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. Below the cut is the difficult story of the Kremlin stars and eagles.
Since the 1600s four Kremlin towers(Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya) were 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 information that the body of some eagles - if not all - was wooden, and other parts - metal; but it is logical to assume that those first two-headed birds were made entirely of wood). This fact - the fact of constant rotation of spire decorations - should be remembered, because it is he who will subsequently play one of the main roles during the replacement of eagles with stars.
In the early years Soviet power all double-headed eagles in the state were destroyed, all but four. Four gilded eagles sat on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The question of replacing the royal eagles with red stars on the Kremlin towers repeatedly arose soon after the revolution. However, such a replacement was associated with large financial expenses and therefore could not be carried out in the first years of Soviet power.
The real opportunity to allocate funds for installing stars on the Kremlin towers appeared much later. In 1930, they turned to the artist and art critic Igor Grabar with a request to establish the artistic and historical value of the Kremlin eagles. He replied: “... none of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers represent an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.”
Parade 1935. Eagles watch Maxim Gorky fly by 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 (Bolsheviks) decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Trinity towers of the Kremlin wall, and 2 eagle from the building Historical Museum. By the same date, it was decided to install a five-pointed star with a hammer and sickle on the indicated 4 Kremlin towers.”
The design and production of the first Kremlin stars was entrusted to two Moscow factories and workshops of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). An outstanding decorative artist, academician Fyodor Fedorovich Fedorovsky took up the development of sketches of future stars. He determined their shape, size, pattern. They decided to make the Kremlin stars from high-alloy stainless steel and red copper. In the middle of each star, on both sides, lined precious stones hammer and sickle emblems.
When the sketches were created, we made models of the stars in life size. The hammer and sickle emblems were temporarily inlaid with imitation precious stones. Each model star was illuminated with twelve spotlights. This is exactly how they intended to illuminate the real stars on the Kremlin towers at night and on cloudy days. When the spotlights were turned on, the stars sparkled and sparkled with a myriad of colorful lights.
The leaders of the party and the Soviet government came to inspect the finished models. They agreed to make the 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 took part in the creation of the Kremlin stars. For the Spasskaya and Troitskaya towers, the stars were made in the workshops of TsAGI under the leadership of the chief engineer of the institute A. A. Arkhangelsky, and for the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers - at Moscow factories under the leadership of the chief designer.
All four stars were different from each other decoration. So, on the edges of the star of the Spasskaya Tower 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. But 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 light but durable stainless steel frame. Framing decorations made of red copper sheets were placed on this frame. They were plated with gold with a thickness of 18 to 20 microns. Each star had a hammer and sickle emblem measuring 2 meters in size and weighing 240 kilograms on both sides. The emblems were decorated with precious Ural stones - rock crystal, amethysts, alexandrites, topazes and aquamarines. To make 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 operational department of the NKVD: “Each stone is cut with a diamond cut (on 73 sides) and is sealed to prevent falling out in a separate silver cast with a silver screw and nut. The total weight of all stars is 5600 kilograms."
Star for the Nikolskaya Tower. 1935 ph. B. Vdovenko. 
The frame of the emblem was made of bronze and stainless steel. Each precious stone in a frame of gilded silver was separately attached to this frame. Two hundred and fifty of the best jewelers in Moscow and Leningrad worked for a month and a half to create the emblems. The principles for the arrangement of stones were developed by Leningrad artists.
The design of the stars was designed to withstand the load of hurricane winds. Special bearings manufactured at the First Bearing Plant were installed at the base of each star. Thanks to this, the stars, despite their significant weight, could easily rotate and become their frontal side against the wind.
Before installing the stars on the Kremlin towers, engineers had doubts: would the towers withstand their weight and storm wind loads? After all, each star weighed on average one thousand kilograms and had a sail surface of 6.3 square meters. A thorough examination revealed that the upper ceilings of the tower vaults and their tents had fallen into disrepair. 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 connections 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 of Stalprommekhanizatsiya L.N. Shchipakov, I.V. Kunegin, N.B. Gitman and I.I. Reshetov were faced with the responsible task of raising and installing 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 specialists from Stalprommekhanizatsiya found an original solution. They designed and built a special crane for each tower that could be installed on its top tier. At the base of the tent, a metal base - a console - was built through the tower window. The crane was assembled on it.
The day came when everything was ready for the rise of the five-pointed stars. But first they decided to show them to Muscovites. On October 23, 1935, the stars were delivered to the Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after. M. Gorky and installed on pedestals covered with red. In the light of the spotlights, gilded rays sparkled and Ural gems sparkled. The secretaries of the city and district committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the chairman of the Moscow City 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 flash in the sky of Moscow.
The captured 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, mechanics checked the crane's winch and motor. At 12:40 the command “Vira little by little!” was heard. The star took off from the ground and began to slowly rise upward. When she reached a height of 70 meters, the winch stopped. The steeplejacks 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 this day several hundred people gathered on Red Square to follow the operation. The moment the star was on the spire, the entire 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 had perfected 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, whose rise due to 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. Or rather, only 65 days. Newspapers wrote about the labor feat of Soviet workers, who created real works of art in such a short period of time.
The star from the Spasskaya Tower now crowns the spire of the River Station. 
The first stars did not decorate the towers of the Moscow Kremlin for long. Just 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 due to their large size. Therefore, in May 1937, it was decided to install new stars - luminous, ruby ones. At the same time, another one 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 welded at a glass factory in Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of Moscow glassmaker N.I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to cook 500 square meters ruby glass, for which it was invented new technology- “selenium ruby”. Before this to achieve desired color gold was added to glass; Selenium is cheaper and the color is deeper. At the base of each star, special bearings were installed so that, despite their weight, they could rotate like a weather vane. They are not afraid of rust and hurricanes, since the “frame” of the stars is made of special stainless steel. The fundamental difference: weather vanes indicate where the wind is blowing, and Kremlin stars indicate where the wind is blowing. Have you understood the essence and significance of the fact? Thanks to the diamond-shaped cross section
stars, she always stubbornly stands head-on against the wind. And any - up to a hurricane. Even if everything around is completely demolished, the stars and tents will remain intact. That's how it was designed and built. But suddenly the following was discovered: ruby stars appear... black. The answer was found - the five-pointed beauties had to be made in two layers, and the bottom, inner layer of glass had to be milky white, scattering light well. By the way, this provided both a more even glow and hiding the filaments of the lamps from human eyes. By the way, a dilemma arose here too - 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. The combination of different thicknesses and color saturations of the glass helped. In addition, the lamps are enclosed in refractors consisting of prismatic glass tiles.
Photo chistoprudov
Powerful lamps (up to 5000 watts) raised the temperature inside the stars, like in a locomotive furnace. The heat threatened to destroy both the lamp bulbs themselves and the precious five-pointed rubies. The professor wrote: “It is quite clear that the glass cannot be allowed to burst and crack in the event of rain or a change in 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 in danger of a power outage, since their energy supply is autonomous.
Lamps for the Kremlin stars were developed at the Moscow Electric Tube Plant. The power of three - on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers - is 5000 watts, and 3700 watts - on Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya. Each contains two filaments connected in parallel. If one lamp burns out, the lamp continues to light, and a fault signal is sent to the control panel. The mechanism for changing lamps is interesting: you don’t even have to go up to the star, the lamp goes down on a special rod directly through the bearing. The entire procedure takes 30-35 minutes.
In the evening and at night, bright scarlet stars burn over the Moscow Kremlin - symbols of our country’s socialist past. These five-pointed lamps, made of special “ruby” glass, were installed to replace the Armorial Eagles of the Russian Empire in the 1930s of the last century.
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 (Bolsheviks) decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Trinity 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 hammer and sickle on the indicated 4 Kremlin towers.”
The first star replaced the eagle on the Spasskaya Tower. This event took place on October 24, 1935, and the next day the second star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower. On October 26 and 27, the stars shone over the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. On Vodovzvodnaya the star appeared later than others - only in May 1937.
The design and production of the first Kremlin stars were carried out by two Moscow factories, as well as workshops of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute. The drawings were created by an outstanding decorative artist, academician Fyodor Fedorovich Fedorovsky, who not only calculated their shape and size, but also sketched the finishing options.
It was decided to make the first Kremlin stars from stainless steel and red copper. In the middle of each of them, on both sides, the emblems of the Soviet state, lined with precious stones - the hammer and sickle - were supposed to sparkle.
For presentation to the leaders of the party and government, full-size models of all four stars were made, which, it must be said, differed from each other in artistic design.
On the edges of the star of the Spasskaya Tower there were rays emanating from the center; on the Trinity star - the rays were made in the form of ears of corn. The “Borovitskaya” star consisted of two contours inscribed one into the other, and the rays of the Nikolskaya Tower star had no pattern at all.
The country's leaders appreciated the splendor shown to them and agreed to make the stars. True, with one condition: that the symbols of the country be rotating - let Muscovites and guests of the capital admire them from everywhere. Soon several factories received government orders of particular importance.
The supporting structure of the huge stars was made in the form of a light but durable stainless steel frame, on which were placed framing decorations made of red copper sheets. The red metal was plated with 18 to 20 microns of gold.
On each star, a hammer and sickle emblem measuring 2 meters and weighing 240 kilograms was attached on both sides. The frame of the emblem was made of bronze and stainless steel. Separately attached to it were precious stones set in gilded silver, making up the hammer and sickle.
Two hundred and fifty of the best jewelers in Moscow and Leningrad worked on the creation of these emblems for one and a half months. In total, about 7 thousand Ural gems - topazes, aquamarines, amethysts and alexandrites, ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats - were used to make the eight emblems.
The craftsmen installed special bearings manufactured at the First Bearing Plant at the base of each star. Thanks to this, the stars, despite their significant weight (about a ton), could easily rotate and withstand any wind.
The task of lifting the stars was entrusted to the specialists of the All-Union office Stalprommekhanizatsiya, who found an original solution - they designed and built a special crane for each tower, which could be installed on its upper tier. The operation to install one star took about two hours.
However, the first stars of the Kremlin did not decorate its towers for long. Under the influence of atmospheric precipitation, within a year the Ural gems faded and the gilding ceased to shine.
In May 1937, it was decided to install new stars - luminous, ruby ones. The star, which in 1935–1937 crowned the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower, was moved to the spire of the capital’s Northern River Station.
The new stars received double glazing: the inner one was made of milky glass, which scatters light well, and the outer one was made of ruby, bright red glass, 6–7 mm thick. This was done because in bright sunlight the red color of the stars from the earth would appear black.
There are no precious stones in them: the resemblance to a ruby is given to the glass by the selenium added to it during cooking.
The lamps of the Kremlin stars deserve special attention. They were developed by special order at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant. They contain two filaments connected in parallel. Therefore, even if one of them burns out, the lamp will not stop shining.
During the war, in order to camouflage the capital, the Kremlin stars were covered with tarpaulin. When the disguise was removed, it turned out that the glasses of the stars were severely damaged. They were probably hit more than once by anti-aircraft artillery shells defending Moscow from German air raids.
A complete restoration of the Kremlin stars was carried out at the end of 1945 - beginning of 1946. The craftsmen resumed gilding the frame, and made the glass three-layered: a crystal layer appeared between the ruby and milk glass. The Kremlin stars have become even brighter, stronger and more beautiful.
Several years ago, the ruby stars were once again subjected to restoration - craftsmen examined the lamps and replaced some cracked glass.
Stars are usually washed every five years. Monthly for maintenance reliable operation auxiliary equipment, scheduled preventative maintenance is carried out, more serious ones are performed every eight years.
The Kremlin star system has a single control center, which is located in the Trinity Tower. Twice a day, the operation of the lamps is visually checked, and their fans are also switched. There is no threat of a power outage for the five-pointed Kremlin luminaries - they have an autonomous power supply.
The five towers of the Moscow Kremlin, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Vodovzvodnaya, still shine with red stars, but the towers of the State Historical Museum are now proudly crowned with double-headed eagles. This is how the heirs of the glorious past of our great country coexist peacefully on Red Square.
The Moscow Kremlin is the oldest and central part of Moscow on Borovitsky Hill, on the left bank of the Moscow River. Its walls and towers were built from white stone in 1367, and from brick in 1485-1495. The modern Kremlin has 20 towers.
In the 50s of the 17th century on top of the tent main tower The Kremlin (Spasskaya) emblem was erected Russian Empire- double-headed eagle. Later, coats of arms were installed on the highest passage towers of the Kremlin: Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya.
After the revolution of 1917, the question repeatedly arose about replacing the royal eagles on the Kremlin towers with figures symbolizing a new period in the life of the country - the coats of arms of the USSR, gilded emblems with a hammer and sickle, or with simple flags, as on other towers. But in the end they decided to install the stars. However, this required large financial expenses, which the Soviet government could not afford in the first years of its existence.
In August 1935, the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was published to replace the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers with five-pointed stars with a hammer and sickle by November 7, 1935. Before this, back in 1930, the authorities requested famous artist Igor Grabar about the historical value of eagles. He found out that they were changed on the towers once every century, or even more often. The oldest was the eagle on the Trinity Tower - 1870, and the newest - on Spasskaya - 1912. In a memo, Grabar said that “not one of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers represents an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.”
The double-headed eagles were removed from the Kremlin towers on October 18, 1935. For some time they were exhibited on the territory of the Park of Culture and Recreation, and then.
The first five-pointed star was erected on the Spasskaya Tower on October 24, 1935, with a large crowd of people on Red Square. On October 25, the star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, on October 26 and 27 - on the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
Throughout all the years of their existence, the Kremlin stars were provided with the most careful care. They are usually washed every five years. To maintain reliable operation of auxiliary equipment, scheduled preventative maintenance is carried out monthly; more serious work is carried out every eight years.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
The spiers of the Kremlin towers were decorated with heraldic double-headed eagles. The Moscow Kremlin has 20 towers and only four of them were crowned with the state coat of arms. The first double-headed eagle was erected on top of the tent of the Spasskaya Tower in the 50s of the 17th century. Later, Russian coats of arms were installed on the highest passage towers of the Kremlin: Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya.
The question of replacing the royal eagles on the Kremlin towers with figures symbolizing a new period in the life of the country repeatedly arose soon after the 1917 revolution. In 1930, specialists from restoration workshops led by Igor Grabar concluded that the figures of double-headed eagles were not of historical value and, therefore, could be replaced. Instead of “symbols of tsarism” they decided to install stars.
On August 23, 1935, the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was published to replace the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers with five-pointed stars with a hammer and sickle by November 7, 1935.
On October 24, 1935, with a large crowd of people on Red Square, a five-pointed star was erected on the Spasskaya Tower. On October 25, the star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, on October 26 and 27 - on the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
The body of the stars was made of stainless steel, lined with gilded copper sheets. In the center of them, on both sides, were a sickle and a hammer, decorated with Ural gems - topazes, amethysts, aquamarines. Each of the seven thousand stones used for decoration was cut and placed in a frame.
The pattern was not repeated on any of the stars. The distance between their beams on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers was 4.5 meters, on the Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers - four and 3.5 meters, respectively. The star on the Spasskaya Tower was decorated with rays diverging from the center to the tops. The rays of the star installed on the Trinity Tower were made in the form of ears of corn. On the Borovitskaya Tower, the pattern followed the contour of the five-pointed star itself. The star of the Nikolskaya Tower was smooth, without a pattern.
The stars weighed about a ton each. The tents of the Kremlin towers were not designed for such a load, so before installing the stars they were strengthened, and on Nikolskaya they were rebuilt. Lifting stars at that time was a big technical problem, since there were no high-rise tower cranes. Special cranes had to be made for each tower; they were installed on consoles mounted on the upper brick tiers.
Illuminated from below by spotlights, the first stars decorated the Kremlin for almost two years, but under the influence of atmospheric precipitation the gems faded and lost their festive appearance. In addition, they did not fully fit into the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin due to their size. The stars turned out to be too large and visually hung heavily over the towers.
In May 1937, it was decided to establish for the twentieth anniversary October revolution new stars, and on five Kremlin towers, including Vodovzvodnaya.
On November 2, 1937, new stars lit up above the Kremlin. More than 20 enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and glass industries, research and design institutes took part in their creation.
Developed sketches of new stars folk artist USSR Fedor Fedorovsky. He suggested a ruby color for the glass, determined the shape and pattern of the stars, as well as their sizes depending on the architecture and height of each tower. The proportions and sizes were chosen so well that the new stars, despite the fact that they were installed 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 burns on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, located in the lowland: the distance between the ends of its rays is three meters. On Borovitskaya and Troitskaya the stars are larger - 3.2 and 3.5 meters, respectively. The largest stars are installed on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, located on a hill: the span of their rays is 3.75 meters.
The main supporting structure of the star is a three-dimensional five-pointed frame, resting at the base on a pipe in which bearings are placed for its rotation. Each ray is a multi-sided pyramid: the star of the Nikolskaya Tower has a twelve-sided one, the other stars have an octagonal one. The bases of these pyramids are welded together in the center of the star.
To ensure uniform and bright illumination of the entire surface of the star, the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant developed and manufactured special incandescent lamps with a power of 5000 watts for the stars of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers and 3700 watts for the stars of the Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers, and to protect the stars from overheating, specialists developed a special ventilation system.
For more reliable operation of the lamps, two incandescent filaments (spirals) 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 the control panel about the malfunction. The lamps have extremely high luminous efficiency; the filament temperature reaches 2800°C. 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, each lamp was enclosed in a refractor (a three-dimensional hollow fifteen-sided figure).
The difficult task was to create a special ruby glass, which had to have different densities, transmit red rays of a certain wavelength, be resistant to sudden temperature changes, mechanically strong, not discolor and not be destroyed by exposure solar radiation. It was made under the guidance of the famous glassmaker Nikanor Kurochkin.
To ensure that the light was evenly scattered, each Kremlin star had double glazing: the inner one, made of milk glass, two millimeters thick, and the outer one, made of ruby glass, six to seven millimeters thick. An air gap of 1-2 millimeters was provided between them. The double glazing of the stars was caused by the characteristics of ruby glass, which has a pleasant color only when illuminated from the opposite side, but the contours of the light source are clearly visible. Without backlighting, ruby glass looks dark even in bright conditions. sunny days. Thanks to the internal glazing of the stars with milk glass, the light of the lamp was well scattered, the filaments became invisible, and the ruby glass shone most brightly.
The stars are illuminated from within both day and night. At the same time, to preserve the rich ruby color, they are illuminated more strongly during the day than at night.
Despite their significant mass (about one ton), the stars on the Kremlin towers rotate relatively easily when the wind direction changes. Due to their shape, they are always installed with the frontal side facing the wind.
Unlike the first non-luminous stars, ruby stars have only three different patterns(Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are identical in design).
Mechanisms for servicing the Kremlin stars are located inside the towers. Control of equipment and mechanisms is concentrated at a central point, where information about the operating mode of the lamps is automatically supplied.
During the Great Patriotic War the stars, like the entire Kremlin, were disguised. In 1945, having removed the camouflage, experts discovered that cracks and holes appeared on the ruby glasses from fragments of anti-aircraft artillery shells, which worsened their appearance and made it difficult to operate. The reconstruction of the Kremlin stars was carried out from September 7, 1945 to February 7, 1946. During it, the glazing of the stars was replaced with a three-layer one, consisting of ruby glass, crystal and milk glass. The ruby glasses on the stars of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers were given a convex shape. During the reconstruction, it was also possible to improve the illumination of the stars. Inspection hatches were made in all five rays of each star.
Electric winches were installed to replace lamps in the stars and install equipment, but the main mechanisms remained the same - model 1937.
Stars are usually washed every five years. To maintain reliable operation of auxiliary equipment, scheduled preventative maintenance is carried out monthly; more serious work is carried out every eight years.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
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Until 1935, in the very center of the country of victorious socialism, the gilded symbols of tsarism—double-headed eagles—still adorned itself. For three centuries they have crowned the four Kremlin towers - Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya.
These eagles did not sit on the spiers for centuries - they were periodically changed. Disputes still continue about what material they were made of - metal or gilded wood. There are suggestions that the bodies of the eagles were wooden, and individual parts were metal.
Still from the film "Circus". On the Spasskaya Tower and on the Historical Museum we see two-headed eagles. In 1936, when the film was released, the eagles had already been replaced with stars.
TASS IS AUTHORIZED TO DECLARE
In the first years of Soviet power, all double-headed eagles in the state were destroyed. All except four - those who flew higher than everyone else and settled on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. But over time we got to them. In 1930, the authorities turned to the artist and art critic Igor Grabar with a request to evaluate the artistic and historical value of the Kremlin eagles.
He replied that “... none of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers represent an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.”
Let us leave this conclusion to the conscience of the author. One way or another, in August 1935, a TASS message was published: “The Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the towers of the Kremlin wall, and 2 eagles from the building of the Historical Museum. By the same date, it was decided to install five-pointed stars with a hammer and sickle on the Kremlin towers.”
Replacing eagles with stars
On October 18, 1935, all eagles from the Kremlin towers were removed. Due to its old design, the eagle from the Trinity Tower had to be dismantled on the spot. The work of removing the birds and installing the stars was carried out by experienced climbers under the watchful supervision of the NKVD. The design and production of the first Kremlin stars was entrusted to two Moscow factories and TsAGI workshops.
The sketches were presented by the famous decorative artist Academician Fedorovsky. According to his design, the stars intended for different towers differed from each other in size and decor. On the star of the Trinity Tower, the rays were made in the form of ears of corn; the star of the Borovitskaya Tower was two contours inscribed one into the other.
But the rays of the star of the Nikolskaya Tower had no pattern. The stars of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers were the same size. The distance between the ends of their rays was 4.5 m. The stars of the Trinity and Borovitskaya towers were slightly smaller.
The supporting structure was made in the form of a light but durable stainless steel frame, on which red copper sheets coated with gold leaf were applied. On each star, on both sides, the hammer and sickle emblems were strengthened, decorated with precious Ural stones - rock crystal, amethysts, alexandrites, topazes and aquamarines. It took about 7 thousand stones to make the eight emblems.
As a result, each star weighed about 1,000 kg and also had a windage area of up to 6 m2. A thorough examination revealed that the upper ceilings of the towers and their tents were in a deplorable state. It was necessary to strengthen the brickwork of the upper floors and equip the structure with additional metal braces.
FIRST STAR
Based on the sketches accepted by the government, life-size models of the stars were made. The hammer and sickle were inlaid with imitation precious stones. Each model was illuminated by several spotlights, in the rays of which the stars sparkled with a myriad of multi-colored lights. Members of the government came to look at them and the eagles removed from the towers on display there, and then many thousands of Muscovites gathered. Everyone wanted to admire the beauty and grandeur of the stars that were soon to flash in the sky of Moscow.
On October 24, 1935, the first star was installed on the Spasskaya Tower, having previously polished it. At 12:40 the command was heard: “Vira little by little!”, and the huge structure, taking off from the ground, slowly crawled up. When she reached a height of 70 m, the winch stopped.
The steeplejacks standing at the very top of the tower carefully picked up the star and pointed it at the spire. At 13:00 the star descended exactly on the support pin. On this day, hundreds of people gathered on Red Square. The moment the star landed on the spire, the crowd burst into applause.
The next day, the star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, and on October 26 and 27 the stars shone above the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. The installers had already mastered the lifting technique so well that they needed 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 strong winds, lasted about two hours.
The life of the new symbols was short-lived. Just a year later, under the influence of precipitation, the gemstones faded. In addition, the stars did not really fit into the architectural ensemble due to their too large sizes. Therefore, in May 1937, it was decided to replace them with new ones - luminous, ruby ones, installing the same one on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower.
Special ruby glass for new stars was welded at the Konstantinovsky glass factory. In total, it was necessary to produce 500 m2 of glass. Powerful bearings were installed at the base of each star so that they could rotate like a weather vane. But, unlike a weather vane, which indicates which way the wind is blowing, the stars, thanks to their diamond-shaped cross-section, always face the wind. At the same time, they are able to withstand the pressure of even hurricane winds.
IF THE STARS LIGHT...
It would seem that everything is fine. But suddenly it was discovered that in sunlight, ruby stars look black! A solution was found: the glass should be made of two layers, and the inner layer should be milky white, scattering light well. At the same time, this provided a more even glow and hid the filaments of the lamps.
To ensure that the glow of the entire surface of the star was even, glass of varying thickness and color saturation was used, and the lamps were enclosed in prismatic refractors. To protect the glass from the thermal effects of powerful (up to 5,000 W) lamps, ventilation of the internal cavity was organized. About 600 m3 of air per hour is passed through the stars, which completely protects them from overheating.
The Kremlin luminaries are not threatened by a power outage, since their energy supply is autonomous. Each star lamp contains two filaments connected in parallel. If one of them burns out, the lamp continues to light, and a fault signal is sent to the control panel. The mechanism for changing lamps is interesting: you don’t even have to go up to the star, the lamp goes down on a special rod directly through the bearing. The entire procedure takes up to half an hour.
Throughout history, the stars have only gone out twice. The first time was during the war, when they were extinguished so as not to become a guiding beacon for German bombers. Covered with burlap, they patiently waited out the bombing, but when it was all over, it turned out that some of the glass was damaged and required replacement. Moreover, our anti-aircraft gunners turned out to be the unwitting culprits.
The second time the stars went out briefly at the request of Nikita Mikhalkov in 1997, when he was filming his “The Barber of Siberia.” Since then, the Kremlin stars have been burning continuously, becoming the main symbol of the Russian capital.
It would seem that nothing threatens them. After the breakup Soviet Union the Kremlin stars were not dismantled, unlike other Soviet symbols (sickles and hammers, coats of arms on palaces, etc.). And yet their fate today is not so cloudless. For a quarter of a century, discussions about the appropriateness of Soviet symbols over the Kremlin have not subsided in society. Whether they will continue to shine, time will tell.
