Creation of the FIAN Neutrino Laboratory and underground laboratories

We describe the history of how the FIAN Neutrino Laboratory was created and how the key methods, later to underlie the construction of the BUST (Baksan Underground Scintillation Telescope), ASD (Artyomovsk Scintillation Detector), LSD (Liquid Scintillation Detector), and LVD (Large Volume Detector) underground facilities, were developed and first implemented. This work, initiated by G T Zatsepin, was crucial for the development of underground physics and gave the Institute of Nuclear Research, RAS, a leading role in experiments to study stellar-collapse neutrinos. We discuss underground physics as an effective method for studying a wide class of rare processes related to cosmic rays, neutrino physics, neutrino astrophysics, and elementary particles. The latest LVD and LSD results on the search for stellar-collapse neutrinos are discussed, and research on cosmic ray muon characteristics and on muon interaction products at various depths underground is reviewed.