Can the general public enter the building?

Public access to the interior is prohibited because the structure operates as an active Federal Security Service headquarters.

What historical symbols are visible on the facade?

The yellow brick facade displays Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance details alongside Soviet hammer-and-sickle emblems and a central clock.

What was the initial function of the building?

The complex was erected as a revenue house for the Rossiya Insurance Company before state authorities converted it into security police headquarters.

Which state security organizations were based here historically?

The site functioned as the headquarters for the Cheka and the KGB before housing the Federal Security Service and the Border Guard Service.

What major building stands directly across the square?

The Central Children's Store, historically known as Detsky Mir, stands across Lubyanka Square from the headquarters.

Moscow · Russia

Lubyanka Building: what's nearby, how to get there and when to go · 2026

Tenants around Lubyanka Square navigate dense central traffic and active state security posts every morning on their walk to the central metro interchange.

Lubyanka Building · CC BY-SA 4.0

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About the place

The massive yellow brick facade dominates the square as an active state security complex with an uninterrupted administrative lineage.

Architect Alexander V. Ivanov designed the original Neo-Baroque revenue house with pale green interiors, parquet floors, and a facade of yellow brick for the Rossiya Insurance Company. The Soviet state requisitioned the property for the Cheka apparatus, turning upper chambers into holding cells and administrative offices. A central clock anchors the uppermost cornice band above repeating palace-style cornices.

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Architect Aleksey Shchusev expanded the complex by incorporating adjacent structures and blending Neo-Renaissance detailing across an enlarged frontage. The building housed the national headquarters of the KGB throughout the Soviet era, holding writers such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Osip Mandelstam. Today the complex houses directorates of the FSB and the Border Guard Service behind surviving Soviet symbols.

Associations

KGB HeadquartersServed as the national command center and detention facility for Soviet intelligence.
Federal Security ServiceMaintains active operational directorates and secured entry controls on the square.
Aleksey Shchusev ArchitectureExpanded the yellow brick facade with balanced Neo-Renaissance exterior detailing.
Detsky MirStands directly opposite the complex as a landmark retail hub on the square.

Facts

The edifice originated as a revenue house built for the Rossiya Insurance Company.
Soviet hammer-and-sickle emblems remain visible on the yellow brick exterior facade.
Author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was held in the detention facility before documenting it.
The complex currently serves as headquarters for the Russian Border Guard Service.

Updated September 10, 2026Source: Wikipedia

Lubyanka Building: what's nearby, how to get there and when to go · 2026

What is around27

The massive yellow brick facade dominates the square as an active state security complex with an uninterrupted administrative lineage.

Getting there and staying

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