It is named after the nearby Rizhsky railway station (which was named after and serves trains to the Latvian capital, Riga) and was designed by Latvian architects Artūrs Reinfelds [lv] and Vaidelotis Apsītis [lv].

The brightly coloured Latvian ceramics employed throughout the station make it instantly recognizable.

The ventilation grilles above the pylons are decorated with the coat of arms of the Latvian SSR.

The street outside of the entrance to the Rizhskaya station was the site of a terrorist attack by Chechen separatists that occurred shortly after 8 pm on 31 August 2004, in which a bomb was detonated killing 10 people and injuring another 50,[1][2] some 30 of them seriously.

[citation needed] The suicide bombing was thought initially to have been carried out by Roza Nagayeva,[2] but she in fact took part in the Beslan school siege in North Ossetia that started the next day, and was herself killed when the school was stormed several days later.