Varsonofevsky Lane

Varsonofevsky Lane got its name from the Varsonofevsky Convent , known since the 16th century and abolished in 1765 .

Until the XVIII century, the lane already existed and was called Ascension on the Ascension Church, which once stood here. With the development and growth of the female Varsonofevsky monastery in the lane in the 18th century, it became known as Varsonofevsky. At the monastery there was a cemetery, where they brought to the burial of the poor and those who died by violent death. It was considered a shame among Muscovites to be buried here, so in the Time of Troubles False Dmitry I ordered the burial of the bodies of Boris Godunov and his family here. Subsequently, they were reburied in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra . In 1765, the monastery was abolished, and its cathedral became the usual parish church of the Ascension.

At the end of the XIX century, the lane was built up with tenement houses, many of which have survived to our time. In 1931, the Ascension Church was demolished.

On the odd side:

• No. 1. p. 1B, 1B - City estate of Y. A. Maslov - A.P. Obolensky - Profitable possession of A.K. Beckers - A.N. Pribylov (until 1767; 1860-1870s; 1875-1876, architect A. I. Vivien ; 1905, architect Yu. I. Chagovets; 1907; 1970s) ^[1]
• No. 3, p. 1 - Profitable House of M. G. Popova (1878, architect A. S. Kaminsky ; built in the 1930s), a valuable city-forming object ^[1] . Actress A. I. Schubert-Yanovskaya lived in the house ^[2] .
• No. 5 - on this place was a monastery, which gave the name of the lane. From the monastery in our time there is nothing left. The Ascension Church, which was once a monastery cathedral, was demolished in 1931, and in its place in the early 1930s the building of the polyclinic of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs ^{[3] was built} , in which Polyclinic No. 1 of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is now located.
• No. 7 - a monument of architecture of the XVIII century, the chamber of Prince M.V. Golitsyn. In 1760, they passed on to General M.L. Izmailov. In 1874, according to the project of architect P.P. Skomoroshenko, the chambers were built on two floors, the garden surrounding them was cut down, and two more residential buildings were built in its place. During the years of Stalinist repressions, special services of the Cheka were located in this house on the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Varsonofevsky Lane. At night, the corpses of the “enemies of the people” were taken out of the house by trucks, and in the mornings, windshield wipers washed blood from the bridges. In the late 1930s, people were taken to execution already in the yard. Now the Central Pharmacy of the FSB of the Russian Federation is located in this building.
• No. 9 - Residential building (?; Rebuilt in 1860 by architects A. D. Nikolsky , I. N. Dyachkov and N. I. Kozlovsky )
• N11 - Once in the building there was a former laboratory for the production of poisons for the Ministry of State Security of the USSR under the leadership of Grigory Mayranovsky.

On the even side:

• No. 2/10, p. 1 - City estate of Y. I. Chekoysky - M. S. Kalmykov - Profitable possession of V. S. Myshetsky (1821, until 1844, 1884, architect M. A. Arsenyev ), a valuable city-forming object ^{[ 1]} .
• No. 4 - The apartment building A. E. Albert, built in 1900 by the architect N. P. Matveev , was built in 1908 by the civil engineer V. E. Dubovsky ^[1] . At the beginning of the 20th century, the ballerina E.V. Geltzer lived here. From 1918 to 1970, the famous teacher and public figure A.V. Skryabin lived here with her husband, folk teacher M.A. Pyshkalo and his family.
• No. 6 - The apartment building of Prince V. S. Obolensky-Neledinsky - E. P. Kudryavtseva was built in 1896-1897 according to the project of architect L. N. Kekushev ^[4] . In 1898-1899, the composer A.N. Scriabin lived here. In the 2000s, the house was completely rebuilt with partial preservation of the facade ^[5] .
• No. 8, p. 1-4 - Profitable House of A. G. Gagarin (1892, architect N. G. Faleev ), a valuable city-forming object ^[1] . In the house lived entertainer Vladimir Yakhontov ^[6] .
• No. 10-12 / 7-9 - The administrative building of the KGB of the USSR (1970s), now - the FSB of the Russian Federation ^[1] .

Not far from the lane is the exit of the Kuznetskiy Most metro station. Public transport on the lane does not go. The traffic on the lane is one-way, in the direction from Bolshaya Lubyanka to Rozhdestvenka.

• In the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov, “ Twelve Chairs, ” Varsonofevsky Lane is mentioned as the residence of the Ellochka-ogre .
• Varsonofevsky Lane is mentioned in B. Akunin ’s book “Spy Novel” as the location of a certain “Special Laboratory”.