The square was named for Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (1877-1926), who founded Lenin's secret police (the Ch.K., pronounced "Cheka") in 1917. Since then, the Cheka has gone through various name changes, eg Cheka, V.Ch.K, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, MGB, and KGB, though employees were always happy to refer to themselves as "Chekists." Russia's post-Soviet successor-organization is called the FSB ("Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti" -- "Federal Security Service").

Since the collapse of the USSR in August 1991, the square has reverted to its original pre-Soviet name, "Lubyanka." The police headquarters (which also served as a notorious political prison) had always, informally, kept the historical name "Lubyanka."

The dark blur in the middle is a statue of F. Dzerzhinsky, removed soon after the Soviet collapse. Along with several other Soviet-era statues, it can still be seen in the "Park Isskustv," about 1 kilometer upstream (SSW) of the Kremlin.

Update (Jan 99): Russia's Communist-leaning Duma (parliament) voted in 1998 to put the Dzerzhinsky statue back. I am not sure whether the vote was solely nostalgia for the Soviet era, or whether some have also adopted Dzerzhinsky as a symbol of non-ideological "law-and-order" in a troubled society. I don't believe either the anti-Communist Yel'tsin government or the Moscow city government have obeyed the Duma's vote yet.

Source: "Ogonyok" 1936, #30, p. 3. Caption: "First anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Moscow" (a public celebration).
Click here to see a larger version of this photo.

Does anyone have a 1936 photo of this area?

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