked girls in the cold, doused them with boiling water, and tortured them with hot tongs. “A freak of the human race,” wrote Catherine the Great at Saltychikha’s verdict.

After the trial and imprisonment of Saltychikha in the Ivanovo Monastery, this blood-drenched possession wandered from hand to hand until it passed to Doctor Haaz, who became famous for his mercy towards the poor. For a quarter of a century, the holy doctor “bleached” this land, atonement for someone else’s crime.

Rumor has it that Saltychikha’s countless treasures are hidden in the Lubyanka cellars. Today the site of the legendary estate is the property of the FSB.

THE EYES AND EARS OF THE REGIME

On the corner of Myasnitskaya and Lubyanka was located the terrible brainchild of Peter I - the Secret Chancellery. In 1762, the reigning Catherine II established the Secret Expedition, which was located here at the beginning of Myasnitskaya.

Detective master Stepan Ivanovich Sheshkovsky was appointed chief secretary of the Secret Expedition. They feared him and hated him fiercely, calling him “ubiquitous” behind his back. He created such an agent network that he could report to Catherine at any hour about the actions and plans of her subjects. The chief secretary was escorted through dark secret passages to the empress’s personal apartments, where she listened to his report. Catherine, with all her tolerance, sometimes lost her temper when she heard gossip about her person from Sheshkovsky. She even issued a special “Decree on not talking too much,” in which it was strictly forbidden to spread rumors that “discredited the honor and dignity” of the empress. But sometimes even this did not help curb tongues. And then Catherine sent for Sheshkovsky.

He created a whole system of interrogation with bias, about which horrors were told. Everyone was afraid of Stepan Ivanovich’s “polite” voice: talkers and society ladies, liberals and gamblers, masons and debtors. Everyone had sins and everyone believed that Sheshkovsky knew about these sins. They said that even high society ladies tried the whip from his hands for gossip. The chief secretary carried out the interrogation in a room filled with icons, and during groans and soul-tearing screams, he read prayers. Evil tongues whispered that for bribes he was exempt from punishment and in this way acquired several houses in both capitals. He ordered the construction of basements and torture chambers in these buildings.

Rumor had it that in the office of the “omnipresent” there was a chair of a special device. As soon as the guest sat down in it, the secret mechanism latched, and the prisoner could not free himself. At Sheshkovsky’s sign, the chair lowered to the floor. Only the head and shoulders of the culprit remained above, and the rest of the body hung under the floor. There the servants took away the chair, exposed the punished parts and flogged him diligently. The performers did not see who was being punished. It all ended quietly and without publicity. Not a single nobleman dared to complain to the empress, because to do this he would have to admit that he was flogged like the last man. After such a humiliating execution, the guest laid out everything that the chief secretary required.

But there was a man who managed to take revenge for his insulted honor. He forced Sheshkovsky into a terrible chair, slammed it, and the chair and its owner collapsed. The servants were accustomed to heartbreaking screams, and did their job with “honor.” The rumor about the embarrassment of the “omnipresent” spread throughout Russia. Superstitious Muscovites assured that the underground spirits of Moscow, annoyed by the atrocities of the formidable nobleman, took revenge on him for the innocently shed blood.

LUBYANSKY PERFUME

Shortly before the revolution, the famous archaeologist Stelletsky carried out excavations in the basement of the Church of the Grebnevskaya Mother of God, which stood on Lubyanka Square, and discovered an underground gallery and white-stone secret passages there. Under the stone floors, walled up brick crypts, coffins, women's wigs, a silk shroud, shoes and a golden cross were found. Under the top row of burials from the 18th century. discovered two more levels of graves (XVII and XVI centuries).

The king of reporting, Gilyarovsky, said that during the demolition of the “house of horrors” at the beginning of the 20th century. Gloomy cellars with skeletons on chains opened up, and in the walls there were stone bags with the remains of prisoners. An underground passage clogged with earth led him to one of the Prisons of the Secret Order, where dungeons and torture chambers were discovered. Arches, rings, hooks. When they were tortured with passion in these dungeons, the screams of the unfortunate people reached the Kremlin. At night, Muscovites saw some luminous reflections on the walls of the building. Experts explained that it was the spirits of the prison, unable to withstand the suffering of people, who came out. It was rumored that at night ghosts of tortured and secretly buried prisoners could be seen here.

The temple was demolished hastily, at night, timing its death to coincide with May 1, 1935, exactly on Walpurgis Night. Mine No. 14 of Mosmetrostroy passed through the dungeon of the church. Underground passages to the basements of the Lubyanka (including the legendary building of the security officers) were discovered. During the construction of an underground KGB garage not far from the place where the church stood, two secret passages were found, lined with white stone, stone bags and torture chambers. In the 1980s, a huge building for the KGB Computer Center was built on the site of the temple. The center's security guards have repeatedly complained about incomprehensible midnight sounds coming as if from underground, and inexplicable luminous reflections in the labyrinth of Lubyanka cellars.

According to folk legends, with each new move of a formidable institution, old ghosts and spirits moved after them. It was rumored that a special type of evil spirit had evolved that not only responded to the groans and cries of the martyrs, but also gained strength from their sounds. After the old building was demolished, the spirits “screaming and groaning” moved into the neighboring building of the Cheka-GPU. Although the security officers loudly declared that they did not believe in any devilry, and at night they sometimes shuddered from the groans coming from the basements. They tell how “little People’s Commissar” Nikolai Yezhov, hearing suspicious rustling noises at night, fired a revolver into the dark corners of his office. When Yezhov was arrested, they found bullet holes in the floor and walls of the office.

The famous security officer Genrikh Yagoda was a fierce enemy of superstitions and “mystical dope,” however, according to rumors, he also fought the “Lubyanka spirits,” secretly from his subordinates splashing his own poison on the floor and walls of his offices. Back in 1933-1934, Yagoda, a former pharmacist, organized a secret laboratory in the depths of the OGPU-NKVD for the production of poisons to eliminate “enemies of the people”, first abroad and then within the country. At Lubyanka, special poisons were created that led to instant or rapid death with imitation of the symptoms of other diseases. It was rumored that a few hours before his arrest he suddenly heard a mysterious quiet voice: “Break your bottles, you won’t need them anymore.” After his arrest, many glass shards were found in his office.

Lavrentiy Beria proved himself to be an unbending atheist. Mysterious moans, sighs and rustling noises did not bother the new People's Commissar. In such cases, he began to read poetry or sing loudly. And with General Viktor Avakumov, the Lubyanka evil spirits established familiar relations. He loved to drink alone in his office at night and always left an unfinished bottle of vodka or cognac on the cabinet. In the morning this bottle, of course, was empty.

In the famous house on Lubyanka, inexplicable strange phenomena are still observed today: strange shadows crawl along the walls, the phone rings in a voice that is not one’s own, or business papers suddenly end up in the wrong folder. Employees who have retired to the reserve tell in secret how some of their former colleagues secretly sprayed their office “in all four corners” with alcoholic drinks or holy water: just in case.

GOSS FEAR OR GOSUZZHAS?

In March 1918, the Cheka together with the government moved from revolutionary St. Petersburg to Moscow. Soon the word “Lubyanka” acquired an ominous sound. The faithful guards of the revolution - the security officers - moved into the building of the former insurance company (SO) "Anchor" on Bolshaya Lubyanka, 11. Here, on the 2nd floor, there was the office of its first chairman - F.E. Dzerzhinsky, in which there was a huge, heavy-duty steel safe. It still stands in the same place. One day, the hard work of the first security officer was interrupted by a hand grenade suddenly flying into the window. Dzerzhinsky quickly jumped out from behind the table and instantly disappeared into a metal safe. The explosion that followed broke glass and damaged furniture and walls. But the safe did not cause any harm. According to legend, it was after this miraculous rescue that his comrades began to call their boss “the iron one.” And only later biographers substantiated this pseudonym with the iron steadfastness of a knight of the revolution.

With the light hand of the mystic security officer Gleb Bokiy, in 1920 the Cheka and later the KGB settled in Moscow on Lubyanka Square in the building of the former Rossiya insurance company. Here, in a former hotel, hidden in the depths of the courtyard, is located the famous “Nutryanka” - the Internal Prison of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD. Muscovites began to carelessly joke: “There was Gosstrakh, but now it’s State Horror.” The building, which previously belonged to the Rossiya Society, kept all of Russia in fear.

By the end of the 20s, the security officers became crowded within the walls of the legendary house, and the building was reconstructed. Directly behind it, on the side of Furkasovsky Lane, a new building was built, shaped like the letter W in plan, as if saying “Sha!” to everyone who came here. The Inner Prison was also reconstructed - 4 more floors were added to it. The architect solved the problem of prisoners walking in an original way, by arranging six exercise yards with high walls right on the roof of the building. Prisoners were brought here in special elevators.

In Moscow in the 1930s, oddly enough, they continued to joke. For example, like this: “Which building is the tallest in Moscow? Answer: Lubyanskaya Square, 2. From its roof you can see Kolyma.”

In the neighboring outbuildings there were Gusenkov's tavern and Generalov's store, famous for its freshest products. They say that subsequently the investigators devoured sandwiches with black caviar and ham in front of the hungry interrogators, swearing to them that all they had to do was sign everything and they would bring them the same things.

In 1940-1947, the security officers again became cramped, and another reconstruction began according to the design of the venerable architect, creator of the Lenin Mausoleum A.V. Shchusev.

In 1961, the Inner Prison ceased to exist. The last prisoner seen by its walls was the American spy pilot Harry Francis Powers. Then part of the prison was converted into a canteen, and the remaining cells were made into offices for KGB officers. At the end of the Andropov era, Lubyanka Square was finally taking shape. On the left, on the site of the bloody Saltychikha estate, a new monumental building of the KGB of the USSR was built, where the leadership of the department moved. And on the right - the KGB CC has grown.

In 1926, immediately after the death of F.E. Dzerzhinsky, the square and Bolshaya Lubyanka Street were renamed in his honor. In 1958, at the height of the “thaw,” a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected in the center of the square named after the first security officer. The monument stood for exactly 30 years and 3 years - in August 1991 it was overthrown to the jubilation of the crowd. Now he stands on Krymsky Val, surrounded by defeated comrades. The square was returned to its old name - Lubyanskaya.

In the next issue of “Through the Looking Glass” we will talk about the terrible secrets of the Lubyanka, the labyrinth of “horror and blood” and the mystery of the death of “Iron Felix”.

Building on Lubyanka. Modern appearance after reconstructions of the 1940s (under Shchusev) and 1980s

State security building on Lubyanka was the main building of the state security bodies of the RSFSR and the USSR from 1919 to 1991. Currently, it is part of the complex of buildings of the Federal Security Service of Russia on Lubyanka Square, at the beginning of Bolshaya Lubyanka Street (building 2). At the same time, now the main building of the FSB is a gray administrative building built in the early 1980s on the opposite side of the street (Bolshaya Lubyanka, building 1/3).

Pre-revolutionary history

House of the Rossiya insurance company before the revolution. Postcard

At the end of the 19th century, the Rossiya insurance company, being a large company with a board in St. Petersburg, acquired for 475 thousand rubles in silver from the titular adviser Mosolov a plot of land overlooking Lubyanka Square, with a total area of ​​1110 square fathoms with all buildings. The Moscow authorities allowed the insurance company to demolish all the buildings and Rossiya announced a competition for the best architectural design of the future building. The project of the architect N. M. Proskurnin was recognized as the best and the construction of building 1 began based on it. Bolshaya Lubyanka itself by that time was already occupied by 15 offices of insurance companies, so Rossiya decides to buy another corner plot, also facing Lubyanka Square. Thus was born the idea of ​​building house 1 and house 2 in the same style on neighboring plots, separated by Malaya Lubyanka Street, which then began from Lubyanka Square. The famous building 2 was built in 1897-1900 by the architect A.V. Ivanov, author of the National, with the help of Proskurnin in the neoclassical style with neo-baroque details. House 2 faces Bolshaya Lubyanka at its side. House 1 and 2 on Bolshaya Lubyanka were apartment buildings owned by the Rossiya insurance company. Both buildings were rented out to Rossiya for apartments and retail space. Among the stores are a bookstore (Naumova), sewing machines (Popov), beds (Yarnushkevich), a beer shop by Vasilyeva and Voronin. The apartment building had 20 apartments, 4-9 rooms each, the rent of which was 2-3 times more expensive than other apartments in Moscow. Geneticist Vladimir Efraimson (who later went through the camp) was born in this building. The house on Lubyanka brought “Russia” 160 thousand rubles of annual income.

Main State Security Building

In December 1918, all private insurance companies were liquidated, and their property was nationalized, including Rossiya. In May 1919, they first decided to give the house at Bolshaya Lubyanka, 2 to the Moscow Council of Trade Unions, but just a few days later representatives of the NKVD of the RSFSR moved in, evicting all the tenants. In September 1919, part of the former house of the Rossiya insurance company was occupied by workers of a new service - the Special Department of the Moscow Cheka, and then the entire house was given to the Central Office of the Cheka (previously, since March 1918, located in the building on Bolshaya Lubyanka, 11). From that time on, the house on Lubyanka Square (in 1926-1991 - Dzerzhinskaya) passed to all its successors - the OGPU until 1934, then the NKVD and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (during the unification of the departments of internal affairs and state security), the NKGB and the MGB (during the existence of separate state security departments) , and since 1954 the KGB of the USSR. After 1991, the main Russian intelligence services were located in the building, changing their official names (since 1996 - FSB). Thanks to this building the word Lubyanka became a household name and gained fame as a designation for the Soviet state security agencies and the internal prison at Lubyanka.

Since 1920, the building on Lubyanka housed an internal state security prison, expanded in the 1930s. Among the famous prisoners are Boris Savinkov (died in the building on Lubyanka), Sidney Reilly, Nikolai Bukharin, Osip Mandelstam, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (who portrayed her in the novel “In the First Circle”), Vladislav Anders, Konstantin Rodzaevsky (shot in the building), Raoul Wallenberg (possibly died or was shot in the building, but his exact fate is unknown), Janos Esterhazy, Zoya Fedorova.

As the seat of the state security apparatus, Bolshaya Lubyanka Street and Lubyanka Square in Soviet times bore the name of the founder of the Cheka, F. E. Dzerzhinsky.

Evacuation and execution of prisoners of the Inner Prison

This order, on the personal instructions of Beria, was prepared within 24 hours by the head of the investigative unit for particularly important cases of the NKVD of the USSR, Lev Vlodzimirsky, then approved by the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Bogdan Kobulov, and agreed with the Prosecutor of the USSR, Viktor Bochkov. Based on these agreements, Lavrentiy Beria signed an extrajudicial order for the execution of 25 prisoners:

“Instruction No. 2756/B from the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR to an employee of special assignments of the special group of the NKVD of the USSR on the execution of 25 prisoners in the city of Kuibyshev. October 18, 1941

Having received this, you are invited to go to the city of Kuibyshev and carry out the sentence - capital punishment (shoot) against the following prisoners ... "

List of prisoners executed in Kuibyshev and evacuated from Lubyanka prison:

• Stern, Grigory Mikhailovich - Colonel General, Head of the Main Air Defense Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Loktionov, Alexander Dmitrievich - Colonel General, since 1940 - commander of the troops of the Baltic Military District.
• Smushkevich, Yakov Vladimirovich - lieutenant general of aviation, assistant to the chief of the General Staff of the Red Army for aviation, twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Savchenko, Georgy Kosmich - Major General of Artillery, Deputy Head of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army.
• Rychagov, Pavel Vasilievich - Lieutenant General of Aviation, Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Sakrier, Ivan Filimonovich - division engineer, deputy chief of armament and supply of the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Force.
• Zasosov, Ivan Ivanovich - colonel, temporarily acting as chairman of the artillery committee of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army.
• Volodin, Pavel Semyonovich - Major General of Aviation, Chief of Staff of the Red Army Air Force.
• Proskurov, Ivan Iosifovich - Lieutenant General of Aviation, Chief of Staff of the Red Army Air Force, Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Sklizkov, Stepan Osipovich - brigade engineer, head of the Small Arms Directorate of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army.
• Arzhenukhin, Fedor Konstantinovich - Lieutenant General of Aviation, Head of the Military Academy of Command and Navigation Staff of the Red Army Air Force.
• Kayukov, Matvey Maksimovich - Major General, Adjutant General to the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR.
• Sobornov, Mikhail Nikolaevich - military engineer of the 1st rank, head of the experimental department of the Technical Council of the People's Commissariat of Armaments of the USSR.
• Taubin, Yakov Grigorievich - designer of small arms and cannon weapons, head of the Special Design Bureau No. 16 of the People's Commissariat of Armaments of the USSR, creator of the world's first infantry automatic grenade launcher.
• Rozov, David Aronovich - Deputy People's Commissar of Trade of the USSR.
• Rozova-Egorova, Zinaida Petrovna - student at the Institute of Foreign Languages, wife of David Rozov.
• Goloshchekin, Philip Isaevich - Chief Arbiter of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
• Bulatov, Dmitry Alexandrovich - first secretary of the Omsk Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
• Nesterenko, Maria Petrovna - aviation major, deputy commander of a special purpose regiment, wife of Pavel Rychagov.
• Fibikh-Savchenko, Alexandra Ivanovna - wife of Georgy Savchenko, housewife.
• Weinstein, Samuil Gertsovich - Deputy People's Commissar of the Fishing Industry of the USSR.
• Belakhov, Ilya Lvovich - director of the Institute of Cosmetics and Hygiene of Glavperfumera.
• Slezberg, Anna (Khaya) Yakovlevna - head of the "Glavpischearomatmaslo" People's Commissariat of Food Industry of the USSR.
• Dunaevsky, Evgeniy Viktorovich - literary worker, translator from Persian.
• Kedrov, Mikhail Sergeevich - member of the Presidium of the USSR State Planning Committee, director of the Military Sanitary Institute.

Reconstruction of the building and expansion of the complex

Reconstruction of the KGB building in 1983. The asymmetrical façade, characteristic of the building in the 1940s-1980s, is visible. During this period, the left half of the building (covered by scaffolding) more closely retained the appearance of the beginning of the century

As the intelligence apparatus grew, expansion of premises was required. In 1932-1933, according to the design of architects A. Ya. Langman and Bezrukov, a new building in the constructivist style was added to the OGPU house. The W-shaped building faced Furkasovsky Lane with its main facade, and the rounded corners looked at Bolshaya and Malaya Lubyanka. . At the same time, house No. 2 was built with two floors. This was required by the expansion of the internal state security prison.

Under People's Commissar Lavrentiy Beria, a decision is made on the next expansion of the building. The reconstruction project was entrusted to the famous A. Shchusev. The architect comes up with the idea of ​​a major reconstruction and expansion of the building: to combine house 1, built by Proskurnin, and house 2, built by A.V. Ivanov. The 1939 project provided for the unification of buildings with a common main facade on Lubyanka Square and the transformation of part of Malaya Lubyanka from Lubyanskaya Square to Furkasovsky Lane into the courtyard of the building. In January 1940, the sketch of the future building was approved by Beria. But the war prevented the start of a major reconstruction of the building. Work on the finishing and reconstruction of the right part of the building (former building 1) began in 1944 and was completed in 1947. The left part of the building, although it was increased by 2 floors back in the 1930s, largely retained the historical appearance of the beginning of the century, including even some architectural elements. The building remained asymmetrical until 1983. Only then were the works according to Shchusev’s idea completed and the building received its modern symmetrical appearance. Simultaneously with this last reconstruction of the main building, two new KGB buildings appeared on Lubyanka in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Bolshaya Lubyanka Street runs from Lubyanka Square to Sretensky Gate Square. Its history is rich in events and goes back several centuries.

Origin of the street name

There are several versions of the origin of the toponym “Lubyanka”.

The name may have come from:

From the tract, mention of which is found in chronicles in the 15th century;

From the word “bast” - the inner part of the bark of trees and shrubs;

From the Baltic root “lut” - to peel, peel;

From Novgorod's Lubyanitsa street: during the time of the Novgorodians' resettlement to Moscow, they renamed part of the then-called Sretenki street to Lubyanka.

Renaming a street

Bolshaya Lubyanka changed its name more than once, but its original name was Sretenka, which it received in the 14th century, in honor of the “meeting” of Muscovites with In those days, Moscow could have been invaded by Tamerlane’s troops, and to protect the city from this disaster, it was brought icon. The Muscovites’ veneration (cannotation) of the icon took place near the church in the name of Mary of Egypt, which was located on the territory of modern Lubyanka Street. Moscow managed to avoid Tamerlane's raid, and the entire street was built at the meeting place and the entire street was named in honor of this event.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the street began to be called Bolshaya Lubyanka, and in 1926 it was renamed Dzerzhinsky Street. In 1991, it was returned to its previous name - Bolshaya Lubyanka.

The main memorable dates in the fate of the street

Since the founding of the Sretensky Monastery, believers have been marching in religious processions along the street and square. The monastery and churches of Sretenskaya Street were very revered among the believers of Moscow and pilgrims from other cities.

In 1611, fierce battles took place on the street, the most intense and bloody of which was near the Church of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple opposite the estates of Prince Pozharsky. Pozharsky himself led the attacks and was seriously wounded.

In 1662, the “Copper Riot” began on this street, a riot that engulfed all of Moscow.

The famous route of M.V. Lomonosov from Kholmogory to Moscow went along Sretenka Street (in 1731).

In 1748, there was a very strong fire in Lubyanka, which burned about 1,200 houses, 26 churches and killed about 100 people.

The Moscow fires of 1812 did not affect the street.

In the 19th century, the street turned into the main shopping point of the city, and by the end of the century it was completely filled with insurance agencies and apartment buildings.

The street suffered great losses in the 20th century. After the October Revolution, churches in the name of Mary of Egypt and the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple were completely destroyed. Sretensky Monastery lost most of its buildings and churches, was abolished, and was returned to the church only in 1991.

Almost the entire building at the beginning of the street, where there were houses of church ministers, a confectionery shop, an optical store, a jewelry store, a hunting store and a watch store, etc., was destroyed.

Since 1920, all buildings on the even side of the street were occupied by state security agencies. In the 30s, large-scale construction began on a complex of existing FSB buildings, which occupy an entire block. In 1979, the FSB building was built on the odd side of the street.

On the rest of Bolshaya Lubyanka Street, buildings from the 17th-18th centuries and the end of the 19th century have been preserved. On the street there is a square formed on the site of the demolished Church of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Temple, it is called Vorovsky Square, and there is also a monument to V.V. Vorovsky (USSR Ambassador to the Scandinavian countries, killed by the White Guards in 1923).

Attractions

Bolshaya Lubyanka Street in Moscow is the place where NKVD buildings and noble estates, scientific institutions and monastic buildings are closely intertwined. This is a place where almost every house is a landmark with its own destiny.

Sretensky Monastery

It was built in 1397, and in 1930 most of its buildings were destroyed to the ground. Those buildings that have survived housed a school during Soviet times. The monastery was returned to the jurisdiction of the church only in 1991. Currently, this is a functioning monastery, on the territory of which a cross has been erected in honor of the heroes of the War of 1812 and the victims of the NKVD executions of the 30-40s. The temple contains the relics of the great Orthodox saints Seraphim of Sarov, Nicholas the Wonderworker, and Mary of Egypt.

FSB building

The building was built back in 1898, one of the most beautiful and most sinister buildings in Moscow. Initially, the building was a tenement house for an insurance agency, but during the revolution the premises were occupied by the Cheka. Later, precisely because of the location of their headquarters on Lubyanka, the street began to be associated with KGB structures and cause fear among Muscovites. Currently, the building does not look as ominous as it used to, but there are still legends and rumors surrounding it.

Orlov-Denisov Estate

In the 16th century, this building housed the stone chambers of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. At the beginning of the 18th century, the main house was rebuilt to house the Mint.

In 1811, Count F. Rostopchin became the owner of the estate.

In 1843, the mansion was bought by Count V. Orlov-Denisov (hero of the War of 1812), who rebuilt the building, adding two outbuildings.

Cathedral of the Presentation of the Icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir

The cathedral was built in the 17th century on the site of a temple (built in 1397). The cathedral was erected at the expense of Tsar Fedor III in honor of the raid of Tamerlane’s troops.

City estate of architect V. I. Chagin

The building was built in 1892 and modified according to the design of the new owner - Russian and Soviet architect V. V. Chagin. The house has luxurious Venetian windows on the 1st floor and arched windows on the 2nd. Currently, the building houses a restaurant and office space. The object is classified as a regional architectural monument.

City estate of E. B. Rakitina - V. P. Golitsina

The building was built in the 18th century as the city estate of the Rakitins, in 1856 V.P. Golitsyn became the owner of the estate, in 1866 - P.L. Carloni, and in 1880 the Land Bank began to own the house. In 1914, Yu. V. Andropov was born here.

New FSB building

The new house, designed by Paul and Makarevich, was built in 1983. Previously, on the territory of the headquarters building there were the possessions of Prince Volkonsky, then the Khilkovs, Golitsyns. The new building forms a square with extensions that house the entire leadership of the Russian FSB.

Solovetsky stone

In the fall of 1990, a memorial sign to the victims of political repression was erected on Lubyanka Square. The boulder was brought from the Solovetsky Islands, on the territory of which a special purpose camp was located and where political prisoners were kept.

Lukhmanov's former house

The building was built in 1826 by order of the merchant Lukhmanov. During the years of the revolution, the building was the headquarters of the Cheka; until 1920, F. E. Dzerzhinsky met here. At the moment it is a cultural monument.

How to get to Bolshaya Lubyanka Street

Moskovskaya Street stretches from southwest to northeast, between Lubyanka Square and Sretenka Street. You can get to Bolshaya Lubyanka Street by metro, get off at the Lubyanka or Kuznetsky Most stations.

Under Catherine II, it was replaced by the Secret Expedition of Investigative Secret Affairs. There they tried cases of insulting the reigning persons, minting counterfeit coins and crimes against the state.

In the 1870s, the house on Lubyanka was bought by a wealthy Tambov landowner and engraver-etcher Nikolai Mosolov. Being a single man, he lived in a huge apartment in the main building, and rented outbuildings and courtyard buildings to the Warsaw Insurance Company, taverns and shops. Furnished rooms were located on the upper floors. They were occupied by former Tambov landowners, who lived in the remnants of the “redemption” from the peasants they liberated. And the owner supported the completely impoverished landowners at his own expense. In 1894, Mosolov sold all his possessions to the Rossiya insurance company.

Wanting to recoup the costs, the society turned to the authorities for permission to build a new stone four- or five-story apartment building with many apartments.

To satisfy this petition, the administration intends to move the water supply of Lubyanka Square to Shipovsky Proezd. This carrying of the water supply will improve the appearance of the area and there will be no never-drying dirt on it.

City authorities gave the go-ahead. N.M.’s project won the competition for the construction of a new building. Proskurnin, but it had to be corrected, since the Rossiya insurance company bought another plot of land. Then the idea arose to build two buildings in the same style on these plots, separated by Malaya Lubyanka. The work was entrusted to the experienced architect A.V. Ivanov (the author of the hotel project").

In 1898 the first building was ready. Its roof was decorated with turrets, and the central one (with a clock) was crowned with two stylized female figures - symbols of Justice and Consolation. The second four-story building was built along Malaya in 1897-1900.

In December 1918, private insurance companies were liquidated and their property was nationalized. They wanted to give the house of the Rossiya insurance company on Lubyanka to the Moscow Council of Trade Unions, but representatives of the NKVD of the RSFSR moved into it.

In September 1919, part of this house was occupied by workers of a new service - the Special Department of the Moscow Cheka. Then the entire house, along with the Imperial furnished rooms located inside the block, was given to the Central Office of the Cheka. The rooms of the tenement buildings were occupied by hundreds of employees, and the former Imperial rooms turned into the notorious internal prison. From that time on, the house on Lubyanka Square was constantly occupied by special services - the OGPU, the NKVD and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the NKGB, the MGB and the KGB of the USSR. The FSB has been operating here since 1996.

By the end of the 1920s, the department became cramped in Lubyanka, so behind the building of the Rossiya society, designed by A.Ya. Langman and I.G. Bezrukov erected a building in a constructivist style. The new building merged with the old building, which was added to 2 floors.

In 1939, Lavrentiy Beria instructed A.V. Shchusev to develop a project for the reconstruction of a house on Lubyanka. The architect proposed to unite the buildings separated by Malaya Lubyanka and create a courtyard in them. Construction was interrupted by the war, so the reconstruction of the right side of the building was completed only in 1947. The left side retained its 19th-century appearance until 1983.

In 1961, the Lubyanka internal prison was closed. Her last arrest was the American spy pilot Harry Francis Powers. Then part of the prison was rebuilt into a canteen, and the remaining cells were made into offices for KGB officers.

During the years of mass political repression, the word “caused fear: it was here that those suspected of crimes against the Soviet regime were brought. Their destinies were decided in the basements of the Lubyanka, and, according to legend, prisoners walked on the roofs awaiting their fate. Because of this, in Moscow in the 1930s they joked that the tallest building was building 2 on Lubyanka Square, since Siberia and Kolyma could be seen from its roof.

Suspects were kept in this prison only during the trial. At the same time, the numbers of the cells were assigned differently, and the prisoners did not understand where they were. There were voids in the walls, so the suspects did not have the opportunity to knock in Morse code. And behind the scenes, this building was called “the damned house,” and they even joked that “there was Gosstrakh, but it became Gosuzhas.”

They say that......when a state of siege was introduced in Moscow on October 16, 1941, echelons of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR went to Kuibyshev (the alternate capital). Not only property and employees were removed, but also important political prisoners.
...the chief secretary of the Secret Expedition was Stepan Sheshkovsky. He was feared and hated, called “omnipresent.” He created such an intelligence network and interrogation system that he could report to Catherine I at any time about the actions and plans of her subjects. The interrogation took place in a room with icons, and while the defendants moaned, Sheshkovsky read prayers. There was a special chair in the office: as soon as the guest sat down in it, a secret mechanism latched, and the prisoner could not free himself. At Sheshkovsky’s sign, the chair was lowered under the floor, only the head and shoulders remained at the top. The servants removed the chair, exposed the parts to be punished, and flogged him diligently. The performers did not see who was being punished. After the humiliating execution, the guest laid out everything that was required. But there was a man who managed to take revenge. He forced Sheshkovsky into a chair, slammed it, and the chair and its owner fell through. The servants did their job to perfection, and rumors of the chief secretary’s embarrassment spread throughout Russia.
...during the demolition of the “house of horrors” at the beginning of the 20th century, they found the gloomy basements of the Lubyanka with skeletons in chains and stone bags with the remains of prisoners.
...Nikolai Yezhov, hearing suspicious rustling noises, fired a revolver into the dark corners of the office. When he was arrested, they found bullet holes in the floor and walls.
...Genrikh Yagoda was an enemy of superstition, but he, secretly from his subordinates, sprinkled poison he personally prepared on the floor and walls of his offices. Back in 1933-1934, Yagoda, a former pharmacist, organized a secret laboratory in the OGPU-NKVD for the production of poisons to eliminate “enemies of the people.” At Lubyanka they created poisons that led to quick death while simulating the symptoms of other diseases. They said that a few hours before the arrest, Yagoda heard a quiet voice: “Break your bottles, you won’t need them anymore.” After the arrest, many glass fragments were found in the office.
...Lavrentiy Beria showed himself to be an unbending atheist. Mysterious moans, sighs and rustling noises did not bother the People's Commissar. On such occasions, he recited poetry or sang loudly.
...the evil spirits established familiar relations with General Viktor Avakumov. He loved to drink in his office at night and always left an unfinished bottle of vodka or cognac in the closet. In the morning the bottle, of course, was empty.
...Felix Dzerzhinsky was called “iron” not because of his stamina. There was a large steel safe in his office. One day the work of the first security officer was interrupted by a grenade flying into the window. Dzerzhinsky jumped out from the table and disappeared into the safe. The explosion broke glass, damaged furniture and walls, but did not harm the safe.
...strange phenomena are still happening today: sometimes strange shadows crawl along the walls, sometimes the phone rings in a voice that is not its own, sometimes papers end up in the wrong folder. And sometimes here you can see the ghosts of tortured and secretly buried prisoners. Retired employees tell how some of their former colleagues secretly sprayed the office with alcohol or holy water.