The name of this street comes from the Ilyinsky Monastery which stood here in the 16th and 17th centuries with the Church of Ilya the Prophet. Ilyinka was the main street of Kitai-Gorod. Since time immemorial the biggest Moscow trading centres were to be found here, with special stalls for selling the most diverse goods. The names of some of these stalls have been preserved in the names of some lanes - Rybny (Fish), Khrustalny (Crystal), Vetoshny (Rags) (in the latter they sold second-hand clothes and rags — vetosh). In the 19th century Ilyinka became the city's business centre where the major Russian banks were opened: Azov-Donskoi, Petersburg, and Bank of the Ryabushinskys.
One of the facades on llyinka looks onto the biggest shop in Moscow — the State Department Store (GUM in Russian), which up to the revolution was known as Upper Trading Stalls, which were part of a huge arcade. On the site of the splendid building in the Russian style which was built in 1893 to the design of Pomerantsev and Klein, for many years there were simply narrow trading stalls with small counters. At that time the cries of street-traders filled the air, inviting one and all to buy: 'Our wares are of good quality, but cheap, buy from us and get a souvenir!' When a passer-bygave in to these entreaties and entered the. shop, the seller would dash in after him. The seller would then do all in his power to palm off as many of his goods as possible. You could also have heard such ingratiating phrases as: 'May God give you good health to the extent our jacket fits you'.
Now this area is as noisy as ever, for thousands of visitors make their purchases daily in a huge shop which contains several hundred small departments.
At the corner of Ilyinka and Bogoyaviensky Lane at No. 5 stands the impressive town residence of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra, the first five storey building in Moscow. It was built in 1876 by the architect Skromoroshenko, and for a long time it was the tallest secular building in the city.
At the very beginning of llyinka on the right stands the Cyostiny Dvor (arcade). The first covered building in this ancient market place appeared in the mid 16th century. The name gostiny comes from the word for 'guest,' that is, a merchant engaged in foreign or wholesale trade. In the early 19th century a magnificent building in classical style was erected to the design of Giaccomo Quarenghi. Later he built the Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospect, similar to that built in Moscow.
In Gostiny Dvor one could buy almost anything, and this is eloquently shown by the names of the stalls: 'Hats', 'Silk', 'Silver, 'Copper', Icons', 'Lace', 'Sandals' and 'Kvas' (a delicious drink made from rye flour and malt). From morning until late evening the market was alive with the energy of the merchants. These enterprising people even hired lads to walk around Red Square displaying a sample of their goods as an advertisement.
It was here in Gostiny Dvor that the practice of selling left-over goods cheap first began. It all began when one day a trader from the knife stall was going home at the end of a long day and a pedlar stopped him and offered him some raisins at a low price. The merchant did not want any raisins, but the pedlar tried to persuade him. saying: 'Take them, sir, they're leftovers. Cheap and a good bargain. Then the merchant had a brilliant idea, and soon his stall had a big sign up saying: 'Leftovers
at the cheapest prices.' Everyone came to buy his wares, and very soon the merchant became rich. This gave rise to the saying: 'Leftovers are sweet.' Soon this discovery of the merchant of Kitai-Gorod had swept all Moscow. The 'leftovers' fever even affected the best French shops on Kuznetsky Bridge, and one trader even thought of selling books as leftovers, and arranged a special sale of books at his stall. People laughed at him over that.
Moscow merchants loved to amuse themselves, and enjoyed practical jokes. For example, they would wrap up mice in paper parcels, and then surreptitiously
place them in very busy areas of the arcade. Passers-by would quickly gather up these parcels and hurry off home in delight, thinking that they had found an interesting purchase which someone had dropped. But the merchants could also show a sterner side of their
nature. If a customer failed to buy anything after all their entreaties, he might find himself being beaten by a very annoyed merchant.
With the socialist revolution the era of enterprising Moscow merchants disappeared for ever, Gostiny Dvor was closed, and various state departments took over the premises. Recently Moscow City Council initiated the reconstruction of Gostiny Dvor, and very soon a major trading centre will be opened here.
