Editing Lubyanka Building (section)

=== KGB ===
During the [[Great Purge]], the offices became increasingly cramped due to staff numbers. In 1940, [[Alexey Shchusev|Aleksey Shchusev]] was commissioned to enlarge the building. By 1947, his new design had doubled Lubyanka's size<ref name=":3" /> horizontally, with the original structure taking up the left half of the facade (as viewed from the street). He added another storey and extended the structure by incorporating backstreet buildings. Shchusev's design accentuated [[Neo-Renaissance]] detailing, but only the right part of the facade was constructed under his direction in the 1940s, due to the war and other hindrances.

[[Raoul Wallenberg]] was detained in the Lubyanka prison, where he reportedly died in 1947.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Wallenberg was 'shot in Lubyanka' prison|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/wallenberg-was-shot-in-lubyanka-prison-1.1118157|access-date=2020-08-09|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}</ref> According to the KGB, prisoners' interrogations stopped at Lubyanka in 1953 after the death of [[Stalin]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Imse|first=Ann|date=1991-09-07|title=Past Echoes in Ex-Soviet Prison : Lubyanka: Old KGB cellblock recalls interrogation and torture of dissidents.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-09-07-mn-1571-story.html|access-date=2020-08-09|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Teatralnij út a Lubjanka (Dzerzsinszkij) tér felé nézve, középen a Központi Gyermek Áruház. Fortepan 100678 (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|The Lubyanka in 1961.]]
In 1957, Russia's [[Detsky Mir|largest toy shop]] opened on the opposite side of Lubyanka Square, where a medieval cannon foundry was previously located.<ref name=":3" /> In 1958, the fountain at the center of Lubyanka Square was replaced by an 11-ton (or 14-ton,<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=Seward|first=Deborah|date=22 August 1991|title=Statue of Soviet Intelligence Chief Pulled Down|url=https://apnews.com/863f51d5087d19bee14a280626730385|access-date=2020-08-09|website=AP NEWS}}</ref> or 15-ton<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-12-11|title=The KGB's Old Headquarters Lives On|url=https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/kgbs-old-headquarters-lives|access-date=2020-08-09|website=Cato Institute|language=en}}</ref>) [[Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Moscow|statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky]] ("Iron Felix"), founder of the [[Cheka]].<ref name=":0" />

In 1972, [[Vasili Mitrokhin]] moved 300,000 KGB files from the Lubyanka building that he gave to the [[MI6|British intelligence]] in 1992.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Persico|first=Joseph E.|date=1999-10-31|title=Secrets From the Lubyanka|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/31/books/secrets-from-the-lubyanka.html|access-date=2020-08-09|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

[[File:KGB-Lubyanka-1983.jpg|right|thumb|The Lubyanka during renovations in 1983, with the left half still lower.]]
The building's asymmetric facade survived intact until 1983, when the original structure was reconstructed to match the new build, at the urging of [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] General Secretary and former [[KGB]] Director [[Yuri Andropov]] in accordance with Shchusev's plans.

Although the Soviet secret police changed its name many times, their headquarters remained in this building. Secret police chiefs from [[Lavrenty Beria]] to Andropov used the same office on the third floor, which looked down on the statue of Cheka founder [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]]. A prison on the ground floor{{contradictory inline|date=April 2025|reason=The prison has previously been stated as being on the top floor.}} of the building figures prominently in a book written by the author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]''. Famous inmates held, tortured and interrogated there include [[Sidney Reilly]], [[Greville Wynne]], [[Raoul Wallenberg]], [[Ion Antonescu]], [[Osip Mandelstam]], [[Genrikh Yagoda]], [[János Esterházy]], [[Alexander Dolgun]], [[Rochus Misch]], and [[Walter Ciszek]].

During the 1980s, the prison was turned into a cafeteria for KGB staff.<ref name=":2" />