Editing Lubyanka Building (section)

=== Origins ===
[[File:RossijaLubjanka.jpg|thumb|The Lubyanka as originally built, as the headquarters of the All-Russia Insurance Company, before 1917]]

The Lubyanka was originally built in 1898 as a [[revenue house]] by the [[:ru:%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%8F (%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B5 %D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%89%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE)|All-Russia Insurance Company (''Rossiya Insurance Company'')]], on the spot where [[Catherine the Great]] had once headquartered her secret police.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Dan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X9euSbo6q3MC|title=The Rough Guide to Moscow|date=2001|publisher=Rough Guides|isbn=978-1-85828-700-3|language=en}}</ref>  The building was designed by the architect Alexander V. Ivanov. It is noted for its parquet floors and pale green walls. Belying its massiveness, the edifice avoids an impression of heroic scale: isolated [[Palladian architecture|Palladian]] and [[Baroque]] details, such as the minute [[pediment]]s over the corner bays and the central [[loggia]], are lost in an endlessly repeating palace facade where three bands of cornices emphasize the horizontal lines. A clock is centered in the uppermost band of the facade.

A fountain used to stand in front of the building, at the center of Lubyanka Square.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last1=RIR|last2=Romendik|first2=Dmitriy|date=2014-02-11|title=The dark history of Lubyanka|url=https://www.rbth.com/arts/2014/02/11/the_dark_history_of_lubyanka_32985|access-date=2020-08-09|website=www.rbth.com|language=en-US}}</ref>

Following the [[Bolshevik Revolution]], in 1918 the structure was taken over by the government, for use as the headquarters of the secret police, then called the [[Cheka]].<ref name=":3" /> The prison became operational in 1920. Its prisoners included [[Boris Savinkov]], [[Osip Mandelstam]], Gen. [[Władysław Anders]], and [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]].<ref name=":0" /> In [[Russian political jokes|Soviet Russian jokes]], it was referred to as "the tallest building in Moscow", since Siberia (a euphemism for the [[Gulag]] labour camp system) could be seen from its basement.<ref>{{cite book
|title=Советский политический анекдот [Soviet political anecdotes]|publisher=Асс. Спектрум. "О"}}</ref><ref>
{{citation|title=Alef|volume=495–505|publisher=Chamah|year=1993}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://modernlib.ru/books/neustanovlenniy_avtor/1001_izbranniy_sovetskiy_politicheskiy_anekdot/read_5/ |title=1001 избранный советский политический анекдот (1001 selected Soviet political anecdotes) |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=ModernLib.ru |access-date=August 22, 2016 }}</ref> The prison is on the top floor, but since there are no windows on that floor, most prisoners, and therefore popular conception, thought they were being detained in its basement.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Lubyanka – Smoke of the Fatherland|url=http://blogs.carleton.edu/smokeofthefatherland/lubyanka/|access-date=2020-08-09|website=blogs.carleton.edu|archive-date=2020-08-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806135116/http://blogs.carleton.edu/smokeofthefatherland/lubyanka/|url-status=dead}}</ref>