The street serves as the boundary between
Meshchansky District (west from Bolshaya Lubyanka) and
Krasnoselsky District (east). The first mention of the name "Lubyanka" dates from 1480; it was given to this street in honour of the "Lubyanets", one of the medieval
Veliky Novgorod hoods when the Tsar
Ivan III ordered the captured citizens of the
Novgorod Republic to establish settlements in the place of the contemporary
Lubyanka Square. There is also another version of the origin of the name: there were the places were the locals were taking the splint (Лубок/Lubok) from the trees. In the 16th and 17th centuries traders and craftsmen were living there, since the 18th century the local nobility began building residences there. During the
Fire of 1812 the street did not suffer. Between 1926 and 1991 the street was known as Dzerzhinskogo Street, after
Felix Dzerzhinsky. The street is also where the
KGB's headquarters were, at no. 2. == See also ==