Editing Red Square (section)

=== Middle Trade Rows ===
[[File:Middle Trade Rows Moscow 06-2015.jpg|thumb|Middle Trade Rows]]
The building at the easternmost point of the square, on the corner of Ilyinka Street, stands exactly where the Middle Trading Rows stood in the 17th century. These formed, along with the Upper Trading Rows, where today's GUM store is located, as part of the broader market trading area that helped shape the [[Kitay-gorod]] district, adjacent to the Red Square. This massive expanse of assorted market stalls and self-made wooden huts was for the first time replaced at the end of the 18th century, by a building complex specially built for trade, whose authorship is attributed to the Italian builder [[Giacomo Quarenghi]]. In the war of 1812, however, these buildings were burned down and were replaced by the Middle Trading Rows building, rebuilt by [[Joseph Bové]], which has been preserved to this day and is located on Ilyinka Street a few hundred meters east of Red Square.

The Middle Trade Rows was not built until 1894, as was the GUM store. Planned from the start as a supplement to the latter, the upper rows were supposed to accommodate retail trade, while the premises to their right were reserved for the wholesale trade, which is why both of the buildings look very similar architecturally. The building's architect was [[Roman Klein]], who also designed numerous other well-known Moscow structures in the late 19th century, including the [[Pushkin Museum]].

After the Bolsheviks came to power, the building was no longer used as a trading house, but became the headquarters of various public bodies. Until recent times, it belonged to the [[Russian Armed Forces]]. At the beginning of 2007, four inner structures of the former trading rows were demolished while plans were made to reconstruct the entire building true to the original to house an exclusive hotel. These plans came under criticism from both Russian and foreign media as circumventing the preservation order by cleverly exploiting a loophole in the law. Work is currently underway to set up a museum in the building's interior space, to designs by Meganom and [[Nowadays Office]]. The new museum is going to form a part of the [[UNESCO]] protected ensemble of Moscow Kremlin Museums, and will bring a part of the [[Kremlin Armoury]] collection outside the Kremlin walls.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Kremlin museum|url=https://nowadaysoffice.com/en/project/27|access-date=2021-05-10|website=Nowadays}}</ref>