The current Arbat got its name from the name of a vast section from modern Znamenka to Bolshaya Nikitskaya. In general, there are many versions of the origin of this word - from the Mongolian “arba” (cart), the Arabic “arbad” (suburb), short from the Russian “humpback” (the area really resembled an arc).

For quite a long time, Streletsky and palace settlements were located on this street, which are reminiscent of the names of neighboring alleys. In 1736, Arbat survived a strong fire, most of the building burned down, and the mansions of the aristocracy — Golitsyn, Trubetskoy, Sheremetev, Dolgorukikh — took the place of old houses. This street remained the most aristocratic in Moscow for a very long time. Almost the entire intelligentsia of the capital visited it — Pushkin, Gogol, Lev Tolstoy, and later Blok, Andrey Bely, Chekhov, Mayakovsky, Eisenstein, Scriabin, Polenov.

In the first years of Soviet power, it was decided to radically change the appearance of one of the main streets of Moscow. Mansions and other buildings were rebuilt for constructivism, some were demolished altogether. Under Stalin, Arbat became a street through which the motorcade of the “father of peoples” lay to the Kremlin.

In 1986, a new project for the reconstruction of the Arbat was completed, during which it took on a modern look. The street became pedestrian, the asphalt was replaced by paving stones, the sidewalks were decorated with lanterns and flowerpots with fresh flowers.