LUBYANKA

One of the central regions Moscow.

Lubyanka is Lubyanskaya Square, Bolshaya and Malaya Lubyanka streets, Lubyansky passage. The name goes back to the 15th century. There are two versions of its origin, and both of them are associated with a noun bast and adjective bast. The bast is the inner part of the bark, a fibrous tissue found under the bark of some trees: lindens and elm, as well as products from this material. The name Lubyanka arose either because wood was traded in the area of ​​​​the modern square, or because in this area at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. resettled the inhabitants of ancient Russian cities Veliky Novgorod and Pskov, and Novgorodians brought with them the name of the street of their city Lubyanica, which in Moscow began to be called according to the model characteristic of Moscow place names - Lubyanka (cf. Petrovka, Polyanka, Solyanka and other Moscow street names).
In the XV century. Pushechny was located in the Lubyanka area. In 1612, during Troubles, troops fought here with the Poles K. Minina and D. Pozharsky. In the 17th century on the Lubyanka there were settlements in which they lived archers. At the beginning of the XIX century. the square was cleared, earthen fortifications were removed and a fountain was built in its center, removed in 1935. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. built on Lubyanskaya Square Polytechnical Museum. At the beginning of the XX century. Many buildings of trading companies and joint-stock companies appeared on the Lubyanka. In 1903–1907 a monumental house of the Rossiya insurance company was built here. The area was expanded after the demolition of the Kitaigorod wall in 1934. In 1955–1957. On the site of the Lubyansky Passage, the Detsky Mir store was built.
At the end of Bolshaya Lubyanka Street was Sretensky (XIV century). Later Bolshaya Lubyanka became a shopping street. Since the 17th century stone buildings appeared on the street - chambers, and in the XVIII century. - stone noble estates ( cm.). Until the 19th century most of the houses were wooden. At the beginning of the XX century. were built tenement houses in which apartments were rented ( cm.) for rent, and the street basically acquired a modern look.
After the Soviet government moved to Moscow in 1918, the houses at the beginning of the street were transferred to the Cheka - the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( cm. Cheka), then KGB and FSB. Currently, the Federal Security Service owns a complex of buildings of the entire block between Bolshaya Lubyanka and Lubyanskaya Square.
In 1926–1991 Bolshaya Lubyanka Street and Lubyanskaya Square were named after the first chairman of the Cheka - F.E. Dzerzhinsky. In 1958, a monument to Dzerzhinsky by the sculptor was erected in the center of the square E.V. Vuchetich. The monument was dismantled in August 1991
In 1990, a monument to the victims of totalitarianism was opened in the square in front of the Polytechnic Museum: a boulder brought from Solovetsky Islands where was the place links and was one of the camps Gulag.
After the transfer of the complex of buildings located on the square to the Cheka, Lubyanka called this organization. Therefore, in colloquial speech, expressions are possible: work at the Lubyanka, that is, in the KGB or the FSB; taken away (taken away) to Lubyanka i.e. arrested.
Lubyanka Square:

"Lubyanskaya Square". Artist I. Pelevin. 1895:

Russia. Large linguo-cultural dictionary. - M.: State Institute Russian language them. A.S. Pushkin. AST-Press. T.N. Chernyavskaya, K.S. Miloslavskaya, E.G. Rostova, O.E. Frolova, V.I. Borisenko, Yu.A. Vyunov, V.P. Chudnov. 2007 .

Synonyms:

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

Origin of the street name

There are several versions of the origin of the toponym "Lubyanka".

The name may have originated:

From the tract, the 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 "bast" - to clean, peel;

From the Novgorodian street Lubyanitsa: during the time of the resettlement of Novgorodians to Moscow, they renamed part of the then-called Sretenka street into Lubyanka.

Street renaming

Bolshaya Lubyanka has 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 in order to protect the city from this disaster, icon. Muscovites worshiped (meeting) the icon near the church in the name of Mary of Egypt, which was located on the territory of modern Lubyanka Street. Moscow managed to avoid the raid of Tamerlane, and the whole street was built at the meeting place and the whole 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 former name - Bolshaya Lubyanka.

The main memorable dates in the fate of the street

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

In 1611, fierce battles took place on the territory of the street, especially strong and bloody of them was near the Church of the Introduction to the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos opposite the estates of Prince Pozharsky. Pozharsky himself led the attacks and was badly wounded.

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

Along Sretenka Street was the famous path of M.V. Lomonosov from Kholmogory to Moscow (in 1731).

In 1748, there was a very strong fire on Lubyanka, as a result of which about 1200 houses, 26 churches burned down and about 100 people died.

The Moscow fires of 1812 did not affect the street.

In the 19th century, the street became the main trading point of the city, and by the end of the century it was completely filled with agencies of insurance companies and tenement houses.

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

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

Since 1920, all buildings on the even side of the street have been occupied by state security agencies. In the 1930s, large-scale construction began on a complex of existing and currently 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 of the 17th-18th centuries and the end of the 19th century have been preserved. There is a square on the street, formed on the site of the demolished Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is called Vorovsky Square, and a monument to V. V. Vorovsky (the USSR ambassador to the Scandinavian countries, was killed by the White Guards in 1923) was also erected there.

sights

Bolshaya Lubyanka Street in Moscow is the place where the buildings of the NKVD 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 razed to the ground. In those buildings that have survived, a school was located in Soviet times. The monastery was returned to the church only in 1991. At present, 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 execution by the NKVD in the 30s and 40s. The relics of the great Orthodox saints Seraphim of Sarov, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Mary of Egypt are kept in the temple.

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 became associated with the Chekist structures and caused fear among Muscovites. Currently, the building does not look as sinister as before, but legends and rumors still circulate around it.

Manor Orlov-Denisov

This building housed the stone chambers of Prince Dmitry Pozharsky in the 16th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, the main house was rebuilt, placing the Mint in it.

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 by 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 the temple (built in 1397). The cathedral was built at the expense of Tsar Fedor III in honor of the raid of Tamerlane's troops.

City estate of the architect V. I. Chagin

The building was built in 1892 and modified according to the project 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. The building currently houses a restaurant and office space. The object belongs to the regional monuments of architecture.

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

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. Yu. V. Andropov was born here in 1914.

The new building of the FSB

The new house designed by Paul and Makarevich was built in 1983. Previously, on the territory of the headquarters building were the possessions of Prince Volkonsky, then Khilkovs, Golitsyns. The new building forms a square with outbuildings, where the entire leadership of the FSB of Russia is located.

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 whose territory a special purpose camp was located and where political prisoners were kept.

Former house of Lukhmanov

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 sat here. At the moment - a monument of culture.

How to get to Bolshaya Lubyanka street

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

Moscow legends. On the cherished road of Russian history Muravyov Vladimir Bronislavovich

Bolshaya Lubyanka

Bolshaya Lubyanka

OGPU building. Photo from the early 1930s.

Behind Lubyanskaya Square, the Troitskaya Road ran along the street, which is now called Bolshaya Lubyanka. At different times, these places and the street itself were called differently: Kuchkovo field, Nikolskaya street, Sretenskaya, Lubyanka, Bolshaya Lubyanskaya street, Dzerzhinsky street, or simply - Dzerzhinsky street, and, finally, again - since 1991 - Bolshaya Lubyanka.

Behind each of these street names is a certain period of its history, characterized by its features, events, special spirit and the appearance of the street: Kuchkovo Pole is not at all like Sretenskaya, or, in popular colloquial use, Ustretenskaya and simply Sretenka, and Bolshaya Lubyanka is not at all like Dzerzhinsky Street. The names of the street are like the names of the chapters of its history, and each chapter has left some kind of reminder of itself on the current, modern street, either a visible one - a building, the remains of old walls that have entered a new masonry, or an invisible one - on the pages of history and in legends, in people's memory, which is even more durable and stronger than stone.

Any person perceives everything from the angle of personal impressions and own experience, therefore events close in time usually close and distort the historical perspective in his mind to a greater or lesser extent. This happened with us, with generations whose life at least partially fell on the Soviet years. In our minds, the almost thousand-year history of Bolshaya Lubyanka, one of the oldest Moscow streets, is closed by the “most important, - according to V. I. Lenin, the combat organ of Soviet power” that settled on it in 1918 with its prisons, execution cellars, and torture chambers. - VChK, GPU, NKVD, MGB, etc., which at different times changed its name, but, in fact, remained unchanged. This "organization" built up the street and the surrounding alleys with its huge built-on, rebuilt and newly erected buildings "in the architectural - as a modern journalist called it - the style of the KGB." This journalist says: “A street lined with graveyard-coloured marble, a street of crematory proportions… The street had its own history, its own aesthetics, its own goodness. Already gone. And Muscovites bypass it.” It is fair to say, this is exactly how a Muscovite perceived it for many decades - both visually and psychologically. However, in recent years the social atmosphere in the country has undergone great changes. It turned out that what was ordered to be forgotten was not forgotten, what, they said, was no longer there, was preserved. And more and more manifested in memory and replenished with facts real story Bolshaya Lubyanka - a long and recent history ...

But it is also impossible to get rid of the gloomy ghosts of the Soviet Bolshaya Lubyanka - Dzerzhinsky Street.

Bolshaya Lubyanka begins with buildings "in the style of the KGB." On the right - house number 2 - the side facade of the overbuilt and rebuilt building of the Rossiya insurance company, which was already mentioned in the chapter "Lubyanskaya Square", and a huge new building attached to it in 1933, facing Furkasovsky Lane. The architect of the extension, and in fact a completely new building of the GPU, A. Ya. Langman (in collaboration with I. G. Bezrukov) can be considered the creator of the “KGB style”; the later buildings of this department, no matter what architects built them, adhered to this particular style. Immediately after the construction of the new GPU building, architectural criticism found certain shortcomings in it: a violation of the ensemble, a lack of unity in the design of the facade, and inconsistency with neighboring buildings. But the customer was satisfied, the critics were silent, and Langman received a new large order for the construction of the now residential building of the GPU in Zlatoustovsky Lane on the site of the demolished monastery.

A. Langman. The photo

In an essay about A. Ya. Langman, published in the collective work “Architects of Moscow. XX century ”(1988), the following feature of the architect’s creative activity was noted: “It is significant that we will not find the name of Langman among the names of participants in the most important all-Union competitions: he was busy with construction.” Indeed, Langman built both public and administrative and residential facilities, among them such large ones as the Gosplan building in Okhotny Ryad, the Dynamo stadium and others, without exposing himself to competitive risk, because, having oriented himself at the very beginning of his career in the capital (he arrived in Moscow from Kharkov in 1922), chose a powerful master and patron - the GPU.

In 1922-1923, Langman built a residential building for GPU workers in one of the lanes of the Lubyanka. “A small three-storey building, for several apartments, almost a mansion, - this is how an art expert describes it, - is characterized by a successful combination of constructivist refinement of volume and echoes of modernity in details. Two round bay windows are crowned with profiles, on the side facade there is a round window, one of the architect's favorite motifs.

In this house, which the Chekists among themselves called the "Yagodinsky mansion" (Milyutinskiy Lane, 9), lived the top of the GPU, only a few had access to it, and life in it was shrouded in mystery. However, as the old Chekist M. P. Schreider recalls, “most of the OGPU operatives of the late 20s somehow became aware of the chic lunches and dinners arranged at Yagoda’s apartment, where he, surrounded by his favorites, reveled in his ever-increasing fame. I had never been to Yagoda’s mansion, but back in the mid-twenties I heard from the head of the administrative and organizational department of the OGPU Ostrovsky that the head of the construction department of the OGPU, Lurie, who was Yagoda’s neighbor, rebuilt the dwelling of the future NKVD chief several times. In the late twenties, the families of the then head of the counterintelligence department of the OGPU Artuzov, the head of the secret department of the OGPU Deribas, the head of the foreign department Trilisser, and also Agranov lived in this house.

With this mansion, Langman satisfied the desire of the heads of the OGPU to live “beautifully” and comfortably, and after that he became a departmental architect of the organs. Judging by the descriptions, the apartments built by Langman for the Chekists were really good, comfortable, spacious (“for Moscow at that time they were, - the author of the essay believes, - a luxury”). But it should be noted that prison loners in the basements of the "house of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs" were also built taking into account "human psychology and anthropometry." They are deaf stone bags - "boxes" - with a wall-mounted stone couch, but so long that it is impossible to stretch out the legs, so the person could not sleep normally and, having missed the night, was broken by morning. He couldn't even tell the time of day. A steam heating pipe ran through the cell, turning on which the jailer could turn the cell into a disinfectant roast, and turning it off into a refrigerator. Langman was indeed both a “psychologist” and a “professional attentive to the wishes of the customer” - his “boxing” effectively had a depressing effect on the physical state, and on the psyche of the arrested.

The odd side of Bolshaya Lubyanka begins with a building that occupies a whole block and curves with two wings to Pushechnaya Street and Kuznetsky Most, also “in the style of the KGB”. On the wing facing Pushechnaya Street, there is a metal cast plaque with an inscription that euphemistically (as if every passer-by does not know what is in this building!) Explains the purpose of the building and gives the names of the architects: “Administrative building. Built under the guidance of architects: Paluy B.V., Makarevich G.B. November 1977, December 1982.

For the construction of this "administrative building", the old houses, which were based on buildings of the 17th-18th centuries, were demolished along the line of Pushechnaya Street, Bolshaya Lubyanka, Kuznetsky Most and in the courtyards.

From the place now occupied by these two buildings, starting the Bolshaya Lubyanka, the name of the street that still exists - Lubyanka - came from. The settlement of the Novgorodians, settled in Moscow by Ivan III, was located right here, and its main street ran perpendicular to the current Bolshaya Lubyanka - along Pushechnaya, on which stands the Sloboda Church of St. Sophia, and along the northern side of Lubyanka Square. The settlement to the north stretched to the Kuznetsky Most, then the Pskovians lived their settlement, whose settlement was called Pskovichi, and their church, now demolished, was called the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Pskovichi.

Church of the Entrance to the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Bolshaya Lubyanka. Photo from the beginning of the 20th century.

At the end of the 18th century, on the plans of Moscow, this perpendicular street was designated Lubyanka, and the current Bolshaya Lubyanka was written Sretenka, or Ustretenskaya street. But at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, the part of Sretenka from Lubyanka Square to the intersection with the current Kuznetsky Most, and which, like it, had a lively commercial character, was also called Lubyanka by Muscovites. By the middle of the 19th century, this name had spread further down the street to the Sretensky Gate Square of the current Boulevard Ring. At the same time, the definition Bolshaya was added to its name, so as not to be confused with the street laid parallel to it, also called Lubyanka in everyday life, and which, in turn, received a clarifying addition - Malaya. Within these boundaries Bolshaya Lubyanka still exists today.

However, to date, Bolshaya Lubyanka has left a living reminder of its old name: this Sretensky lane facing it from the right side. The names of Moscow streets and especially lanes, that is, passages and passages between streets, often indicated the direction - where they lead. So, at the beginning of the 16th century, in the will of Ivan III, one of the streets is indicated by the following description: "... which goes from the City ... to Sushchev on the Dmitrov road." This street, going "to the Dmitrov road", eventually became known (and is called now) Bolshaya Dmitrovka.

A similar way of forming the names of streets and alleys operated in the following centuries. In the “Description of the Imperial Capital City of Moscow” published in 1782, a number of lanes are listed that already existed then, but did not yet have stable names, and their initial, tentative names were built on the same principle as under Ivan III: “To Bely city”, “To the Old Zhivoderka”, “To the Pyatnitskaya Church”, “To the Three Ponds”. Later, the names appeared from them: Zhivoderny Old Lane on Tishinka (since 1931 - Krasin Street) and Trekhprudny Lane.

Sretensky Lane, going to Sretenka - the future Bolshaya Lubyanka - from Milyutinsky Lane, in the same reference book of 1782 is already indicated under this well-established name, which is evidence of its older origin, it appeared and got its name, apparently, in the 17th century.

In the 15th-16th centuries, between Lubyanka, a settlement of Novgorodians, and the Neglinnaya River, there was a Cannon Yard (the memory of this is the name of Cannon Street), cannons, bells, and monumental church chandeliers were poured on it. Here, the foundry master Andrey Chokhov cast the Tsar Cannon in 1586. In the second half of the 17th century, the Cannon Yard was moved to a new location - outside the Earthen City to the Red Pond, and the land was distributed to private owners for estates and gardens. So the courts of the princes Volkonsky, Golitsyn, Urusov and other nobility appeared here. At the beginning of the 19th century, the territory now occupied by the creation of Paluy and Makarevich belonged to Prince M. N. Golitsyn, who was not averse to new economic trends. He opened in Moscow the passage “Galleries with shops of M. N. Golitsyn” between Neglinnaya and Petrovka behind the Maly Theater (on the territory of the present Central Department Store), and also rebuilt his house on Bolshaya Lubyanka, which did not burn down in the fire of 1812, for trading premises.

Among the merchants who rented premises for their trade from Golitsyn and his heirs, there were those who left a memory in the Moscow chronicles. In 1813, the St. Petersburg Confectionery, which had existed for many decades, was opened here. In 1814, professor of Moscow University, chemist F.F. Reis opened a pharmacy and began selling mineral waters; mineral waters". With the name of Loder, the legend connects the appearance in the Russian language of the word “loafer” - this is how the people called those who were walking in the garden after drinking water, quite healthy-looking gentlemen. In the 1850s, in the house of Golitsyn on Bolshaya Lubyanka, a trade in seeds and seedlings of garden and agricultural plants by Karl Meyer, who had his own nurseries and plantations beyond the Semenovskaya Zastava, was opened, well known not only in Moscow. The street where the plantation was located was called Meyerovsky proezd until 1974 (since 1974 - Budyonny Avenue).

It was considered prestigious to have a trade on Bolshaya Lubyanka, the most successful firms opened their stores there. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new confectionery shop "Partnership Georg Landrin" appeared in the Golitsyn house.

The well-known Moscow baker Dmitry Ivanovich Filippov told the story of the emergence of this company to V. A. Gilyarovskiy, who retold it in the book “Moscow and Muscovites”.

G. Landrin's shop on Bolshaya Lubyanka. 1912 publicity photo

Here is the story.

A craftsman named Fedya worked for the confectionery of Grigory Efimovich Eliseev, the owner of a luxury store known throughout Moscow on Tverskaya. He produced lollipops, in which he was a great master: unlike the one-color lollipops of other handicraftsmen, he made two-color lollipops: one half is white, the other is red. Besides him, no one could do such things. Lollipops were then called Monpasieur and were sold wrapped in paper, wrapped by the handicraft manufacturer himself.

Once this Fedya put on a whole tray of his colored monpasieur and covered it with a tarpaulin, so that later he could wrap it in wrappers. But on that day, whether it was a name day, or something else - in a word, he went on a spree and forgot about sweets.

In the morning he jumps up with a hangover, sees - the tray is covered, tied up, picked it up and ran so as not to be late. Eliseev untied the tray and shouted at Fedya:

What did you bring me?!

Fedya looked at the goods and remembered that he forgot to wrap the sweets. He took the tray and carried it home, annoyed.

The tray is heavy, Fedya sat down to rest on a pedestal near the women's gymnasium. They run past the schoolgirl, looked into the tray.

How much candy?

Fedya did not immediately understand, preoccupied with his own thoughts, that they were asking him, and the schoolgirls were in a hurry:

Come on, two cents.

There are many gymnasium students, they quickly sold out the entire tray.

Tomorrow come to the yard at twelve o'clock, to change, - they say, and one asks:

What is your name?

Fedor, by the name of Landrin ...

Fedya calculated the profits, it turned out - more profitable than giving Eliseev. The next day he brought his sweets to the gymnasium, and there they were already waiting for him. "Landrin has come!" - they shout. And again, he traded in two accounts.

First he started peddling, then in places, and there he opened a factory, - Filippov finished his story. - They began to call these sweets "landrin". The word seemed foreign, which is necessary for trade - landrin yes landrin! And he himself is a Novgorod peasant and received his last name from the Landra River, on which his village stands. For advertising purposes, Fedor also added a “foreign” name, Georg, to his “foreign” surname.

And sweets under the popular name "landrin" gained immense popularity because of their cheapness and because, in general, they were tasty.

The production of unwrapped colored candies continued after the revolution, and in much greater quantities. V post-war years they were produced both by weight and in round tin boxes, such packaging was especially convenient for those who wanted to quit smoking. The boxes had a label with the trade name of the product: "Monpasier lollipop", but sellers usually wrote on the window labels more famous and familiar: "landrin".

Shops in the former Golitsyn house existed until the 1920s, and the house itself stood until the 1970s, so it can be seen in photographs, and its appearance has been preserved in the memory of many Muscovites.

In the second and third floors of the Golitsyn house - above the shops - there were inexpensive hotels, furnished rooms, residential apartments, the courtyard was built up with storage facilities.

In the 1830s, in this house, in the wing facing the Kuznetsky Most, there was an apartment and a workshop of the sculptor Ivan Petrovich Vitali, whose work “Four Rivers” adorned the drainage basin on Lubyanka Square. By that time, Vitali was already well known in artistic circles, he participated in the creation of the Triumphal Gate at the Tverskaya Zastava, his sculptures stood on the front gates of the Orphanage on Solyanka, he had many orders for statues and busts from government agencies and private individuals.

In the first half of 1836, Karl Pavlovich Bryullov lived with Vitali, returning from Italy to St. Petersburg through Moscow, for several months, and here in May 1836 the first personal meeting between Bryullov and Pushkin took place.

K. P. Bryullov Portrait of I. P. Vitali working on the bust of K. P. Bryullov. 1836

Pushkin was well acquainted with his elder brother Alexander, an architect and a talented portrait painter. Alexander Bryullov in 1832–1833 made a drawing from nature “Pushkin at a dinner hosted by the famous St. Petersburg publisher and bookseller A.F. Smirdin”, an engraving from which was placed on the title of the almanac “Housewarming” published by Smirdin, in 1832 he made a watercolor portrait of N N. Pushkina and several drawings for the "House in Kolomna". But even before meeting A. Bryullov, Pushkin saw the work of his brother Karl. It is known that in 1827 the poet visited an exhibition at the Academy of Arts, which showed a painting by Karl Bryullov "Italian Morning". The famous painting by the artist "The Last Day of Pompeii" made Pushkin want to express this story through poetry. In his papers, a manuscript has been preserved, which Pushkinists consider an unfinished sketch, but it is thought that this is a completed and finished work of the descriptive genre:

Vesuvius zev opened - smoke gushed in a club - flame

Widely developed like a battle banner.

The earth worries - from staggering columns

Idols are falling! A people driven by fear

Crowds, old and young, under inflamed ashes,

Under the stone rain runs out of the hail.

After the "Last Day of Pompeii", the nickname "Charlemagne" was established as a title for the artist in Russia. In Moscow, the artist met old friends and acquaintances - fellow students at the Academy of Arts - I. T. Durnov and K. I. Rabus, writer M. N. Zagoskin, who served as director of Moscow theaters, A. A. Perovsky - a romantic writer, speaking in literature under the pseudonym Anthony Pogorelsky, and others. Bryullov quickly and easily entered the circle of the Moscow artistic intelligentsia, became close friends with the most famous Moscow portrait painter V. A. Tropinin, sculptor I. P. Vitali, other artists, with the famous actor M. S. Shchepkin. He was constantly surrounded by people - admirers of his talent, dinners were given in his honor, receptions and evenings were held - in a word, public and secular Moscow, in the words of P. A. Vyazemsky, "honored and celebrated Bryullov."

At one of Bryullov’s celebrations, at a dinner with a collector of paintings and engravings, chamberlain, director of schools in the Moscow province M. A. Okulov, P. V. Nashchokin, Pushkin’s soulmate, was present, and there he had a conversation with the artist about the poet, about which he and wrote to a friend:

“My dear friend Alexander Sergeevich... Now I am writing to you as a result of the dinner that Okulov had in honor of the famous Bryullov. He goes to St. Petersburg according to the Nominal command.

For a long time, that is, so long ago that I don’t even remember, I have never met such a clever, educated and intelligent person. I have nothing to say about talent: it is known to the whole world and Rome. He understands you, that is, creations, and is surprised at the indifference of the Russians towards you. He really wants to get to know you and asked me for a letter of recommendation to you ...

To whom Europe applauded, I ask you to accept with my letter of recommendation favorably.

All yours P. Nashchokin».

I. P. Vitali. Bust of A. S. Pushkin. 1837

But Bryullov did not have to take advantage of Nashchokin's recommendation. He was still in Moscow when, on May 2, Pushkin himself came to Moscow to work in the Moscow archive (he was collecting materials for a book about Peter I) and to negotiate with Moscow booksellers on the sale of the Sovremennik magazine he published. Pushkin stopped at Nashchokin "against Stary Pimen, Mrs. Ivanova's house."

Apparently, Nashchokin verbally added praise to his characterization of Bryullov, given in a letter, and Pushkin, trusting the opinion of a friend, the next day upon arrival, without warning (completely in Moscow!), went to Bryullov on Bolshaya Lubyanka.

“I have already managed to visit Bryullov,” Pushkin writes in a letter dated May 4 to Natalya Nikolaevna. - I found him in the workshop of some sculptor, with whom he lives. I liked him very much. He mopes, is afraid of the Russian cold and other things, he longs for Italy, and he is very dissatisfied with Moscow. I saw several of his started drawings and thought about you, my charm. Surely I will not have your portrait, written by him! it is impossible that, when he sees you, he does not want to copy you ... I really want to bring Bryullov to Petersburg. And he is a real artist, a kind fellow and ready for anything ... "

The correspondence sympathy of Bryullov and Pushkin not only withstood the test of personal acquaintance - it strengthened it. They found a lot in common, which contributed to a quick understanding. In those two weeks, before Bryullov's departure for St. Petersburg, they met almost every day and soon switched to "you."

Bryullov experienced a period of creative upsurge, he was overwhelmed with ideas, during his six months in Moscow he wrote as much as he could not do every year, including such wonderful works: a portrait of young A. K. Tolstoy, a portrait of Vitali working on a bust of an artist, a portrait the famous tragic actress E. S. Semenova, portraits of A. A. Perovsky, L. K. Makovsky, the painting “Fortune-telling Svetlana”, fantasy on the ballad of V. A. Zhukovsky ... His creative energy infected others and encouraged creativity.

Vitali started to sculpt a bust of Bryullov, but the artist, as a contemporary says, “dissuaded himself by saying that he could not sit. However, Vitali got his way, and in order to entertain Bryullov during the sessions, books were read to him. Since then, Bryullov settled with Vitali. But Vitali not only read books, artists drew, singers sang, literary and artistic news were hotly discussed here, besides, the owner was famous for his ability to cook real Italian pasta.

It was in this creative atmosphere that the communication between Pushkin and Bryullov took place. The artist I. T. Durnov recalled one of their meetings, at which he was present: “They had a lively conversation about what to write from Russian history. The poet spoke about many stories from the history of Peter the Great. KP listened with respectful attention. When Pushkin finished, K.P. said: “I think that’s the kind of plot that begs to be brushed,” and he began to explain briefly, vividly, with the enthusiasm of the poet, so that Pushkin spun and said that he had never heard anything like it and that he sees a picture written in front of him. Unfortunately, the memoirist does not report on what specific subjects were discussed.

In addition, the poet and the artist had a common sadness that oppressed them, about which they also had a conversation. “Bryullov […] goes to St. Petersburg reluctantly: he is afraid of the climate and captivity,” Pushkin wrote in one of his letters to Natalya Nikolaevna. Bryullov rode at the behest of the tsar, this was the “bondage” that Pushkin also experienced.

In the working creative atmosphere of Vitali's workshop, the idea of ​​creating a bust of the poet was born. It is not known to whom it belonged, but, apparently, it was discussed very seriously. “Here they want to sculpt my bust,” Pushkin writes to his wife. - But I do not want. Here my Arapian ugliness will be betrayed to immortality in all its dead immobility; I say: “I have a beauty at home that we will fashion one day.” However, Pushkin thinks about the proposal, in his manuscripts of that time there is a caricatured self-portrait in profile in the form of a sculptural bust crowned with a laurel wreath and signed: “il gran padre AR”. "Gran padre" - this is how Pushkin called Dante, and this self-portrait in composition clearly alludes to the famous portrait of the great Italian.

Then the bust of Pushkin was not sculpted. Bryullov left for St. Petersburg. The acquaintance of the poet and the artist was not limited to Moscow meetings, contemporaries testify that their friendly relations continued in St. Petersburg. The last time they saw each other was two days before Pushkin's fatal duel.

After the death of the poet, interest in him and his work flared up in society with renewed vigor. Fashionable St. Petersburg sculptor S. I. Galberg, using a death mask, sculpts a bust of Pushkin, the castings of which go on sale.

At the same time, in March-April 1837, work was underway on a sculptural portrait of Pushkin in Moscow. In a letter dated April 29, 1837 from Moscow, M.P. Pogodin writes to N.A. Vyazemsky: “What a bust we have sculpted! How alive. Under the supervision of Nashchokin did Vitali.

Pushkin's bust was commissioned by Nashchokin. This white marble bust is depicted in N. Podklyuchnikov's painting "The Living Room in Nashchokin's House", painted in 1838. Pushkin is depicted crowned with a laurel wreath, as in a self-portrait. Subsequently, Vitali fashioned a version of the bust without a laurel wreath.

The opposite corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most is a rather large wasteland for the center of Moscow, used for parking.

This wasteland with good reason can be called a historical and cultural monument of the Moscow City Council. Here was the church of the XVI century, which had the fate of becoming first Moscow church, demolished by order of the post-revolutionary Moscow city authorities. Now the relevant architectural institutions are discussing the idea of ​​installing memorial signs on the sites of the demolished Moscow churches, apparently, the implementation of the project should begin with the installation of an obelisk here, in this parking lot, and be sure to note on it that the destruction of Moscow historical monuments and shrines by the city authorities began from here , which continues to this day. It would be nice to immediately install a few spare clean marble boards on which to inscribe all the newly demolished monuments.

The Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which stood at the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most, was built in the 16th century during the reign of Basil III father of Ivan the Terrible. There is a chronicle about its construction under 1514, which refers to the state construction project - the construction of eleven churches at once in different parts of Moscow: “that same spring [...] the great prince Vasily Ivanovich of All Russia ordered to lay and make churches of brick and stone [ ...] Yes, on Ustretenskaya Street the Church of the Presentation of the Holy Mother of God, and all that church was the master Aleviz Fryazin.

Recall that at that time Bolshaya Lubyanka was called Sretenskaya, or Ustretenskaya, street, and the very place where the church was built was inhabited by residents of Pskov. In 1510, the chronicle tells, Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich “brought three hundred families from Pskov to Moscow [...] and gave them yards along Ustretenskaya street, […] did not mix a single Muscovite with them.” Therefore, in the 16th-17th centuries, the topographic definition "in Pskovychi" was added to the name of the church.

The architect Aleviz Fryazin, or Aleviz Novy (so called in contrast to the older Italian engineer and architect who worked at the same time in Moscow, his namesake Aleviz the Old), was invited to serve by Ivan III. His full name is Alosio Lamberti da Montagnana. He arrived in Russia with the characteristic “Aleviz is a master of great kindness, not like other masters, a very great master” and soon justified it in practice. He builds a system of ditches - water fortifications around the Kremlin, builds the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin, and finally, he is entrusted with the construction of churches, which should play a city-forming role for the whole city. The author of a modern work on Aleviz Novy defines his position as "the chief architect of Moscow."

Of the churches built by Aleviz at that time, in the design of which he was guided as examples of Vladimir-Suzdal churches, the church of Vladimir in Old Gardens, standing on Ivanovskaya Gorka, to which four lanes converge, has been preserved. This temple is a monument of remarkable beauty and stands on such a fortunately chosen place that, being the visual center of the surrounding diverse buildings, it has turned this corner of old Moscow into one of the most attractive and soulful Moscow landscapes. No wonder it is often painted by artists.

The same role in the surrounding landscape was played by the Church of the Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos. It stood on the high bank of the Neglinnaya, visible both from the river, from the district, and from the streets and lanes converging towards it: Lubyanka, Sretenka, Kuznetskaya, Ivanovsky lane, which was laid to it from Myasnitskaya past the Church of John the Baptist (from the middle of the 18th century this lane began to be called Furkasovsky). According to its location in the 18th century, the church was also called Introductions, what's on the Strelka. Centuries-old trees grew near the church and there was an old cemetery where its noble parishioners were buried. And her parishioners were the princes Golitsyn, Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky (his wife was buried in the church cemetery, he himself was buried in the Church of the Introduction, and he was buried in the family estate in Suzdal), the princes Khovansky, the Moscow Governor-General Count Rostopchin ...

In the 17th-18th centuries, this temple enjoyed great fame and reverence among Muscovites, therefore the Kuznetsky Bridge from Rozhdestvenka to Lubyanka at that time in Moscow was often called Vvedenskaya Street. Only with early XIX centuries, thanks to fashionable shops, which for their owners and customers were more prestigious to be located on Kuznetsky Most than on Vvedenskaya Street, the church name began to be replaced by the name Kuznetsky Most - a symbol of vain fashion and luxury.

The Church of the Presentation has been rebuilt and renovated more than once. At the beginning of the 17th century, after the liberation of Moscow from the Polish invaders, Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky placed the militia shrine - the image of the Kazan Mother of God, with whom the campaign was made and Moscow liberated, in his parish church, and she stayed there until the 1630s, until construction of the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, where it was transferred upon completion of construction.

In the middle of the 18th century, the dilapidated church "depending on the parishioners" was overhauled, the refectory and the bell tower were rebuilt. Moreover, the altar part of the temple remained unaffected by the restructuring, and later studies confirmed that it belongs to the 16th century.

In 1817, the parishioner of the church, an antiquary and collector D. A. Lukhmanov, updated the interior painting of the temple, it was made in the style of the Renaissance art he loved - “under Raphael and Rubens”.

Among the shrines kept in the temple, in addition to the exact list of the 17th century of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, placed in the church after the transfer of the militia shrine to the Kazan Cathedral, the following especially revered icons were in the temple: the image of the Savior with the Moscow saints Peter and Alexei, sewn by the daughter of Prince D.M. Pozharsky, the images of the Savior, Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Intercession - all of the "ancient writing", as well as the icon "The Sign", in front of which the fire of the terrible fire memorable in the history of Moscow stopped on May 29, 1737. It is about this fire, says the legend, that the proverb says: "Moscow burned down from a penny candle." Then the Kremlin, Kitai-Gorod, almost all the streets of the White City burned down: Rozhdestvenka, Sretenka, Myasnitskaya and others. The official report noted: everything was burning, "except for one Cannon yard […] and in it artillery supplies and office supplies, powder magazines […] intact." The cannon yard was located near the Church of the Introduction, between the current Cannon Street and Rozhdestvenka. The fact that the fire stopped in front of the powder magazines was especially striking.

Shortly after the revolution, the church was closed. In 1920, the Museum Department of the Moscow City Council raised the issue of the need to preserve it as an architectural monument, but in 1923 the Moscow City Council decided to dismantle it, as it allegedly interferes with traffic. Then came to the defense of the church Russian Academy history of material culture, as well as a number of restorers. The execution of the demolition decision was suspended.

Monument to V. Vorovsky. contemporary photography

But the destruction of churches was a political task of the communist government. In 1919-1920, the head of the special church department of the People's Commissariat of Justice, P. A. Krasikov, argued the need for the demolition of churches by the fact that they "offend the revolutionary feeling", "spoil the appearance of the city", giving it a "religious-autocratic appearance", "painted with icons in honor of the kings "and" do not represent any historical or artistic value. Despite the declared official policy of preserving and protecting historical monuments, the organizations called upon to protect it had much less power and authority than the institutions that wanted to demolish them.

On May 24, 1923, a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, who occupied a building adjacent to the Vvedenskaya Church, "a member of the Communist Party since 1918 (in the social-democratic movement since 1903), the son of a merchant" S. I. Aralov sent a letter to the Moscow Council with a request to resolve the fate of the church, taking into account the interests of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. “In view of the fact,” writes Aralov, “that the church mentioned above is in a completely dilapidated condition and service has not been carried out in it for more than a year, in order to improve the NKID, it considers it quite timely to remove this church in order to transfer the monument to Vorovsky there. In view of the foregoing, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs asks the Presidium of the Moscow Council to order the removal of the church or to give permission to the NKID to independently begin this work.

The Church of the Presentation was dismantled in July-September 1924, the brick obtained during its dismantling was sold to a repair organization. For reference: the monument to Vorovsky remained in the place where it stood, and still stands there.

The loss of the Church of the Presentation on Bolshaya Lubyanka is a great loss for Moscow and for all of Russia. Its name is found on many pages of the history of our Fatherland, on glorious pages. About her in connection with the events that took place near her and in her, and the participants of which were her parishioners, were written by former historians, and modern ones also write. Only the former ones usually pointed the reader to the Vvedenskaya Church as a witness who keeps a living memory of these events, while the current ones are forced to explain that the wasteland at the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most is the place where she stood. But the demolition of the ancient temple opened up a view of the monument to Vorovsky - the dubious creation of an incompetent opportunist.

The monument to Vorovsky is one of two early (along with the monument to K. A. Timiryazev on Tverskoy Boulevard) Soviet monuments preserved in Moscow, and is not the best, but a characteristic work of that era.

The reason for its installation were purely political motives. In 1923, V. V. Vorovsky headed the Soviet diplomatic delegation to the Genoese and Lausanne international conferences and on May 10, 1923, he was shot dead in Lausanne by Wrangel officer M. Conradi.

Mayakovsky in Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee published the poem "Thieves":

death of a comrade

emphasize

immortality

affairs of communism.

But the trial in Lausanne of the murderer, who claimed that he shot Vorovsky as one of the leaders of the Communist Party, guilty of the torture and death of "those thousands of victims of terror, with the blood of which the Russian land is abundantly irrigated", turned, according to the recall of the then journalist, into " trial of the Cheka" and the policy of terror in Soviet Russia. The opinions of the jury were divided, and as a result of the vote, Conradi was released from punishment, in fact, acquitted. In Russia, which branded Switzerland with a formidable diplomatic note, the funeral of Vorovsky - he is buried in Red Square - was accompanied by a powerful campaign that exposed the intrigues of the capitalists and glorified the deceased communist and Soviet power. This program also included the renaming of streets (in Moscow, Povarskaya Street was renamed Vorovskogo) and the erection of a monument.

The monument to V.V. Vorovsky in front of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs was opened on May 11, 1924, on the anniversary of his death. From the point of view of art, the monument is also characteristic of its time: it is overloaded with inscriptions and allegorical images, the author does not trust the artistic impact of the image and tries to explain his intention in words and illustrations.

A full-length bronze figure in a strange, unnatural pose is placed on a pedestal of white marble. On the front side of the pedestal there is an inscription: “To the Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR in Italy, Comrade Vatslav Vatslavovich Vorovsky, who was killed by the White Guards at a post in Lausanne on May 10, 1923.” The bas-reliefs on the sides of the pedestal - a Red Army soldier with a rifle, a miner with a pickaxe, a peasant with a sickle and a worker in a canvas apron - symbolize that Vorovsky lived, worked and died for the people. The author of the figure is the sculptor M. I. Kats, as all Moscow guidebooks specifically emphasize, “who personally knew V. V. Vorovsky”, depicted him as a “fiery speaker”. However, this work of the sculptor is his clear failure. Previously, it was not customary to write about this, although back in the twenties, evil-speaking Muscovites gave the monument more than one derisive nickname. But in the 1997 reference book “Man-Made Memory of Moscow”, dedicated to sculptural monuments, its authors E. M. Kukina and R. F. Kozhevnikov give an impartial but fair description: lines and excessive detailing of the costume give the appearance of a diplomat some pretentiousness, if not a caricature.

The wasteland, formed on the site of the Church of the Presentation into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos and named Vorovsky Square in 1924, on both sides covers a huge heavy gray building of a tenement house in the Art Nouveau-Eclectic style (built in 1905-1906 according to the project of architects L. N. Benois and A I. Gunsta). Its owner was the Russian Insurance Company. Part of the house was occupied by commercial premises, offices, but basically it consisted of apartments "for wealthy people." In 1918-1946, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs was located in the house. Then it was taken over by the Ministry of Automobile and Agricultural Engineering. At present, judging by the many signs, several banks, office offices, and some institutions have moved in here.

In the wing overlooking the Bolshaya Lubyanka, there is a restaurant called Angleterre (with a solid sign). It is advertised in a popular Moscow newspaper that it "has the hallmarks of a fashionable establishment," with prices "quite affordable for many," the director says, and a dinner for two will cost "between $70 and $90."

The territory occupied by this profitable house belonged to the princes Golitsyn in the 16th century, in 1819 the Golitsyn estate was acquired and built up in its own way by the merchant V.V. demolished the old buildings and built an apartment building.

Further along this side of Bolshaya Lubyanka, up to Varsonofevsky Lane, there is one large administrative building built in the characteristic “KGB style”, but, apparently, because it was built already in the “democratic” 1989, it has a lighter color scheme: the basement is not lined with black granite , but dark red, and the building itself is not black and gray, but gray and white.

In the place he occupied, there were previously two buildings - No. 7 and 9 (therefore, the next house along Bolshaya Lubyanka has No. 11) - the buildings of the first half of XIX century. House number 7 belonged to the heirs of the merchant VV Vargin. House No. 9 in the middle of the 19th century was owned by the widow of a commercial adviser (an honorary title given to merchants of the 1st guild who had been in it continuously for at least 12 years) Glafira Alexandrovna Popova, who arranged furnished rooms in it. The first tenant of the hotel was Eduard-Friedrich (or Eduard Fedorovich) Billo de Vassi, who set things up very well, under him the hotel and restaurant gained prestige among Muscovites and visitors, there were especially many foreigners among the visitors. Richard Wagner in 1863, Hector Berlioz in 1867 stayed at Billo's, foreign businessmen made business and friendly meetings here. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, when the hotel and restaurant already had other owners, they retained the old name "Billo" for them.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the owner of the Billo hotel and restaurant was L.L. Vitgofner, chairman of the Cyclist Club (that is, cyclists), located in Varsonofevsky Lane, and also had its own premises in the Billo Hotel.

Several Moscow cultural amateur associations are associated with this hotel: members of the Moscow Society of Collectors of Postage Stamps founded in 1888 gathered in it, at the beginning of the 20th century it hosted meetings of the Circle of Cultural Aquarium and Terrarium Lovers, headed by biologist N. F. Zolotnitsky, author of the popular guides "Amateur's Aquarium", "Our Garden Flowers and Vegetables", his book "Flowers in Legends and Traditions" has been reprinted by several publishers in recent years.

Restaurant "Billo" belonged to the number of respectable and decent establishments, it was visited by large industrialists, successfully practicing lawyers, architects.

The waiter D. E. Petukhov was considered a peculiar attraction of this restaurant. He and his son Vanya served not in the main hall, but in a separate room, modestly furnished. This Petukhov, says the architect I.E. Bondarenko in his memoirs, was known among visitors for having opened a school in his native village, taught his daughter to be a village teacher and all the tips he received once and for all allocated for the purchase of textbooks, manuals and help to poor students this school. Regular visitors to the restaurant - the intelligentsia, merchants "of the enlightened" - knew about this and themselves, in turn, willingly donated to his school. This went on for many years. Shortly before the revolution, says Bondarenko, "the aged Dmitry Yegorych, with tears in his eyes, spoke with a feeling of genuine pride about the excellent state of the school, to which he had brought it with his tireless cares."

In 1918, the building of the Billo Hotel, like the neighboring buildings, was occupied by the Cheka. During the construction in 1989 of a new administrative building, the buildings of which stretched along Bolshaya Lubyanka and along Varsonofevsky Lane, the old buildings were demolished, including the building of the Billo Hotel. But inside the site, according to guidebooks, ancient chambers of the 17th century have been preserved.

Architectural historians called these chambers “The Khovansky Chambers”, since in the 17th century the property belonged to the boyar Prince Ivan Andreevich Khovansky, the head of the Streltsy order, the head of the Moscow Streltsy uprising of 1682, known in history as “Khovanshchina”. Maneuvering between the supporters of Princess Sophia and Peter fighting for the Russian throne, but pursuing his own goals (they said that he wanted to stir up trouble in order to deal with the royal family and take the throne himself), Prince Khovansky was arrested by order of Sophia and executed. The events of the Khovanshchina formed the basis of the plot of M. P. Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina.

From the book The Heirs of SMERSH. Hunt for American "moles" in the GRU author Tereshchenko Anatoly Stepanovich

Chapter 4 Service Place - Lubyanka Time flew by quickly. Although philosophers say that it has only direction, having neither beginning nor end. Time happened from time. In the spring of 1974, an inspection check carried out by the Center worked in the garrison. Representatives of the 3rd Chief

From the book Marshal from Lubyanka [Beria and the NKVD during the war years] author Sever Alexander

Chapter 2 Lubyanka during the Great Patriotic War Patriotic war. And so on the morning of June 22, 1941, the leadership of the NKVD, headed

From the book Kremlin goats. Confession of Stalin's mistress author Davydova Vera Alexandrovna

LUBYANKA Polina Sergeevna joyfully announced: “A boat has been prepared for you, you can take a boat trip.” The next Saturday, Stalin wanted to go for a ride. The crew worked in silence. The sea was gentle, snow-white gulls flew behind. Breakfast was prepared in the cabin:

From the book Katyn Labyrinth author Abarinov Vladimir

Chapter 3. MOSCOW, LUBYANKA

From the book Dragon Variant author Skuratov Yuri Ilyich

LUBYANKA I did not remain without work for long - Vyacheslav Alekseevich Nikonov found me and offered his help. Nikonov is the grandson of Molotov, we met him during the first presidential campaign in Russia, when Gorbachev decided that Yeltsin should compete with

From the book Daughter author Tolstaya Alexandra Lvovna

Lubyanka The Latvian matron said that they would take us to the bathhouse on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. I let my friends know about it. We were led by four armed Red Army men and an overseer. Important criminals! They drove along the pavement down the Kuznetsky, cab drivers gave way. Passers-by

From the book Moscow Legends. On the cherished road of Russian history author Muravyov Vladimir Bronislavovich

Bolshaya Lubyanka The building of the OGPU. Photograph from the early 1930s. Behind Lubyanskaya Square, Troitskaya Road ran along the street that is now called Bolshaya Lubyanka. At different times, these places and the street itself were called differently: Kuchkovo field, Nikolskaya street, Sretenskaya, Lubyanka,

From the book Stalin's Metro. Historical guide author Zinoviev Alexander Nikolaevich

Dzerzhinskaya (now Lubyanka) Dzerzhinskaya, opened on May 15, 1935 as part of the First line of the metro, had its own special architecture, unlike other Moscow metro stations. The name of the station is given by the name of the square under which it is located. Dzerzhinskaya

From the book Chistye Prudy. From Stoleshnikov to Chistye Prudy author Romanyuk Sergey Konstantinovich

Chapter VI Lubyanka Between Bolshaya Lubyanka and Myasnitskaya Steep and the high left bank of the Neglinnaya River has long been called Neglinny Verkh, or Kuznetskaya Gora. From it there was a road down to the bridge over the Neglinnaya, near which was the Kuznetskaya Sloboda. Blacksmiths, potters - people

From the book My father is People's Commissar Beria author Beria Sergo Lavrentievich

Chapter 3. Lubyanka: the punishing sword of the party? According to the Ministry of Security of Russia, from 1917 to 1990, almost 4,000,000 people were convicted on charges of state crimes in the territory of the former USSR, 827,995 of them were sentenced to death. In fact, the number of those who

From the book Moscow and Muscovites author Gilyarovsky Vladimir Alekseevich

Lubyanka In the nineties of the last century, wealthy insurance companies, whose cash desks were full of money, found it profitable to turn their huge capital into real estate and began to buy up land in Moscow and build tenement houses on them. And here on Lubyanka

From the book Plyats Voli the author Pashkevich Ales

Lubyanka First Day of the Maskous Autumn of 1922. The first lecture at Pyatroўsk-Razumovsky Academy. There are two Nechakans without a knock, and there are two - in the uniform of the GPU. - Who is the student of Goretsky Gavrnla?

07.12.2007 at 15:01, views: 10004

The main attraction and visiting card of Lubyanka is the monumental old building of the FSB. 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 the dungeons, and the Russians, out of habit, cautiously glance at the gray hulk, calling it “damned house” or “gosuzhas” 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 annals of domestic special services.

BLOODY MEMORY OF THE PLACE

The territory between Lubyanskaya Square and Sretensky Gates has been known since the 12th century under the name of Kuchkov Field and is associated with the name of the recalcitrant 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 roams the streets and alleys of the Lubyanka. From time to time, strange “ball lightnings flying right out of the ground” are observed here. Since then, the place has been sinister and frightening.

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

Here, in 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. After 200 years, the estate of the Moscow Governor-General Count F.V. Rostopchin was located on the site of the courtyard of Prince Pozharsky. In 1812, on the day of leaving Moscow, the innocent young man Vereshchagin was torn to pieces here by a brutal mob. The count was frightened by the crowd gathered in front of his house and moved the arrow, sacrificing an innocent. While the crowd dealt with the victim, the mayor fled from the back porch.

In 1662 Lubyanka became the epicenter of the Copper Riot. The uprising was brutally suppressed, and 30 instigators of the rebellion were executed on Lubyanka Square - retribution overtook the rebels at the same place where they were guilty. Again, blood was shed in this place.

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

At the corner of Kuznetsky Most and Bolshaya Lubyanka in the 18th century. the huge possession of Saltychikha began - “torturer and murderer”, who tortured up to one and a half hundred serfs. At the back of the yard stood her dungeon house, guarded by ferocious sentinels and hungry dogs. Usually she began to “punish” the yard girls herself, inflicting beatings with a rolling pin, sticks, logs, and a red-hot iron. Then, on her orders, the grooms beat the offender with a whip and whips. In cases of special frenzy, she starved, tied naked girls in the cold, poured boiling water over them, and tortured them with hot tongs. “A freak of the human race,” Catherine the Great wrote at the verdict of Saltychikha.

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

Rumor has it that it is in the Lubyanka cellars of Saltychikha that her innumerable treasures are hidden. Today, on the site of the legendary estate - the possession of the FSB.

EYES AND EARS OF THE REGIME

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

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

He created a whole system of interrogation with passion, about which they told horror stories. Everyone was afraid of the “polite” voice of Stepan Ivanovich: talkers and secular ladies, liberals and gamblers, masons and debtors. Everyone had sins and everyone believed that Sheshkovsky knew about these sins. It was said that even high-society ladies tried the whip from his hands for gossip. The interrogation was carried out by the chief secretary in a room lined with icons, and during groans and soul-rending cries, he read prayers. Evil tongues whispered that for bribes he exempted from punishment and in this way amassed several houses in both capitals. In these buildings, he ordered to equip cellars and torture rooms.

Rumor has it that in the office of the “ubiquitous” there was a chair of a special device. As soon as the guest sat down in it, the secret mechanism snapped into place, and the prisoner could not free himself. At a sign from Sheshkovsky, the chair was lowered under the floor. Only the head and shoulders of the guilty person remained above, and the rest of the body hung under the floor. There the servants took away the chair, exposed the punished parts and diligently flogged. The performers did not see who was being punished. Everything ended quietly and without publicity. Not a single nobleman dared to complain to the empress, because for this he would have to admit that he was flogged like the last peasant. After such a humiliating execution, the guest laid out everything that was required by the chief secretary.

But there was a man who managed to avenge his desecrated honor. He forced Sheshkovsky into a terrible chair, slammed it shut, and the chair with the owner collapsed. The servants were accustomed to heart-rending screams, and with "honor" did their job. The rumor about the embarrassment of the “ubiquitous” spread throughout Russia. Superstitious Muscovites assured that the underground spirits of Moscow, annoyed by the atrocities of the formidable nobleman, avenged him for the innocently shed blood.

LUBYANSK SPIRIT

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. Walled up brick crypts, coffins, women's wigs, a silk shroud, shoes and a golden cross were found under the stone floors. Under the upper row of burials of the XVIII century. discovered two more levels of graves (XVII and XVI centuries).

Gilyarovsky, the king of reportage, said that during the demolition of the “House of Horrors” at the beginning of the 20th century. gloomy cellars with skeletons on chains were opened, in the walls - 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. Vaults, rings, hooks. When tortured with predilection in these dungeons, the cries of the unfortunate reached the Kremlin. At night, Muscovites saw some kind of luminous reflections on the walls of the building. Experts explained that these are the spirits of the dungeon, unable to bear the suffering of people, go outside. It was rumored that at night one could see the ghosts of tortured and secretly buried prisoners here.

The temple was demolished hastily, at night, timed to coincide with his death on May 1, 1935, exactly on Walpurgis Night. Shaft No. 14 of Mosmetrostroy passed through the dungeon of the church. Underground passages to the cellars on the Lubyanka (including the legendary Chekist building) were discovered. During the construction of an underground KGB garage near the place where the church stood, they found two secret passages at once, lined with white stone, stone bags and torture chambers. In the 1980s, a huge building was built on the site of the temple for the KGB Computing Center. The guards of the center have repeatedly complained about incomprehensible midnight sounds that seem to come from underground, and inexplicable luminous reflections in the labyrinth of the Lubyanka cellars.

According to folk legends, with each new move of a formidable institution, old ghosts and spirits moved along. It was rumored that a special kind of evil spirits had emerged, which 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 "screamed and groaned" moved to the neighboring building of the VChK-GPU. Although the Chekists loudly declared that they did not believe in any devilry, but at night they sometimes shuddered from the groans coming from the basements. They tell how “little People's Commissar” Nikolai Yezhov, hearing suspicious rustles at night, fired from a revolver into the dark corners of his office. When Yezhov was arrested, they found bullet holes in the floor and on the walls of the office.

The well-known Chekist Genrikh Yagoda was a fierce enemy of superstitions and “mystical dope”, however, according to rumors, he also fought with the “Lubyanka spirits”, secretly from his subordinates splashed poison made by himself on the floor and on the walls of the offices. Back in 1933-1934, Yagoda, a former pharmacist, organized in the depths of the OGPU-NKVD a secret laboratory for the production of poisons to eliminate "enemies of the people" first abroad and then inside the country. Special poisons were created at the Lubyanka, leading to instant or quick death with imitation of symptoms of other diseases. It was rumored that a few hours before his arrest, he suddenly heard a mysterious quiet voice: “Beat your bottles, you won’t need them anymore.” After his arrest, a lot of glass fragments were found in the office.

Lavrenty Beria proved to be an inflexible atheist. Mysterious groans, sighs and rustles 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 liked to drink alone at night in his office and always left an unfinished bottle of vodka or cognac on the closet. In the morning this bottle, of course, was empty.

In the famous house on Lubyanka, inexplicable strange phenomena are still noted today: either incomprehensible shadows crawl along the walls, or the phone rings in a wrong voice, or business papers suddenly end up in the wrong folder. Employees who retired secretly tell how some of their former colleagues secretly sprayed their office “on the four corners” with liquor or holy water: just in case.

GOSSTRAKH OR GOSUZHAS?

In March 1918, the Cheka, together with the government, moved from revolutionary St. Petersburg to Moscow. Soon the word "Lubyanka" acquired an ominous sound. Loyal guards of the revolution - Chekists moved into the building of the former insurance company (SO) "Anchor" on Bolshaya Lubyanka, 11. Here, on the 2nd floor, was the office of its first chairman, F.E. Dzerzhinsky, in which there was a huge heavy steel safe. He still stands in the same place. One day, the hard work of the first Chekist was interrupted by a hand grenade that suddenly flew through the window. Dzerzhinsky briskly jumped out from behind the table and immediately disappeared into a metal safe. The explosion that followed shattered windows and damaged furniture and walls. But the safe did no harm. According to legend, it was after this miraculous rescue that the comrades-in-arms began to call their boss “iron”. And only then biographers substantiated this pseudonym with the iron steadfastness of a knight of the revolution.

With the light hand of the Chekist-mystic Gleb Bokiy in 1920, the Cheka and later the KGB settled in Moscow on Lubyanskaya Square in the building of the former Rossiya insurance company. Here, in the former hotel, hidden in the back of the courtyard, the famous “Nutryanka” is located - the Inner Prison of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD. Muscovites began to carelessly joke: “There was Gosstrakh, but there was Gosuzhas.” The building, which previously belonged to SO "Russia", kept the whole of Russia in fear.

By the end of the 1920s, the Chekists were getting crowded within the walls of the legendary house, and the building was being reconstructed. Directly behind it, from the side of Furkasovsky Lane, a new building was built, shaped like the letter Sh, as if saying “Sha!” to everyone who got 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 walking yards with high walls right on the roof of the building. Prisoners were lifted here on special elevators.

In Moscow in the 30s, oddly enough, they continued to joke. For example, like this: “Which building is the tallest in Moscow? Answer: Lubyanskaya Square, 2. Kolyma can be seen from its roof.”

In the neighboring outbuildings there were Gusenkov's tavern and Generalov's shop, famous for its freshest products. They say that later the investigators consumed sandwiches with black caviar and ham in front of the hungry interrogators, assuring them with an oath that they had only to sign everything - and they would bring everything the same.

In 1940-1947, the Chekists again became crowded, and another reconstruction began according to the project 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 dining room, and the rest of the cells were turned into offices for KGB officers. At the end of the Andropov era, Lubyanka Square is finally taking shape. On the left, on the site of the bloody estate of Saltychikha, a new monumental building of the KGB of the USSR was built, where the leadership of the department moved. And on the right - the Central Committee of the KGB 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 very height of the “thaw”, a monument to Dzerzhinsky was erected in the center of the square, which bore the name of the first Chekist. The monument stood for exactly 30 years and 3 years - in August 1991, he was overthrown to the jubilation of the crowd. Now he stands on Krymsky Val, surrounded by fallen comrades-in-arms. The square was returned to its old name - Lubyanskaya.

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

The building of the state security organs on Lubyanka - the main building of the state security organs of the RSFSR and the USSR in the period from 1919 to 1991. Over the years it has been the headquarters of VChK, NKVD, OGPU and KGB USSR, now the building occupies FSB RF.

The building occupies a whole block on Lubyanka and is actually the result of the most radical restructuring and reconstruction of the buildings that existed in its place.

In 1897-1902, according to the project of architects Alexander Ivanov and Nikolai Proskurin, on the plots overlooking Lubyanskaya Square and separated by Malaya Lubyanka Street, by order of the Rossiya insurance company, 2 tenement houses were built in the neoclassical style with neo-baroque details. Both buildings were rented out as apartments and commercial premises.

Photo: profitable houses of the insurance company "Russia" on Lubyanka Square in 1910-1911, pastvu.com

After the Revolution, all private insurance companies were liquidated and their property was nationalized. Initially, they planned to transfer the houses of the Rossiya insurance company to the Moscow Council of Trade Unions, however, in 1919, the buildings were given Central Office of the Cheka(All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR). In addition to the houses of the Rossiya insurance company, the department also received a number of other buildings located in the quarter. From that moment on, the complex became the abode of the state security agencies - subsequently, the buildings on the Lubyanka were used only by the successor VChK departments: the OGPU, the NKVD, the MGB and the NKGB, the KGB.

Soon, the overgrown apparatus of the special services demanded the expansion of the premises, and in 1928-1933, from the side of Furkasovsky Lane, to the existing building (which was built on 2 floors in the meantime), an W-shaped building was added, erected according to the project of Arkady Langman and Ivan Bezrukov in the style of constructivism. This was not enough, and in 1939, Alexei Shchusev, commissioned by the department, presented a new expansion project, providing for the unification of existing buildings and bringing them under a single facade from the side of Lubyanka Square. Part of the Malaya Lubyanka thus became the courtyard of the complex.

The war prevented the implementation of the new project, and they returned to its implementation in 1944, and the complete reconstruction of the building took almost 40 years: its right side was rebuilt in 1944-1947, and the left side was completed only in 1986 - all this time the building had an asymmetric appearance.

Photo: the building of the KGB of the USSR on Dzerzhinsky Square (Lubyanskaya Square) in 1972-1973, pastvu.com

The unified façade of the renovated complex is designed on a larger scale than the façades of the buildings of the Rossiya insurance company, and looks less decorative, however, it is not without elegance: the lower floors are finished with gray granite, the upper ones are made in yellowish color and decorated with pilasters. There is a clock on the top of the building, in addition, medallions and bas-reliefs with Soviet symbols are placed in different places on the facade.

Building infamy

As the headquarters of the state security agencies of the RSFSR and the USSR from the Cheka to the KGB, the building on Lubyanka eventually got a bad reputation and became a symbol of Soviet repression, making the toponym "Lubyanka" itself a household name.

Since the 1920s, an internal prison has been located here, where prisoners suspected of crimes against the Soviet regime were kept. Opinions are expressed that in the cellars of the building - in cases where a prisoner was sentenced to death - executions were carried out, but this is not known for certain; on the roof, according to a common urban legend, there was a walking yard. In 1961, the inner prison was closed and converted into a dining room, and the cells were turned into new offices for employees.

The notoriety attached to the Lubyanka complex was also expressed in folklore. For example, in the Soviet years, there was such a joke among the people: "What is the tallest building in Moscow? On the Lubyanka - from its roof you can see Siberia and Kolyma."

Today, the building belongs to the state security agencies of the Russian Federation - it houses the FSB - however, it is no longer the main building of the service: this role has passed to the gray building, built in the 1980s on the opposite side of the street.

The building of the state security organs on Lubyanka located on Bolshaya Lubyanka street, 2 (overlooks Lubyanskaya Square). It can be reached on foot from the metro station. "Lubyanka" Sokolnicheskaya line.