The symbol of stars on the Kremlin. Secrets of the Kremlin ruby ​​stars

Kremlin Stars is a brand known all over the world. Their ruby ​​color is remembered in dozens of songs and poems, and their image is unmistakably associated with the Russian capital. Moscow and the Kremlin stars are firmly connected with each other in the minds of every Russian. However, few people wonder how difficult it is to produce a product worthy of decorating the heart of Russia. Now the technology and capabilities for manufacturing the Kremlin star are owned by almost the only enterprise in the country. Zvezda talked with the deputy director of the Research and Production Company Steklo of the Romashin ONPP Tekhnologiya, Vyacheslav Samsonov. It is this research and production complex that holds the secrets of producing Kremlin stars. How the stars did before the war Kremlin stars were not always made of ruby glass, initially the creators thought of making them from precious and semi-precious materials. In the 30s, prototypes of such products were made, but later the idea had to be abandoned, since from a height made of precious stones the stars looked completely nondescript, Samsonov said.

“In 1937 they made it from ruby ​​glass, but the attempt was unsuccessful, since the lighting element is an incandescent lamp that stands and illuminates these stars. She was visible through the glass. That is, there was no such effect that the star was burning, the lamp itself was visible from the inside,” noted the deputy director of NPK Steklo.

“In Vyshny Volochyok they made another option, a working one. This is overhead glass. What is overlay glass? Ruby red is collected, a cylinder of red glass is blown, and then crystal glass, colorless, is poured onto it from a second furnace nearby. And on top there is a third layer, this is opal, or milk glass. Here's a three-layer sandwich. Stars were made from it, these stars have proven themselves well,” shared Vyacheslav Samsonov.

“It’s difficult to get them (ruby glasses - editor’s note). They contain about ten elements in composition, quartz sand, soda, zinc white and boric acid... metallic selenium and cadmium carbonate are used as dyes, which in certain proportions give such color saturation. Selenium glass is very difficult to cook; it is a very volatile material, if temperature conditions gone, it may darken, become light, or disappear altogether,” Samsonov said.

In the fall of 1935, the last symbol of the Russian monarchy was ordered to live long - the double-headed eagles that had 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, as was the image of the state emblem. At the time the eagles were removed they were all different years production: the oldest eagle of the Trinity Tower is from 1870, the newest is from the Spasskaya Tower - from 1912.

After October revolution V. I. Lenin repeatedly spoke about the need to dismantle the double-headed eagles from the Kremlin towers. There were several proposals to replace the coat of arms eagles - with simple flags, like on other towers, with the coats of arms of the USSR, gilded emblems with a hammer and sickle. But in the end they decided to install the stars.

On June 20, 1930, the manager of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Gorbunov wrote to the secretary of the presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR A. S. Enukidze:

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 do we need to preserve these symbols of tsarism?

With communist greetings, Gorbunov.

In an extract from the minutes of the meeting of the secretariat of the USSR Central Executive Committee dated December 13, 1931, there is a mention of a proposal to include 95 thousand rubles in the estimate for 1932 for the cost of removing eagles from the Kremlin towers and replacing them with the emblems of the USSR. However, only in August 1935 a Politburo resolution was issued: “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 eagles 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.”

Removing the double-headed eagles from the Kremlin towers and attaching stars to them was not an easy task. The height of the lowest tower, Borovitskaya, is 52 meters, the highest, Troitskaya, is 72 meters. At that time there were no large high-rise cranes to help with this operation.

Specialists from the all-Union office “Stalprommekhanizatsiya” developed cranes that were installed directly on the upper tiers of the towers. Through the tower windows at the base of the tents, strong console platforms were built, on which the cranes were assembled. The work of installing the cranes and dismantling the eagles took two weeks.

Double-headed eagles taken from the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers, in the Central Park of Culture and Culture named after. Gorky, October 23, 1935

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 of removing the eagles and raising the stars was carried out by experienced steeplejacks under the guidance and control of the NKVD operational department and the Kremlin commandant Tkalun. Having made sure that the eagles were of no value, the first deputy people's commissar of the NKVD addressed a letter to L. M. Kaganovich: “I ask for your order: to hand over to the NKVD of the USSR for gilding Kremlin stars 67.9 kilograms of gold. The gold covering of the eagles will be removed and handed over to the State Bank.”

On October 23, 1935, the stars were delivered to the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure and installed on pedestals covered in red. New symbols appeared for review by Muscovites and guests of the capital state power, shimmering with gold and Ural gems. Next to the golden stars sparkling from the light of the spotlights, they placed the removed eagles with the stripped gold, which were sent to be melted down the next day.

The new gem stars weighed about a ton. The tents of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers were not designed for such a load, so they had to be reinforced from the inside with metal supports and pins, on which it was planned to plant the stars. A metal pyramid with a support pin for the star was installed inside the Borovitskaya Tower tent. A strong metal glass was installed at the 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 installation 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, and on October 26 and 27 on the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.

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 first stars, installed in October 1935, were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper. Electroplating workshops were specially built to gild 130 m² of copper sheets. In the center of the star, a hammer and sickle was laid out with Ural gems - a symbol Soviet Russia, coated 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 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.

However, very soon the stars lost their original beauty. The soot, dust and dirt of the Moscow air, mixing with precipitation, caused the gems to fade, and the gold lost its shine, despite the spotlights illuminating them. 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. The star, which was on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in 1935-1937, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station.

In May 1937, a decision was made to replace the semi-precious stars that had lost their shine with new stars - luminous ones made of ruby ​​glass. Ruby glass was welded according to the recipe of the Moscow glassmaker N.I. Kurochkin at the glass factory in Konstantinovka. 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 the glass, which was inferior to selenium in cost and color saturation.

On November 2, 1937, new ruby ​​stars lit up over the Kremlin. To the four towers with stars, another one was added, which did not previously have an ending in the form of an eagle - Vodovzvodnaya. Unlike semi-precious stars, ruby ​​stars only have 3 different patterns(Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are identical in design), and the frame of each star is a multifaceted pyramid. Each ray of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers has 8, and the Nikolskaya tower has 12 faces.

At the base of each star, special bearings are installed 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 milk glass, which diffuses light well, and the outer one is made of ruby ​​glass, 6-7 mm thick. This was done for the following purpose: in bright sunlight the red color of the stars would appear black. Therefore, a layer of milky-white glass was placed inside the stars, which allowed the stars to look bright and, in addition, made the filaments of the lamps invisible. The 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.

During the Great Patriotic War the stars were extinguished and covered with a tarpaulin, since they were a very good reference point for enemy aircraft. When the protective camouflage was removed, fragmentation damage from a Moscow medium- and small-caliber anti-aircraft air defense battery, located in the area of ​​the Kremlin's Big Square, became visible. The stars were removed and lowered to the ground for repairs. The complete restoration was completed by New Year 1946. In March, the stars were raised onto the towers again.

This time the stars were glazed in a completely new way. According to a special recipe developed by N. S. Shpigov, three-layer ruby ​​glass was made. First, a flask was blown from molten ruby ​​glass, which was covered with molten crystal and then with milk glass. The “layered” cylinder welded in this way was cut and straightened into sheets. Three-layer glass was produced at the Krasny May glass factory in Vyshny Volochyok. The steel frame was re-gilded. When the stars were lit again, they became even brighter and more elegant.

Before the rise of the restored star to the Trinity Tower, March 1946/kp.ru

The stars are not in danger of a power outage because their energy supply is self-sufficient. The lamps were manufactured at the Peterhof Precision Stones Plant. Each lamp contains two filaments connected in parallel, so even if one of them burns out, the lamp will not stop shining. and a fault signal will be sent to the control panel. To change lamps you do not need 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. The power of electric lamps in the stars on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Nikolskaya towers is 5 kW, on Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya - 3.7 kW.

To protect the stars from overheating, a ventilation system was developed, consisting of an air purification filter and two fans, one of which is a backup. Power outages are not a problem for ruby ​​stars, since they are self-powered.

Stars are usually washed every 5 years. Monthly for maintenance reliable operation scheduled maintenance work is carried out on auxiliary equipment. More serious work is carried out every 8 years.

For the second time in its history, the stars were extinguished 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.

Materials used:

She replaced the “Tsar’s Eagle” on the Spasskaya Tower. Next, stars were placed on the Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya and Trinity towers. Then, when replacing the stars in 1937, a fifth star appeared on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, where state symbols had not been placed before.

Installation of stars on the Kremlin towers

Dismantling the eagles

Double-headed eagles, being state symbols 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, as was the image of the state emblem. At the time of removal of the eagles, they were all of different years of manufacture: the oldest eagle of the Trinity Tower was 1870, the newest eagle of the Spasskaya Tower was 1912.

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

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 do we need to preserve these symbols of tsarism?

With communist greetings,
Gorbunov.

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

While the stars were being made, the builders and installers were solving 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 to help with this operation. Specialists from the all-Union office “Stalprommekhanizatsiya” developed special cranes that were installed directly on the upper tiers of the towers. Through the tower windows at the base of the tents, strong console platforms were built, on which the cranes were assembled. The work of installing the cranes and dismantling 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 of removing the eagles and raising the stars was carried out by experienced climbers under the guidance and control of the NKVD operational department and the Kremlin commandant Tkalun. 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 states: “...I was instructed to remove the eagles from the Kremlin towers and from the Historical Museum by November 7, replacing them with stars. I inform you that this task of the Politburo has been completed..."

Having made sure that the eagles were of no value, the First Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD addressed a letter to L. M. Kaganovich: “I ask for your order: To 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

The new gem 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 the stars. A metal pyramid with a support pin for the star was installed inside the Borovitskaya Tower tent. A strong metal glass was installed at the 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 installation 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, and on October 26 and 27 on the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.

The first stars were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper. Electroplating workshops were specially built to gild 130 m² of copper sheets. In the center of the star, the symbol of Soviet Russia - the hammer and sickle - was laid out with Ural gems. The hammer and sickle 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 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. However, very soon the stars lost their original beauty. The soot, dust and dirt of the Moscow air, mixing with precipitation, caused the gems to fade, and the gold lost its shine, despite the spotlights illuminating them. 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.

The star, which was 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 design), 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 milk glass, which diffuses light well, and the outer one is made of ruby ​​glass, 6-7 mm thick. This was done for the following purpose: 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 welded at the Avtosteklo plant in the city of Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of Moscow glassmaker N.I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 m² of ruby ​​glass, for which a new technology was invented - “selenium ruby”. Previously, to achieve the desired color, gold was added to glass, which was inferior to selenium in cost and color saturation.

The 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 contains two filaments connected in parallel, so even if one of them burns out, the lamp will not stop shining. The lamps were manufactured at the Peterhof precision technical stones plant. 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 star, they immediately abandoned the idea of ​​​​installing many light bulbs inside the star, therefore, to ensure 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 star ventilation 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 also switched. To protect the stars from overheating, a ventilation system was developed, consisting of an air purification filter and two fans, one of which is a backup. Power outages are not a problem for ruby ​​stars, since they are self-powered.

Stars are usually washed every 5 years. To maintain reliable operation of auxiliary equipment, scheduled preventative maintenance is carried out monthly; more serious work is carried out every 8 years.

For the second time in its history, the stars were extinguished in 1996 during the filming of a Moscow night scene for the film “The Barber of Siberia” at the personal request of director Nikita Mikhalkov.

Red stars abroad 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 rose above the Central House of the BKP in the Bulgarian capital Sofia - exact copy Soviet ones, which were erected above 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 debate about the appropriateness of Soviet symbols in the Kremlin. After the breakup Soviet Union Kremlin stars were not dismantled, unlike other (hammer and sickle, coats of arms 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 Council”, “For Faith and Fatherland”, etc.), as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, take a certain position, declaring “that it would be fair to return to the Kremlin towers the double-headed eagles that decorated them for centuries." In 2010, in connection with the opening of the gate icons of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, debates about the appropriateness of ruby ​​stars flared up with renewed vigor.

On September 10, 2010, a month before the 75th anniversary of the installation of stars over the Kremlin, members of the Return Foundation approached 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, and then the opportunity to return the Kremlin eagles was completely canceled due to mass protests from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, as well as due to the elections to the State Duma and the elections of the President of Russia, held on December 4, 2011 and March 4 2012, respectively.

Supporters of star conservation

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

Consistently throughout the discussion, the replacement of stars was also opposed

Here we studied something, and now let’s move on to a more specific topic, especially since the date corresponds. 80 years ago, from October 24 to October 27, 1935, the first five-pointed stars were installed on four towers of the Moscow Kremlin.

Until this historical moment, the spiers of the Kremlin towers were decorated with heraldic double-headed eagles. 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. In October 1935, instead of the double-headed royal eagles, five-pointed stars appeared over the Kremlin.

It was proposed to replace the armorial eagles with flags, as on other towers, and with emblems with a hammer and sickle, and with the coats of arms of the USSR, but stars were chosen.

Change symbol Russian Empire to the symbol of the new Soviet power tried several times. Back in the years civil war This proposal was made by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Lenin. However, in conditions of total economic collapse, the wishes of the leader of the revolution were not fulfilled.

Why the five-pointed star became the symbol of Soviet power is not known for certain, but what is known is that Leon Trotsky lobbied for this symbol. Seriously interested in esotericism, he knew that the star - a pentagram, has a very powerful energy potential and is one of the most powerful symbols.

The symbol of the new state could well be the swastika, the cult of which was very strong in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The swastika was depicted on the “Kerenki”; ​​swastikas were painted on the wall of the Ipatiev House by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna before execution. But by an almost unanimous decision, at the suggestion of Trotsky, the Bolsheviks settled on a five-pointed star. The history of the 20th century will show that the “star” is stronger than the “swastika”... The stars also shone over the Kremlin, replacing the double-headed eagles.

Parade 1935. Eagles watch Maxim Gorky fly by and spoil the holiday;)))

And only on August 23, 1935, a resolution was adopted by the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to replace the old symbols with new ones. Immediately after this, a TASS message was issued, informing Soviet people: “...by November 7, 1935, 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.” .

The design and production of new Kremlin symbols was entrusted to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. Professor N.E. Zhukovsky with the participation of two Moscow defense plants. The sketches were approved by I.V. Stalin.

The preparation of sketches was entrusted to E.E. Lancer. On the first sketch, Stalin wrote: Okay, but it should be without a circle in the center , while “without” was underlined twice. Lanceray quickly corrected everything and submitted a new sketch for approval. Stalin again made the remark: Okay, but it should be without a fastening stick , and the word “without” was again underlined twice. After this, the development of the star sketch was transferred to F.F. Fedorovsky.

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.

The first Kremlin stars were made of red copper and stainless steel. Special galvanic workshops were built for their gilding. In the center of each star, the symbol of the USSR was laid out with Ural gems (amethysts, topazes, alexandrites, rock crystal, aquamarines) - a hammer and sickle covered in gold. In total, about 7 thousand stones ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats were required (one carat is equal to 0.2 grams).

From the report of Pauper, an employee of the NKVD operational department:

“Each stone is cut with a diamond cut (73 facets) and, to prevent falling out, is set in a separate silver caste with a silver screw and nut. The total weight of all stars is 5600 kg.”

The pattern was unique for each star. Thus, the Star of the Spasskaya Tower was decorated with rays from the center to the tops, and the star of the Trinity Tower was decorated with ears of corn. On the Borovitskaya Tower, the star pattern followed its outline. The star of the Nikolskaya Tower was without a design.

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 weight of the steel supporting frame, covered with metal sheets and decorated with Ural stones, reached a ton.

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.

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

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.

Placing thousand-kilogram stars on the Kremlin towers was no easy task. The catch was that suitable technology in 1935 it simply did not exist. The height of the lowest tower, Borovitskaya, is 52 meters, the highest, Troitskaya, is 72. There were no tower cranes of this height in the country, but for Russian engineers there is no word “no”, there is the word “must”.

Stalprommekhanizatsiya specialists 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 mounted through the tower window. A crane was assembled on it. So, in several stages, the double-headed eagles were first dismantled, and then the stars were erected.

Star for the Trinity Tower in the Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after. M. Gorky

The installation of the Kremlin stars became a real holiday for Moscow. The stars were not taken under cover of darkness to Red Square. The day before they were installed on the Kremlin towers, the stars were put on display in the Park named after. Gorky. Together with mere mortals, the secretaries of the city and district CPSU(b) came to look at the stars; in the light of the spotlights, Ural gems sparkled and the rays of the stars sparkled. The eagles removed from the towers were installed here, clearly demonstrating the dilapidation of the “old” and the beauty of the “new” world.

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.

However, the new symbols were destined for a short life. Already the first two winters showed that due to the aggressive influence of Moscow rains and snow, both the Ural gems and the gold leaf that covered the metal parts became tarnished. In addition, the stars turned out to be disproportionately large, which was not identified at the design stage. After their installation, it immediately became clear: visually the symbols are absolutely not in harmony with the slender tents of the Kremlin towers. The stars literally overwhelmed the architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin. And already in 1936, the Kremlin decided to design new stars. The sketches were prepared by the famous theater artist and decorator, folk artist USSR, academician F.F. Fedorovsky. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​using special ruby ​​glass instead of metal to decorate star rays. He redefined the shape, size and pattern of the stars.

In May 1937, the Kremlin decided to replace the metal stars with ruby ​​ones with powerful internal illumination. Moreover, Stalin decided to install such a star on the fifth Kremlin tower - Vodovzvodnaya: from the new Bolshoi Kamenny Bridge there was a stunning view of this slender and very architecturally harmonious tower. And it became another very advantageous element of the “monumental propaganda” of the era.

Ruby glass was welded at the glass factory in Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of the Moscow glassmaker N.I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 square meters of ruby ​​glass, for which a new technology was invented - “selenium ruby”. Previously, gold was added to glass to achieve the desired color; Selenium is cheaper and the color is deeper.

 Special bearings were installed at the base of each star 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: in sunlight, 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.

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.

But that is another story.

The Kremlin stars not only rotate, but also glow. To avoid overheating and damage, about 600 cubic meters of air per hour are passed through the stars. The stars are not in danger of a power outage because their energy supply is self-sufficient. 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. To change lamps you do not need 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 entire history of the stars, they went out only 2 times. The first time was during World War II. It was then that the stars were extinguished for the first time - after all, they were not only a symbol, but also an excellent guiding light. Covered in burlap, they patiently waited out the bombing, and when it was all over, it turned out that the glass was damaged in many places and required replacement. Moreover, the unexpected pests turned out to be their own - the artillerymen who defended the capital from fascist air raids. The second time was when Nikita Mikhalkov filmed his “The Barber of Siberia” in 1997.
The central control panel for star ventilation is located in the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin. The most modern equipment is installed there. Every day, twice a day, the operation of the lamps is visually checked, and the fans for blowing them are switched.

Once every five years, the glasses of the stars are washed by industrial climbers.

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Five-pointed stars were installed, which replaced the double-headed royal eagles. Once every 100 years they were updated, since the image of the state emblem also changed.

All the eagles on the Kremlin towers turned out to be of different times. For example, the eagle was the oldest - 1870.

Lenin said many times that the eagles need to be removed from the Kremlin towers. But they couldn’t find the technology to do this without damaging the towers. For example, in 1924 they wanted to hook eagles to balloons and lower them to the ground. But it turned out that the balloons were not able to withstand such a load. The question of replacing the eagles was raised again in 1935.

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, Borovitskaya, Trinity towers of the Kremlin wall and 2 eagles 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.

It was proposed to replace the armorial eagles with flags, emblems with a hammer and sickle, and the coats of arms of the USSR, but stars were chosen. The preparation of sketches was entrusted to Evgeniy Lansere. In the first draft, Stalin did not like the circle in the center. Lanceray quickly corrected everything and submitted a new sketch for approval. Stalin again did not like the project because of the holding stick. After this, the development of the star sketch was transferred to F.F. Fedorovsky.

It took two weeks to dismantle the eagles. The gold covering was removed from them and transferred to the State Bank.

On October 23, 1935, the Kremlin stars sparkling with gold and gems were installed for public viewing in the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure. Eagles with peeled coverings were placed nearby. And the very next day they were sent for smelting.

The new five-pointed stars weighed about a ton, so the tower tents had to be strengthened to install them. And the tent turned out to be so old that it needed to be rebuilt.

On October 24, Muscovites gathered to watch the installation of the star on. On October 25, the star was installed on, and on October 26 and 27 - on Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya.

The first Kremlin stars were cast from red copper and stainless steel. Special galvanic workshops were built for their gilding. In the center of each star, the symbol of the USSR - the hammer and sickle - was laid out with Ural gems. In total, about 7 thousand stones ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats were required (one carat is equal to 0.2 grams).

Each star had its own design. For example, the star was decorated with rays from the center to the tops, the star of the Trinity Tower was decorated with ears of corn. The pattern of the star followed its contour. The star of the Nikolskaya Tower was without a design.

But the first stars quickly lost their shine: soot, dust and dirt, mixing with sediment, caused the gems and gold to fade.

In May 1937, they decided to install new Kremlin stars made of ruby ​​glass. They were lit over November 2, 1937.

Vodovzvodnaya was added to the four towers. So there were symbolically five five-pointed stars. And the gem star from the Spasskaya Tower was moved to the Northern River Station.

Ruby stars have only 3 types of patterns (Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are the same), and their frame is based on a multifaceted pyramid. The stars vary in size: on Vodovzvodnaya the beam span is 3 meters, on Borovitskaya - 3.2 meters, on Troitskaya - 3.5 meters, on Spasskaya and Nikolskaya - 3.75 meters. Each star has bearings at the base so that it can rotate like a weather vane, despite its weight.

Each star had double glazing: the inner one was made of milk glass, and the outer one was made of ruby ​​glass. This allowed the Kremlin stars to remain red rather than black, even in bright sunlight.

It is known that during the Great Patriotic War, the stars on the towers were extinguished and covered with tarpaulin so that they would not become a reference point for enemy aircraft. At the same time, windows were painted on the walls of the Kremlin. After this, a complete restoration of the Kremlin stars was required. They returned to the towers in March 1946.

This time the stars were glazed in three layers. First, a flask was blown from molten ruby ​​glass, then it was covered with crystal and milk glass. Sheets were melted from this “layered” cylinder. This made the new stars even brighter.

The stars on the Kremlin towers were extinguished for the second time in 1999 to film the Moscow night scene of the film “The Barber of Siberia” at the request of director Nikita Mikhalkov.

The central control panel for monitoring and controlling the ventilation of the Kremlin stars is located in the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin. Twice a day they check the operation of the lamps and switch the blower fans. Each lamp contains two filaments connected in parallel, which allows the lamp to shine even if one of them burns out.

The stars are washed every 5 years, and preventative maintenance is carried out monthly.

On September 10, 2010, members of the Return Foundation appealed to the President with a request to return the eagle to the Spasskaya Tower, but received no response. It is worth noting that the eagles on the towers of the building returned back in 1997.

Do you have anything to tell about the history of the Kremlin stars?