Previously, there were meadows that were flooded by floods in spring. Later, the swamp was drained and monastic vegetable gardens and gardens were laid out in its place. Then a market appeared on the square, where fist fights, folk entertainment and public executions often took place. The most famous of them is the execution in 1775 of Yemelyan Pugachev. Thus, memoirist Bolotov recalls this day and describes it in his article. According to him, a wooden platform was erected in the middle of the square. Pugachev, along with other convicts, was raised to the scaffold, where the Senate verdict was read out to the Don Cossack. The whole area around was filled with people who were focused on the action. But, to the surprise of Bolotov and the citizens who gathered in the square, the execution took place in an unconventional form. “And instead of quartering and cutting off his arms and legs in advance, the executioner suddenly cut off his head first of all... we only heard that an official standing there beside him suddenly the executioner shouted with his heart: “Oh, son of a bastard! I don't think you did it! “And then, “Well, rather arms and legs.” There is a version that Empress Catherine II wanted to reduce the torment of the convicts, ordering to cut off the heads first sentenced to death.

In the middle of the 19th century, warehouses, stone benches were installed on the square, and in 1958, a monument to Ilya Repin. And in the middle of the twentieth century, the square was renamed Ilya Repin Square, but in the 90s it was returned to its historical name.