If you love history, would like to know more about Russia’s past, or just want to take an interesting walk, book this guided Moscow walking tour of Soviet-era sites. With your expert guide, walk through Lubyanka Square, home to the former headquarters of the KGB (the former national security agency of the Soviet Union) and its affiliated prison building. Then, tour the Gulag History Museum to learn about the history of Joseph Stalin's mass repression throughout the former USSR.
Take this guided Moscow walking tour to learn about the significance and history of the former Soviet Union (USSR) and its notorious security agency, the KGB. Meet your guide in central Moscow and walk to Lubyanka Square, home to the huge Neo-Baroque building – known simply as the Lubyanka Building – that is most famous for being the headquarters of the KGB. It now is the home of the FSB, Russia’s Federal Security Service. As you walk across the square, admire the impressive building’s yellow brick façade, designed in 1897 by Alexander Ivanov.
While you’re in Lubyanka Square, you’ll also see the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to victims of Soviet repression, and learn from your expert guide historical facts about the Gulag, the government agency that managed the Soviet forced labor camps and prisons. These camps and prisons were tools of repression against political opponents of the USSR and housed millions of people.
Next, leave the square and follow your guide to the Gulag History Museum, founded by Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko, once a prisoner of Stalin's camps himself. You’ll walk into a small, gloomy archway that leads into a courtyard hung with huge portraits of victims of the 53 Soviet labor camps. Tour the museum with your guide, learning more about the Gulag system and the history of Stalin's regime. Discover how the Soviet Union was finally dissolved in 1991, leaving in its wake 15 sovereign states.