Smolensk Square is located on the site of a former large earthen rampart, which gave protection to an expanded city behind the White Stone Wall (remember Arbat Square? Stop number 16 along the route?) Smolensky market reigned here, and the area around was occupied by merchants and archers from Anichkov and Poltev settlements (remember on Arbat Nikola Yavlensky stop number 21?) Up until 1820, all this space was a huge market and a flea market. In 1875, a covered market was built in the center of the square, but it could not accommodate everyone. Historical trade on Smolenskaya Square led to the construction of a number of outlets, one of which was the famous Torgsin of 1930 in which Bulgakov Korovin and Kot Begemot staged a pogrom. Torgsin is the first shop in the USSR where in 1931 it was possible to buy goods for old royal gold coins, gold and platinum, and even diamonds. In only 5 years, Soviet citizens voluntarily carried 100 tons of pure gold to Torgsin. In 1936, Torgsin liquidated about opened a grocery store - the second largest after Eliseevsky. In the early 1950s, a monumental building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was erected on the square, and just before it, the corner high-rise multi-storey building of E.E. Orlova, built in 1906. Translated with Google Translate