Nemetskaya sloboda

German Quarter (Russian: Неме́цкая слобода́, Nemetskaya sloboda), also known as the Kukuy Quarter (слобода Кукуй), was a neighborhood in the northeast of Moscow, located on the right bank of the Yauza River east of Kukuy Creek (hence the name Kukuy Quarter), within the present-day Basmanny District of Moscow.

Its boundaries were defined by present-day Dobroslobodskaya Street and Bolshoy Demidovsky Lane (west, following the track of Kukuy creek), Spartakovskaya Street (north) and Yauza River (south and east). Kukuy formed a wide pond west of present-day Elizavetinsky lane, on site of present-day Sokol stadium of Moscow State Technical University, which occupies the southern half of former German settlement.

"German" Quarters developed in Moscow in the 16th century and were populated by foreigners from Western Europe (collectively called "Germans" by the Russian people (the Russian word for "German", Russian: немец, translit. nemets, relates to the Russian word for "mute", Russian: немый, translit. nemyi]) and by prisoners taken during the Livonian War of 1558-1583.

The residents of the Old German Quarter mainly engaged in handicrafts and flour-milling (whence the flour mills on the Yauza River). In the early 17th century, the army of False Dmitri II (self-proclaimed Tsar, 1607-1610) ravaged the Old German Quarter. It did not immediately recover, since many residents relocated closer to the Moscow Kremlin or fled the country.

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