Lubyanskaya Square

This name emerged in the 15th century when people from Novgorod settled here. They named the settlement after the street of Lubyanitsa in their native town.

Another version says that the name originated from the bast-fibre buildings that once occupied the place (from the Russian word "lubyanoy" meaning "bast-fibre"). Be that as it may, this word has inspired fear in millions of people until recently. The offices of the NKVD, and later the KGB occupied the house in the square with the grey granite facade. It is currently the headquarters of the FSB. In front of it there used to be a monument to F.E.Dzerzhinsky whose name the square bore in Soviet times. In August, 1991, after the putsch the 12-metre-high bronze monument was thrown off its pedestal and taken to Skulpturgrad (Town of Sculptures) situated in the Arts Park on the Krymskaya Embankment.

The Cathedral of God's Wisdom (197) appeared on Lubyanskaya Square in Moscow in the end of 15 century. In August 2001 the cathedral was re-built with the help of Russian Federal Security Service.

As a piece of post-modern art appears the museum, that was opened in January 1974 in the house in Lubyansky passage, in which the great poet Mayakovsky lived and worked since 1919 till 1930. It is the V. Mayakovsky State Literary and Memorial Museum. (165)

Let us go down from Lubyanskaya Square along Teatralny Passage. Note the monument to Russian printing pioneer Ivan Fiodorov on the left. It was created by S. Volnukhin who captured the moment of the first printing in Russia. It happened 400 years ago. Ivan Fiodorov is holding a printing plate in his left hand and reads the imprint of a page from the "Apostle" attentively. Behind the monument there is Nikolskaya St. where the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Academy (Slavyano-Greko-Latinskaya) was located 130 years ago. Here, the first Moscow printing house - the Printing yard - was established.