Security and Intelligence Service of Moldova (SIS)

The Security and Intelligence Service of Moldova occupies a site on boulevard Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt with a deeper institutional history than its current facade suggests. The building that stands here now is a late Soviet administrative block, blocky and authoritative. The site's earlier history is more layered. When Bessarabia was part of the Russian Empire, this address housed the No. 2 Boys' Gymnasium of Chișinău, where Alexei Șciusev (1873–1949) received his education. Șciusev would go on to become one of the most significant architects of the Soviet period: designer of the Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square, the Kazan Station in Moscow, and the postwar reconstruction plan for Chișinău itself. While still a second-year student at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, he was invited by the rector to contribute ideas to the reconstruction of his former school's building. On 9 September 1991, following independence, the KGB of the Moldavian SSR was dissolved by presidential decree and replaced the same day by the Ministry of National Security, which held the same personnel, structure, and address. The government approved the MSN's mandate and structure on 16 September 1991. On 23 December 1999, parliament passed the Law on the Security and Intelligence Service, completing the formal reorganisation into the current SIS.