Ruby stars of the Kremlin. The secrets of cooking ruby ​​stars: how the main symbol of the Kremlin is produced

The first stars adorned the towers of the Moscow Kremlin for a short time. A year later, under the influence of atmospheric precipitation, the Ural gems faded. Now the stars were clearly visible only in the immediate vicinity of the walls of the Kremlin. In addition, they did not fully fit into the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin because of their large size. Therefore, in May 1937, the Soviet government decided to install new stars, luminous, ruby, and not on four, but on five Kremlin towers - Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya.

Prominent scientists, artists, architects, engineers, workers of many specialties were directly involved in the creation of new Kremlin stars. More than 20 enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, machine-building, electrical and glass industries, research and design institutes participated in the manufacture of parts and materials.

People's Artist of the USSR F.F. Fedorovsky redefined the shape and pattern of the stars, as well as their sizes, depending on the architecture and height of each tower. He also suggested the ruby ​​color of the glass. This time the proportions and dimensions were chosen so well that the new stars, despite being placed on towers of different heights, appear the same from the ground. This was achieved thanks to the different sizes of the stars themselves. The smallest star now burns on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, located in a lowland: the distance between the ends of its rays is 3 meters. On Borovitskaya and Trinity stars are larger - respectively 3.2 and 3.5 meters. The largest stars are installed on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, located on a hill: their span is 3.75 meters.

One of the Moscow research institutes was commissioned to develop structural elements of the Kremlin ruby ​​stars and ventilation devices for them.

According to the new project, the main load-bearing structure of the star was a voluminous five-pointed frame, resting at the base on a pipe in which bearings were placed to rotate it. Each ray was a multifaceted pyramid: the star of the Nikolskaya Tower had a twelve-sided pyramid, and the rest of the stars had an octagonal one. The bases of these pyramids were welded together at the center of the star. All structural elements of the star were made of high-quality stainless steel, specially welded at the Elektrostal plant near Moscow.

Much work in the creation of ruby ​​stars was done by a team of specialists from the lighting laboratory of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute under the guidance of Professor S. O. Maizel and Candidates of Technical Sciences N. V. Gorbachev and E. S. Ratner. The authors of the project faced difficult tasks. How to ensure that the entire surface of the star, from the center to the tip of the rays, is brightly and evenly illuminated? Place dozens of points of light inside the stars? But then every now and then you have to change burned-out lamps. Install one powerful one in the middle? But no matter how powerful the lamp is placed, its light at the end of the rays will be much weaker than at the center of the star. And one more thing: at night the ruby ​​stars will be beautiful, and under the sun their thick red glass will seem almost black. We settled on one lamp.

For this purpose, special incandescent lamps with a capacity of 5 thousand watts for the stars of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers and 3700 watts for the stars of the Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers were developed and manufactured at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant.

These lamps are still unique. Their creator was the chief engineer of the plant R. A. Nelender.

For more reliable operation of the lamps, two filaments (spirals) of incandescence connected in parallel are mounted in each of them. If one of them burns out, the lamp continues to glow with reduced brightness, and the automatic device signals a malfunction to the control panel. The lamps are relatively small in size: they resemble a cylindrical glass flask with a metal base. Due to the fact that the filaments are arranged in the form of a tent, the lamps have an extremely high luminous efficiency. The temperature of the filament reaches 2800 °, so the flasks are made of heat-resistant molybdenum glass.

In order for the light flux to be evenly distributed over the entire inner surface of the star, and especially at the ends of the rays, the lamp was enclosed in a refractor (a three-dimensional hollow fifteen-sided figure). The purpose of the refractor, the edges of which are assembled from prismatic heat-resistant glasses, is to evenly disperse the light flux of the lamp over the entire surface of the star.

A serious task was set before the glass industry: to weld a special ruby ​​glass for the Kremlin stars. Prior to that, in our country, such glass was not brewed in large volumes. The task was entrusted to the Konstantinovsky glass factory in Donbass.

The difficulty in making glass was that it had to have different densities and only let through red rays of a certain wavelength. At the same time, the glass had to be resistant to sudden changes in temperature, mechanically strong, not discolored and not destroyed by exposure to solar radiation.

The recipe for melting glass was compiled by the famous Moscow glazier Nikanor Illarionovich Kurochkin, a man of amazing talent and extraordinary skill. Even as a village boy, Kurochkin became interested in glassmaking and, thanks to his inquisitive mind and natural gift, he came to know the "soul" of glass. He was the first in our country to produce curved glass of various shapes and sizes: for searchlights, airplanes, river and sea vessels, cars.

Under the direct supervision and with the participation of N. I. Kurochkin, ruby ​​glass was melted and processed for the Kremlin stars. For high achievements in the field of glass production, this outstanding master was awarded the State Prize.

Each Kremlin star had double glazing: internal, made of milky glass, 2 mm thick, and external, made of ruby ​​glass, 6-7 mm thick. An air gap of 1-2 millimeters was provided between them. The double glazing of the stars was caused by the characteristics of the ruby ​​glass. The fact is that it has a pleasant color only when illuminated from the opposite side, however, the contours of the light source are clearly visible. Without backlighting, ruby ​​glass looks dark even on bright sunny days. Thanks to the internal glazing of the stars with milky glass, the light of the lamp was well dispersed and the filaments became invisible. And the ruby ​​glass at the same time was highlighted most brightly.

It was decided to illuminate the stars from the inside with a lamp both in the daytime and at night. However, in order to maintain a rich ruby ​​color during the day, they needed to be illuminated more intensely than at night.

The glazing surface of each star of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers was about 9 square meters, and Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya - about 8 meters. In the center of the star, where the luminous flux of the lamp is the largest, ruby ​​glass had a greater color density, and at the ends of the rays, where the flux is weaker, less. Thus, uniform translucence of ruby ​​glass was achieved over the entire surface of the star.

The outer contour and artistic pattern of each star was framed with details made of red copper sheet, electroplated gilded. The thickness of the gold coating was 40 microns. Almost 11 kilograms of gold were spent on gilding all the framing details of the stars. In order to economically use this valuable metal, the framing details of the stars were gilded only on the front side.

In order for the stars not to overheat from the heat generated by powerful lamps, they needed to be continuously cooled. Employees of one of the research institutes in Moscow created a special ventilation system in a short time. It consists of a dust filter and two cooling fans, one of which is redundant. The air sucked in by the fan is first cleaned in the filter and is fed into the star through the spire of the tower (which is the support of the star and at the same time the channel for lifting the lamp). Here the air cools both the lamp and the refractor.

The fans are interlocked not only with each other, but also with the lamp installed in the star. When one fan stops for any reason, the backup fan automatically turns on. In the event of a stop and standby, the burning lamp turns off immediately. Otherwise it is impossible: after all, the temperature on the surface of stars can reach more than 100 °. And while the fan does not work, until strong cooling jets of air come in, the lamp will not light up. Specialists of the all-Union office Stalprommekhanizatsiya proposed original devices that made it possible to replace burned-out lamps in stars in just 20-30 minutes.

Remote control of the complex equipment of the ruby ​​stars was concentrated on local consoles in each tower and on the central control panel, where a lot of equipment was placed on large marble shields: knife switches, ammeters, switches, warning alarms. On the central control panel, automatic control over the operation of all stars is concentrated. From here, the duty personnel can perform any operations to turn on and off the lamps, fans and other equipment of each star, set the required voltage, etc.

The design of unique electrical equipment and the development of complex electrical circuits for controlling stars were carried out by Elektroprom specialists.

One of the first non-luminous stars, taken from the Spasskaya Tower, but without the hammer and sickle, later crowned the spire of the Khimki railway station. She is still admired by thousands of people arriving in the capital along the Moscow-Volga canal.

After the inclusion of the Kremlin ruby ​​stars, a responsible time has come for the specialists who ensured their uninterrupted work. At first, on each tower, there were duty officers around the clock at the control panels. But after we were convinced of the reliability of the ventilation systems and electrical equipment, round-the-clock duty was focused only on the central control panel.

Now, along with the Kremlin chimes, five-pointed ruby ​​stars have also taken up perpetual watch. But this watch was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War.

Immediately after the outbreak of the war, the Kremlin, like the rest of Moscow, changed its appearance. To facilitate the protection of historical monuments, camouflage had to be resorted to. The Kremlin walls, as well as all the buildings, squares and squares of the Kremlin were disguised. The golden shining domes of churches and cathedrals, the cross of the bell tower of Ivan the Great were painted over.

They went out, dressed in protective covers and Kremlin stars. It was not easy to cover them. When this work was carried out, strong winds were blowing. The climbers first went up to the star of the Spasskaya Tower, began to put a cover on the upper beam, and it inflated with the wind like a sail, rushed and pulled people down from a great height. Saved by safety belts. The cover was later found on the roof of GUM... The stars and other towers of the Kremlin soon put on protective "military" uniforms.

The fascist aviation, whenever it managed to break into the sky of Moscow, tried to bomb the Kremlin, but the anti-aircraft artillery of the capital's air defense opened a powerful barrage. Shell fragments sometimes hit ruby ​​stars, damaging them.

Four years were covered with protective covers of the Kremlin star. But then came May 1945. The Soviet people celebrated the victory over Nazi Germany. And already on the second day after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin N.K. Spiridonov instructed the operators to prepare ruby ​​stars for inclusion.

The climbers started lifting the repair cradles on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers. They took off the camouflage covers from the stars and with chagrin saw cracks and holes from fragments of anti-aircraft artillery shells on the ruby ​​​​glasses. Working for three days from dawn until late in the evening, the operators washed the windows, polished the gilded framing details to a shine, put the mechanisms and equipment in order.

And at the same time, ruby ​​stars flared again on all five towers of the Kremlin. It was a joyful event. On that May evening, many residents and guests of the capital came to Red Square to admire the peaceful light of the Kremlin stars.

However, a few months later, on August 27, 1945, it was decided to overhaul and reconstruct the Kremlin stars. The fact is that a large number of fragmentation holes and cracks in the glasses of stars worsened their appearance and made it difficult to operate.

For about eight years now, ruby ​​stars have crowned the Kremlin towers, and during this period a number of shortcomings have emerged that need to be eliminated. Firstly, the framing gilded details of the stars quickly dimmed and covered with dark spots. Twice a year, usually in spring and autumn, we had to raise the repair cradles in order to polish the parts again and again to a shine. And this work at a high altitude is not easy. Consequently, it was necessary to improve the quality of the gilding of the artistic details of the stars.

In addition, the ends of the rays, especially the upper ones, were obscured by the internal structural elements of the stars and were poorly illuminated in the evening and at night. The rays seemed to break off, and thus the integrity of the impression was violated. And the glazing with milky glass was not strong enough. From the high temperature, the glass inside the star almost all cracked, and in some places it completely collapsed. Dust, soot, rain, snow penetrated into the star through the ventilation slots and holes from fragments. All this was deposited on the refractor glasses and on the inner surface of the milky glazing, which caused the stars to lose their brightness and appear as if in spots. Another significant drawback was revealed in the design of the stars - they did not have inspection hatches, without which it was impossible to carry out an internal inspection, check the health of the optical system, and remove accumulated dirt.

The reconstruction of the Kremlin stars was carried out from September 7, 1945 to February 7, 1946. The star was removed from the Trinity Tower first, the star removed from the Spasskaya Tower was repaired last.

During the reconstruction, large and complex work was carried out, which significantly improved the performance of the stars. This time, the framing details, made of sheets of red copper, were electroplated gilded on both sides. The thickness of the gold plating is now 50 microns. More than 27 kilograms of gold were spent on gilding all the stars. The most time-consuming process of gilding was the polishing of parts. This complex and painstaking work was carried out by the best Moscow master jewelers.

The stars were glazed in a completely new way this time. According to a special recipe developed by N.S. Shpigov, three-layer ruby ​​glass was made. It was brewed at the Krasny May glass factory in Vyshny Volochek.

The technology of manufacturing three-layer glass is interesting. The glass blower blew a large flask from molten ruby ​​glass, enveloping it with molten crystal, and then with milky glass. The "puff" cylinder welded in this way was cut in a hot state and straightened into sheets. The crystal layer performs an important function in a star: when milky glass is cracked, it prevents ruby ​​glass from breaking, and, conversely, when ruby ​​glass cracks, it prevents milk glass from breaking.

Ruby glasses on the stars of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers were given a convex shape. This made the stars more voluminous and ornate, as the bulge of the glass enhances the effect of the ruby ​​reflection. During the reconstruction, it was also possible to improve the illumination of the Kremlin stars. In particular, some structural elements that obscure the beams have been thinned, and in some places completely removed.

Inspection hatches were made in all five rays of each star. Now, if necessary, the operators could open the star, check the condition of the glazing, optical system and structural elements, and remove the dust that had penetrated inside.

The workers and engineers who took part in the reconstruction of the Kremlin ruby ​​stars showed great diligence and a lot of invention. As a result, complex and painstaking work was completed in the shortest possible time. A great merit in this also belonged to the chief engineer of the plant, where the reconstruction of the stars was carried out.

At the beginning of 1946, the renewed ruby ​​stars, even more beautiful and elegant, lit up again - brighter and more festive than before. Since then, they, like lighthouses, have been constantly on duty in the Moscow sky.

To serve the stars, there are special hatches in the upper part of the tower tents, which the climbers get to through a steep spiral staircase located inside the tower. Through the hatch, the worker enters an open area that rises above the ground by more than 50 meters. And then the climber climbs an invisible metal ladder, pressed against the roof of the tent. At the spire of the tower, he strengthens the consoles with blocks, through them he passes the cables, to which a repair cradle is attached to the ground. It is lifted with winches with great care so as not to damage the architectural decorations of the tower. The climber gets over to the cradle, and from there he climbs up the metal stairs to the very star.

Star viewing hatches, as a rule, are opened by two people: one opens the frame of the hatch, removes the glass, the other helps him. Opening the hatch is perhaps one of the most difficult operations that requires high skill. When examining a star, one has not only to clean it of dust, but sometimes to change the defective ruby ​​glass. And that's not easy either. Glass must be cut according to the template and carefully fit it to the opening. There, upstairs, sometimes you have to do welding work.

The staff serving the ruby ​​stars had to work hard in 1974, when extensive work was carried out to repair and restore Red Square and the buildings of the Moscow Kremlin.

As you know, from May to November 1974, Red Square was a work site. Arrows of cranes shot up to the height of the Kremlin towers, the towers themselves were dressed in scaffolding. Art critics and restorers, masons and granite workers, finishers, roofers, mechanics came to the main square of the country. For five months, more than a thousand highly qualified specialists worked around the clock here, in the center of Moscow.

On Red Square, the builders repaved the paving stones in some places, rebuilt the guest stands, facing them with light gray granite. The Kremlin wall between the Nikolskaya and Spasskaya towers was restored. A special brick for the restoration of the ancient wall was produced by a factory in the city of Zagorsk. And high-quality clay for the manufacture of such bricks was supplied from a quarry of one of the Latvian factories.

Restoration work was also carried out on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Senate and Nabatnaya towers of the Kremlin. Snow-white stone for the restoration of plinths, decorative ornaments and sculptures on the Kremlin towers was mined in the quarries of the Crimean region, not far from Bakhchisaray.

During the same period, the famous Kremlin chimes did not operate for three months. Employees of the research institute of the watch industry completely restored their unique movement.

The work carried out in 1974 was only the beginning of the implementation of a comprehensive plan for the restoration and reconstruction of Red Square and the most valuable historical and architectural monuments of the Kremlin - its palaces, cathedrals, churches. This comprehensive plan also provided for the overhaul of the Kremlin's ruby ​​stars. Over the long years of uninterrupted operation that have passed since the last reconstruction of the stars, the inevitable defects in the glazing have arisen: cracks and corrosion have appeared on some ruby ​​​​glasses. The reflectivity of the refractors also weakened somewhat, the glasses of the optical system became dusty, which ultimately reduced the illumination of the stars.

All these defects were completely eliminated during the overhaul of the stars on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers in October 1974.

After the completion of the overhaul of the stars crowning the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, a repeated check of the operation of their mechanisms was carried out.

In 1977, all the main works on the restoration of the Kremlin stars were completed.

The stars on the Kremlin towers appeared not so long ago. Until 1935, in the very center of the country of victorious socialism, there were still gilded symbols of tsarism, double-headed eagles. Under the cut is the difficult history of the Kremlin stars and eagles.

Since the 1600s, four Kremlin towers (Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya) have been decorated with symbols of Russian statehood - huge gilded double-headed eagles. These eagles did not sit on spiers for centuries - they changed quite often (after all, some researchers still argue what material they were made of - metal or gilded wood; there is evidence that the body of some eagles - if not all - was wooden, and other details - metal; but it is logical to assume that those first two-headed birds were made entirely of wood). This fact - the fact of the constant rotation of spire decorations - should be remembered, because it will later play one of the main roles during the replacement of eagles with stars.

In the first years of Soviet power, all double-headed eagles in the state were destroyed, all but four. Four gilded eagles perched on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The question of replacing the royal eagles with red stars on the Kremlin towers repeatedly arose shortly after the revolution. However, such a replacement was associated with large financial costs and therefore could not be carried out in the first years of Soviet power.

The real opportunity to allocate funds for the installation of stars on the Kremlin towers appeared much later. In 1930, they turned to the artist and art historian Igor Grabar with a request to establish the artistic and historical value of the Kremlin eagles. He answered: "... none of the eagles that now exist on the Kremlin towers represent an ancient monument and cannot be defended as such."

1935 parade. Eagles watch as Maxim Gorky flies and spoil the holiday of Soviet power.

In August 1935, the following TASS message was published in the central press: "The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya towers of the Kremlin wall, and 2 eagle from the building of the Historical Museum. By the same date, it was decided to install a five-pointed star with a sickle and a hammer on the indicated 4 towers of the Kremlin.

The design and manufacture of the first Kremlin stars was entrusted to two Moscow factories and workshops of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). An outstanding decorator, academician Fedor Fedorovich Fedorovsky took up the development of sketches of future stars. He determined their shape, size, pattern. The Kremlin stars decided to make them from high-alloy stainless steel and red copper. In the middle of each star, on both sides, the hammer and sickle emblems laid out in precious stones were to sparkle.

When the sketches were created, life-size models of stars were made. The hammer and sickle emblems were temporarily encrusted with imitations of precious stones. Each mock-up star was illuminated by twelve spotlights. This is how the real stars on the Kremlin towers were supposed to be illuminated at night and on cloudy days. When the searchlights were turned on, the stars sparkled and sparkled with a myriad of colored lights.

The leaders of the party and the Soviet government came to inspect the finished models. They agreed to the production of stars with an indispensable condition - to make them rotating so that Muscovites and guests of the capital could admire them from everywhere.

Hundreds of people of various specialties participated in the creation of the Kremlin stars. For the Spasskaya and Troitskaya towers, the stars were made in the workshops of TsAGI under the guidance of the chief engineer of the institute, A. A. Arkhangelsky, and for the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers, at Moscow factories under the supervision of the chief designer.

All four stars differed from each other in decoration. So, on the edges of the Spasskaya Tower star there were rays emanating from the center. On the star of the Trinity Tower, the rays were made in the form of ears of corn. The star of the Borovitskaya Tower consisted of two contours inscribed one into the other. And the rays of the star of the Nikolskaya Tower had no pattern.

The stars of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers were the same in size. The distance between the ends of their beams was 4.5 meters. The stars of the Trinity and Borovitskaya towers were smaller. The distance between the ends of their beams was 4 and 3.5 meters, respectively.

The supporting structure of the stars was made in the form of a lightweight but durable stainless steel frame. Framing decorations made of sheets of red copper were superimposed on this frame. They were covered with gold with a thickness of 18 to 20 microns. On each star, on both sides, the emblems of a sickle and a hammer, measuring 2 meters and weighing 240 kilograms, were strengthened. The emblems were decorated with precious Ural stones - rock crystal, amethysts, alexandrites, topazes and aquamarines. For the manufacture of eight emblems, it took about 7 thousand stones ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats (one carat is equal to 0.2 grams.) From the report of Pauper, an employee of the NKVD operational department: in a separate silver caste with a silver screw and nut. The total weight of all stars is 5600 kg."

Star for the Nikolskaya Tower. 1935 ph. B. Vdovenko.

The frame of the emblem was made of bronze and stainless steel. Each precious stone was attached to this frame separately in a setting of gilded silver. Two hundred and fifty of the best jewelers in Moscow and Leningrad worked for a month and a half to create emblems. The principles of the location of the stones were developed by Leningrad artists.

The design of the stars was designed for the load of a hurricane wind. Special bearings made at the First Bearing Plant were installed at the base of each star. Thanks to this, the stars, despite their considerable weight, could easily rotate and become their frontal side against the wind.

Before installing the stars on the Kremlin towers, the engineers had doubts: would the towers withstand their weight and storm wind loads? After all, each star weighed an average of a thousand kilograms and had a sailing surface of 6.3 square meters. A careful study revealed that the upper floors of the vaults of the towers and their tents came to a dilapidated state. It was necessary to strengthen the brickwork of the upper floors of all the towers on which the stars were to be installed. In addition, metal ties were additionally introduced into the tents of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers. And the tent of the Nikolskaya Tower turned out to be so dilapidated that it had to be rebuilt.

Now the specialists of the All-Union office Stalprommekhanizatsiya L. N. Shchipakov, I. V. Kunegin, N. B. Gitman and I. I. Reshetov faced a responsible task - to raise and install stars on the Kremlin towers. But how to do that? After all, the lowest of them, Borovitskaya, has a height of 52 meters, and the highest, Troitskaya, is 77 meters. At that time there were no large cranes, but the specialists of Stalprommekhanizatsiya found an original solution. They designed and built a special crane for each tower, which could be installed on its upper tier. At the base of the tent, a metal base - a console - was built in through the tower window. On it, they assembled a crane.

The day came when everything was ready for the rise of the five-pointed stars. But first we decided to show them to Muscovites. On October 23, 1935, the stars were delivered to the Central Park of Culture and Leisure. M. Gorky and installed on pedestals upholstered with red calico. In the light of searchlights, gilded rays sparkled, Ural gems sparkled. The secretaries of the city and district committees of the CPSU (b), the chairman of the Moscow Council, arrived to inspect the stars. Hundreds of Muscovites and guests of the capital came to the park. Everyone wanted to admire the beauty and grandeur of the stars that were soon to flare up in the sky of Moscow.

The removed eagles were put on display there.

On October 24, 1935, the first star was installed on the Spasskaya Tower. Before lifting, it was carefully polished with soft rags. At this time, the mechanics checked the winch and the crane motor. At 12 hours 40 minutes, the command “Vira little by little!” The star broke away from the earth and began to slowly rise upwards. When she was at a height of 70 meters, the winch stopped. The climbers standing at the very top of the tower carefully picked up the star and pointed it at the spire. At 13:30, the star descended exactly on the support pin. Eyewitnesses of the event recall that on that day several hundred people gathered on Red Square to follow the operation. At that moment, when the star was on the spire, this whole crowd began to applaud the climbers.

The next day, a five-pointed star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower. On October 26 and 27, the stars shone over the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. The installers worked out the lifting technique so well that it took them no more than an hour and a half to install each star. The exception was the star of the Trinity Tower, the rise of which, due to a strong wind, lasted about two hours. A little more than two months have passed since the newspapers published the decree on the installation of stars. To be exact - only 65 days. Newspapers wrote about the labor feat of Soviet workers, who created real works of art in such a short time.

The star from the Spasskaya Tower now crowns the spire of the River Station.

The first stars adorned the towers of the Moscow Kremlin for a short time. A year later, under the influence of atmospheric precipitation, the Ural gems faded. In addition, they did not fully fit into the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin because of their large size. Therefore, in May 1937, it was decided to install new stars - luminous, ruby. At the same time, one more tower was added to the four towers with stars - Vodovzvodnaya. Professor Alexander Landa (Fishelevich) was appointed chief engineer for the development and installation of stars. His project is still kept in Samara - five massive albums of drawings in red bindings. They say they are no less impressive than the stars themselves.

Ruby glass was brewed at a glass factory in Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of the Moscow glass maker N. I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 square meters of ruby ​​glass, for which a new technology was invented - "selenium ruby". Prior to this, gold was added to the glass to achieve the desired color; selenium is both cheaper and the color is deeper. At the base of each star, special bearings were installed so that, despite their heaviness, they could rotate like a weather vane. They are not afraid of rust and a hurricane, because the "rim" of the stars is made of special stainless steel. The fundamental difference is that weathercocks indicate where the wind is blowing, and the Kremlin stars indicate where. Have you understood the essence and significance of the fact? Due to the diamond-shaped cross-section of the star, it always stubbornly stands head-on against the wind. And any - up to a hurricane. Even if everything around is blown clean, the stars and tents will remain intact. That's how it's designed and built.

But suddenly the following was discovered: in sunlight, ruby ​​stars appear ... black. The answer was found - the five-pointed beauties had to be made two-layer, and the lower, inner layer of glass should be milky white, which scatters light well. By the way, this provided both a more even glow and hiding the filaments of lamps from human eyes. By the way, a dilemma also arose here - how to make the glow even? After all, if the lamp is installed in the center of the star, the rays will obviously be less bright. A combination of different thicknesses and color saturation of the glass helped. In addition, the lamps are enclosed in refractors consisting of prismatic glass tiles.

A photo chistoprudov

From powerful lamps (up to 5000 watts), the temperature was heated up inside the stars, as in a locomotive firebox. The heat threatened to destroy both the bulbs of the lamps and the precious five-pointed rubies. The professor wrote: "It is quite clear that it is impossible to prevent the glass from bursting and cracking in case of rain or a change in the weather and the glass falling down. The fans work flawlessly. About 600 cubic meters of air per hour are passed through the stars, which completely guarantees against overheating." The five-pointed Kremlin luminaries are not threatened with a power outage, since their power supply is autonomous.

Lamps for the Kremlin stars were developed at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant. The power of three - on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers - is 5000 watts, and 3700 watts - on Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya. In each, two filaments are mounted, connected in parallel. If one burns out, the lamp continues to burn, and a malfunction signal is sent to the control panel. The mechanism for changing lamps is interesting: you don’t even have to climb to the star, the lamp goes down on a special rod right through the bearing. The whole procedure takes 30-35 minutes.

She replaced the "Tsar's Eagle" on the Spasskaya Tower. Next, the stars were hoisted on the Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya and Troitskaya towers. Then, when the stars were replaced in 1937, the fifth star appeared on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, where before that state symbols had not been placed.

Installing stars on the Kremlin towers

Dismantling the eagles

Double-headed eagles, being the state symbols of Russia, have been on the tops of the tents of the Kremlin towers since the 17th century. About once a century, the gilded copper eagles were changed, just as the image of the state emblem changed. At the time of the removal of the eagles, they were all of different years of manufacture: the oldest eagle of the Trinity Tower - 1870, the newest - the Spasskaya Tower - 1912.

A week later, on June 20, 1930, Gorbunov wrote to the secretary of the presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR A. S. Yenukidze:

V. I. Lenin several times demanded the removal of these eagles and was angry that this work was not done - I personally confirm this. I think it would be nice to remove these eagles and replace them with flags. Why should we keep these symbols of tsarism?

With communist greetings,
Gorbunov.

In an extract from the minutes of the meeting of the secretariat of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR dated December 13, 1931, there is a mention of a proposal to include 95 thousand rubles in the estimate for 1932 for the costs of removing eagles from the Kremlin towers and replacing them with the coats of arms of the USSR.

While the stars were being made, the builders-installers solved the main problem - how to actually remove the double-headed eagles from the towers and fix the stars. At that time, there were no large high-rise cranes that could help carry out this operation. Specialists of the All-Union office "Stalprommekhanizatsiya" developed special cranes that were installed directly on the upper tiers of the towers. Strong console platforms were built through the tower windows at the base of the tents, on which the cranes were assembled. The installation of cranes and dismantling of the eagles took two weeks.

Finally, on October 18, 1935, all 4 double-headed eagles were removed from the Kremlin towers. Due to the old design of the eagle from the Trinity Tower, it had to be dismantled right at the top of the tower. The work on removing the eagles and raising the stars was carried out by experienced climbers under the guidance and control of the operational department of the NKVD and the commandant of the Kremlin Tkalun. In the report of the head of the Operations Department of the OGPU Pauker to I. V. Stalin and V. M. Molotov dated November 4, 1935, it is reported: “... I was instructed to remove the eagles from the Kremlin towers and from the Historical Museum by November 7, replacing them with stars. I report that this task of the Politburo has been completed ... "

Convinced that the eagles are of no value, the first deputy people's commissar of the NKVD wrote a letter to L. M. Kaganovich: “I ask for your order: Issue 67.9 kilograms of gold to the NKVD of the USSR for gilding the Kremlin stars. The gold covering of the eagles will be removed and handed over to the State Bank.”

gem stars

New gemstone stars weighed about a ton. The tents of the Kremlin towers were not designed for such a load. The tents of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers had to be reinforced from the inside with metal supports and pins, on which it was planned to plant stars. A metal pyramid with a support pin for a star was installed inside the tent of the Borovitskaya Tower. A strong metal glass was installed on top of the Trinity Tower. The tent of the Nikolskaya Tower turned out to be so dilapidated that it had to be completely dismantled and rebuilt.

On October 24, a large number of Muscovites gathered on Red Square to watch the hoisting of a five-pointed star on the Spasskaya Tower. On October 25, a five-pointed star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, on October 26 and 27 on the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.

The first stars were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper. For gilding 130 m² of copper sheets, galvanizing shops were specially built. In the center of the star, the symbol of Soviet Russia, the hammer and sickle, was laid out with Ural gems. The sickle and hammer were covered with gold 20 microns thick, the pattern was not repeated on any of the stars. The star on the Spasskaya Tower was decorated with rays that radiated from the center to the tops. The rays of the star mounted on the Trinity Tower were made in the form of ears of corn. On the Borovitskaya tower, the pattern repeated the contour of the five-pointed star itself. The star of the Nikolskaya Tower was smooth, without a pattern. However, very soon the stars lost their original beauty. The soot, dust and dirt of the Moscow air, mixing with precipitation, made the gems fade, and the gold lost its luster, despite the spotlights illuminating them. In addition, they did not fully fit into the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin because of their size. The stars turned out to be too big and visually hung heavily over the towers.

The star, which was located on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in 1935-1937, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station.

ruby stars

Unlike semi-precious stars, ruby ​​ones have only 3 different patterns (Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are the same in pattern), and the frame of each star is a multifaceted pyramid. Each beam of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers has 8, and the Nikolskaya tower has 12 faces.

Design features

Special bearings are installed at the base of each star so that, despite their weight (more than 1 ton), they can rotate like a weather vane. The "frame" of the stars is made of special stainless steel produced by the Elektrostal plant near Moscow.

Each of the five stars has double glazing: the inner one is made of milky glass, which diffuses light well, and the outer one is made of ruby ​​glass, 6-7 mm thick. This was done with the following goal: in bright sunlight, the red color of the stars would appear black. Therefore, a layer of milky-white glass was placed inside the star, which allowed the star to look bright and, in addition, made the filaments of the lamps invisible. Stars have different sizes. On Vodovzvodnaya, the beam span is 3 m, on Borovitskaya - 3.2 m, on Troitskaya - 3.5 m, on Spasskaya and Nikolskaya - 3.75 m.

Ruby glass was brewed at the Avtosteklo plant in the city of Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of the Moscow glass maker N. I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 m² of ruby ​​glass, for which a new technology was invented - "selenium ruby". Before that, to achieve the desired color, gold was added to the glass, which lost to selenium in cost and color saturation.

Lamps for the Kremlin stars were developed by special order at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant, they were developed by specialists from the lighting laboratory. Each lamp has two filaments connected in parallel, so even if one of them burns out, the lamp will not stop shining. The lamps were made at the Peterhof factory of precise technical stones. The power of electric lamps in the stars on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Nikolskaya towers is 5 kW, on Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya - 3.7 kW.

When solving the problem of uniform illumination of the stars, they immediately abandoned the idea of ​​installing many light bulbs inside the star, therefore, to ensure a uniform distribution of the light flux, the lamp is enclosed in many glass prisms. For the same purpose, the glass at the ends of the rays of stars has a lower density than in the center. During the day, the stars are illuminated more strongly than at night.

The central control panel for the control and ventilation of the stars is located in the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin. Every day, twice a day, the operation of the lamps is visually checked, and the blower fans are switched. To protect the stars from overheating, a ventilation system was developed, consisting of an air filter and two fans, one of which is a backup. Power outages are not terrible for ruby ​​stars, as they are self-powered.

Stars are usually washed every 5 years. Scheduled preventive maintenance is carried out on a monthly basis to maintain the reliable operation of auxiliary equipment; more serious work is carried out every 8 years.

For the second time in their history, the stars were redeemed in 1996 during the filming of the Moscow night scene for the film "The Barber of Siberia" at the personal request of director Nikita Mikhalkov.

Red stars abroad of the USSR

Many socialist countries erected red stars over their public institutions as a symbol of state policy and ideology. From 1954 to 1990, a red star towered over the Central House of the BKP in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia - an exact copy of the Soviet ones that were erected over the Moscow Kremlin. Today this star can be seen in the Museum of Socialist Art. The red star was installed on the parliament building in Budapest, built in 1885-1904, and dismantled in 1990.

Since the 1990s, there has been public discussion about the appropriateness of Soviet symbols in the Kremlin. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin stars were not dismantled, unlike other (hammer and sickle, emblems on palaces, etc.) Soviet symbols in the Kremlin. The attitude towards ruby ​​stars in society is ambiguous.

Supporters of the return of double-headed eagles

A number of social movements ("Return", "People's Cathedral", "For Faith and Fatherland", etc.), as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, take a certain position, declaring "that it would be fair to return the double-headed eagles that adorned them to the Kremlin towers for centuries." In 2010, in connection with the opening of the gate icons of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, disputes about the appropriateness of ruby ​​stars flared up with renewed vigor.

Above the Kremlin there have always been and will be symbols of the state power of the country. The symbol of state power in Russia is the double-headed eagle. Therefore, the joyful return of the eagle to the holy Spassky Tower will definitely happen. This is historically inevitable. If we live in a democratic Russia, then the president of such a Russia should not work under communist stars and next to the idols of Lenin and Stalin Vladimir Lavrov, Deputy Director for Science

Let's remove the stars above the Kremlin - there were eagles hanging there, and what about the stars? The five-pointed star is a sign of Freemasons Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, leader of the LDPR faction

On September 10, 2010, a month before the 75th anniversary of the installation of stars over the Kremlin, members of the Return Foundation turned to the president with a proposal to return the double-headed eagle to the Spasskaya Tower. The appeal caused a public discussion, but there was no response from the president.

Star conservationists

The museum community is skeptical about the idea of ​​replacing stars with eagles:

This topic comes up sporadically. But will we return the lost Russia by returning the eagles to the towers? Moreover, they would be a remake ... The stars are also monuments - they symbolize the established image of the Kremlin Andrey Batalov, Deputy General Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums

Consistently throughout the entire discussion, the replacement of stars is opposed by and

This year marks 80 years since proud stars lit up on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin instead of double-headed eagles. But their path to the Kremlin towers turned out to be thorny and winding ...

The first eagle settled on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin around 1600, and the last nested on the Spasskaya Tower only in 1912. The birds themselves were wooden, their parts were bolted together. The wings and heads were cast from metal. The whole structure was covered with gilding.

It would seem that the Bolsheviks should have removed the eagles in the first place. But it was not there! They continued to decorate the Kremlin towers until 1935. And their demolition was first discussed in 1930. (Apparently, there were more important things to do.) The new authorities even turned to the then-famous artist Igor Grabar with a request to evaluate the historical value of the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers. Fearing for his life, the restorer said what was expected of him: the eagles are not a monument of antiquity and cannot be protected by the state.

Soon a note was sent to the Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR Yenukidze from the former personal secretary of Lenin - Gorbunov. In it, the author claimed that Vladimir Ilyich, during his lifetime, repeatedly demanded that the eagles be removed and replaced with flags.

But even after that, the proud birds still remained in place. What was the matter? It turned out - in the budget! As follows from the minutes of the meeting of the secretariat of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR dated 12/13/1931: a proposal was received to include in the estimate for 1932 the costs of removing eagles from the Kremlin towers in the amount of 95,000 rubles. It was supposed to replace the eagles with the coats of arms of the USSR. But in 1932 no money was found. Or maybe they couldn’t decide what to exchange the eagles for?

Special operation of the NKVD

The final and irrevocable decision to remove the double-headed eagles from the Kremlin towers was made only in the summer of 1935. The TASS message read: “The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided by November 7, 1935 to remove four eagles located on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Trinity towers of the Kremlin wall, and two eagles from the building of the Historical Museum. By this date, it was decided to install five-pointed stars on the indicated four towers of the Kremlin. The responsibility for carrying out the operation of national importance was assigned to the commandant of the Kremlin Tkalun and, of course, the all-powerful NKVD. Preparation took a record two months, including time for sketching, coordination and production of the stars themselves.

They say that Stalin personally took an active part in the development of sketches. Although officially the design and manufacture of the first Kremlin stars were spoiled by two Moscow factories and the workshops of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, the well-known decorative artist Academician Fedor Fedorovich Fedorovsky was involved in the development of sketches.

However, it turned out to be not difficult to come up with an image of stars - unlike their manufacture. The star cases were welded from high-alloy stainless steel, and then lined with gilded copper sheets.

A memorandum has been preserved in which Kaganovich agrees to allocate 68 kg of gold for gilding the stars! Its thickness was 20 microns. On both sides of the star was decorated with an emblem - a hammer and sickle weighing 240 kilograms, decorated with precious stones: rock crystal, amethysts, alexandrites, topazes and aquamarines. Each of the stones was brilliant-cut (73 facets) and placed in a special silver caste with a screw and nut fastening. The total number of stones exceeded 7,000 pieces from 20 to 200 carats each, and two hundred and fifty of the best jewelers of the country were involved in their processing. Everything would be fine, only the stars turned out to be too bulky and heavy. The authorities even had to strengthen the dilapidated towers of the Kremlin. Steel structures were built into each, on which the first stars were planted.

The stars turned out to be different not only in decoration, but also in size. The edges of the star on the Spasskaya Tower were decorated with rays emanating from the center. The star of the Trinity Tower had the same rays, but designed in the form of ears of corn. Two contours were depicted on the star of the Borovitskaya Tower - one inscribed in the other, but for some reason the rays of the star of the Nikolskaya Tower did not have a pattern.

Maina, Vira, herbs a little ...

The installation of stars turned out to be a serious problem. There were no appropriate mechanisms for lifting weights on the towers. The specialists of Stalprommekhanizatsiya solved the most difficult task by designing and creating their own unique crane for each of the towers. It was fixed on the upper tier of each of the towers. At the base of the tent, a console was installed through the tower window, on which a crane was then assembled.

Before climbing the towers, the stars were put up for public viewing in Gorky Park. They installed it on special pedestals, upholstered in red calico, after which spotlights fell on their faces. According to eyewitnesses, at that moment the Ural gems sparkled with myriads of multi-colored lights. And already on October 24, 1935, the first star was raised on the Spasskaya Tower. The next day, another star shone on the top of the Trinity Tower. On October 26 and 27, five-pointed stars adorned the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers of the Kremlin.

The first pancake is lumpy

But, no matter how hard the Bolsheviks tried, the first attempt was unsuccessful. By 1937, the stars suddenly went out. The reason for this was the soot and smog of a large city, as well as adverse meteorological conditions. The stones just darkened. And the stars themselves turned out to be so massive that they began to suppress the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin.

After complaining about the wasted money and time, having calculated the optimal proportions, the authorities ordered new luminous ruby ​​stars. The semi-precious stones were replaced with internal illumination, and the fifth one, Vodovoznaya, was added to the four towers with a star.

An indispensable condition was the creation of a special design of the stars, thanks to which they would not corrode, and it would be possible to wash off dirt and soot from the outer surfaces. They even created a special control panel for the mechanisms of stars. But the second time was not without curiosities.

The fact is that the legendary ruby ​​glass was brewed with special additives of selenium and gold. When the trial batch was taken out into the street, it turned out that in daylight the ruby ​​​​glass looks almost black! Mourning stars over the Kremlin? A huge scandal was brewing. I had to lay a second inner layer of milky glass. Now the stars shone with the even color of natural rubies.

Powerful (up to 5000 watts!) lamps also caused a lot of trouble. When heated, they created a terrible heat, from which the ruby ​​​​glass could burst or crack. For cooling, powerful fans were used, passing about 600 cubic meters of air per hour.

It fades, it fades

Despite the fact that the creators of ruby ​​stars tried to take into account all the factors for their smooth operation, the stars went out several times.

The first time this happened during the Great Patriotic War. Realizing that the light of the stars is an excellent guide for enemy aircraft, the stars were extinguished and tightly wrapped in tarpaulin, and windows were painted on the walls of the Kremlin. However, when the stars were stripped of their disguise, they were found to be riddled with shrapnel holes. The stars underwent a large-scale restoration and were returned to the towers only in March 1946. The reconstruction was beneficial: to two layers, ruby ​​and milky, a third was added - made of crystal. Now the stars shone even brighter than before.

In 1996, the stars of the Kremlin were extinguished by Nikita Mikhalkov during the filming of Moscow at night in The Barber of Siberia. For the third time, they disappeared from the eyes of Muscovites for restoration behind massive casings-cases in 2014.

Why a star?

Since the times of the USSR, the inhabitants of Russia have become so accustomed to the abundance of red stars that they have not wondered for a long time why exactly the stars shone over the Kremlin?

On the one hand, the five-pointed star is a symbol of the god of war, Mars. It adorns the banners of Russia, China, the USA... On the other hand, a five-pointed star turned with one ray upwards has been considered a symbol of protection and security since ancient times. Which of these options the Bolsheviks had in mind is now difficult to say ...

By the way

Kremlin stars can also be used as a kind of weather vane. And because of their design, they can even withstand direct hurricane winds!

Exactly 80 years ago, the famous ruby ​​stars were installed on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin, which became a symbol of the capital. What they came to replace, how much they weigh and why Nikita Mikhalkov needed to put them out - the Moscow 24 portal has collected 10 of the most interesting facts.

Fact 1. There were eagles before the stars

From the 17th century on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya towers of the Moscow Kremlin towered gilded double-headed royal eagles made of copper.

They have not reached our days. By decision of the new government, on October 18, 1935, the eagles were removed and later melted down. The then historians decided that they were of no value and the metal was simply disposed of.

Fact 2. The first stars were installed on four towers

The first Kremlin star was installed on October 23, 1935 on the Spasskaya Tower. From October 25 to 27, the stars appeared on the Troitskaya, Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.

Fact 3. Before ruby ​​stars were copper and with gems

Initially, the stars were made of red copper sheet, which was fixed on a metal frame. Each star weighed approximately one ton.

The bronze emblems of the hammer and sickle were placed on the stars. The emblems were inlaid with Ural stones - rock crystal, topaz, amethyst, aquamarine, sandrite, alexandrite. Each stone weighed up to 20 grams.

Fact 4. The spire of the Northern River Station is crowned by the Kremlin Gem Star

The gem stars were dismantled shortly before the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution. One of them, taken from the Spasskaya Tower, was subsequently hoisted onto the spire of the Northern River Station in Moscow.

Fact 5. Ruby stars on five towers

Gem stars were replaced by new ones - ruby ​​ones. They were installed on November 2, 1937. The old stars were dimmed, and the gems did not shine very brightly.

Fact 6. Inside the stars - lighting lamps

Ruby stars glow from within. For their illumination, the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant (MELZ) developed special lamps in 1937.
The power of electric lamps in the stars on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Nikolskaya towers was 5 kW, on Vodovzvodnaya and Borovitskaya - 3.7 kW.

Fact 7. Stars have different sizes

Photo: TASS/Vasily Egorov and Alexey Stuzhin

Ruby stars of the Kremlin have different sizes. The span of the rays on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers is 3.75 meters, on Troitskaya - 3.5, on Borovitskaya - 3.2, and on Vodovzvodnaya - 3 meters.

Fact 8. The stars rotate like a weather vane

At the base of each star are special bearings. Thanks to them, a star weighing one ton can rotate in the wind like a weather vane. This is done to reduce the load at high air flows. Otherwise, the star may fall off the spire.

Fact 9. During the war, the stars were covered with a tarpaulin

The stars were extinguished for the first time during the Great Patriotic War. They were a good guide for enemy aircraft. The stars were covered in a tarpaulin. Subsequently, they were repaid again at the request of director Nikita Mikhalkov for the sake of shooting one of the episodes of The Barber of Siberia.

Fact 10. Since 2014, the stars have the next stage of reconstruction

In 2014, a complex reconstruction of the star was carried out at the Spasskaya Tower: it received a new lighting system with several metal halide lamps with a total power of 1000 W.

In 2015, the lamps in the star of the Trinity Tower were replaced, and in 2016, the Nikolskaya Tower. In 2018, the Borovitskaya Tower will be renovated.