When a star was installed on the Kremlin wall. Kremlin stars. Ruby outside, milky inside

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The tops of the spiers of the Moscow Kremlin towers in the shape of five-pointed stars, made of ruby glass and installed instead of the Armorial eagles Russian Empire in the 1930s on five Kremlin towers - Borovitskaya, Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Vodovzvodnaya

Made according to the sketches of the People's Artist of the USSR, the main artist Bolshoi Theater- Academician F.F. Fedorovsky in 1935-37.

The first five-pointed star was installed in 1935, it replaced the “Tsar’s Eagle” on the Spasskaya Tower. Next, stars were placed on the Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya and Trinity towers. Then, when the stars were replaced in 1937, a fifth star appeared on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, where state symbols had not been placed before.

Xepec, Public Domain

Installation of 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, 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 made in 1870, the newest one, of the Spasskaya Tower, was made in 1912.

After the Bolsheviks came to power, V.I. Lenin repeatedly spoke about the need to dismantle the double-headed eagles from the Kremlin towers. However, at that time, according to various reasons, this was not done. In newsreels from the early 1930s, the towers of the Moscow Kremlin are still crowned with double-headed eagles.

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In 1930, the operational department of the NKVD ordered specialists from the Central Art and Restoration Workshops, under the leadership of the famous Russian artist and restorer I. E. Grabar, to conduct an examination of the Kremlin double-headed eagles. Academician Grabar, in his report by the manager of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR to Gorbunov, wrote that “... not one of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers represents an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.”

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

"IN. 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."

However, only in August 1935 the 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 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.”

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. The sketches were entrusted to the artist E. E. Lansere. In the first sketch with a five-pointed star, Stalin makes the remark: “Okay, but it should be without a circle in the center.” The word “without” is underlined twice. Lanceray quickly corrected everything and again submitted the sketch for approval. Stalin makes a very strange remark: “Okay, but it would be necessary without the holding stick.” “Without” is again underlined twice. As a result, Lanceray was removed from the project and the development of the stars was given to the artist F. F. Fedorovsky.

unknown, Public Domain

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-altitude 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 from the Kremlin towers were removed. 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..."

Convinced 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: 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.”

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 of state power, shimmering with gold and Ural gems, appeared for review by Muscovites and guests of the capital. Next to the golden stars sparkling from the light of the spotlights, they placed the removed eagles with the stripped gold, sent to be melted down the next day.

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.

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 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 in 1935-37. was located on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, and later was installed on the spire of the Northern River Station.

Ruby stars

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. The reflected light of Ural gems and gold was replaced by the light of powerful electric lamps. The ruby stars were made according to the sketches of the People's Artist of the USSR, the main artist of the Bolshoi Theater - Academician F. F. Fedorovsky. Professor A.F. Landa was appointed chief engineer for the development and installation of new luminous stars.

kp.ru, CC BY-SA 3.0

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.

ITAR-TASS, CC BY-SA 3.0

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.

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Design Features

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 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 Spetstekhsteklo plant in 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, gold was added to glass to achieve the desired color; Selenium is cheaper and the color is deeper.

Lamps for Kremlin stars were developed by special order at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant; their development was carried out by specialists from the lighting laboratory of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute. 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 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 stars, they immediately abandoned the idea of installing many light bulbs inside the star, therefore, to ensure uniform distribution luminous 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.

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.

With these renewed stars, a grand celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow took place in September 1947.

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 public policy and ideology. From 1954 to 1990, a red star rose above the Central House of the BKP in the Bulgarian capital Sofia - an exact copy of the Soviet ones that 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 between 1885 and 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 the 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 patriotic 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 have 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, which caused a great wave of discussions in society, but no response was received from the president.

Supporters of star conservation

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

Consistently throughout the discussion, communists also oppose the replacement of stars.

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

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.
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.

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.

Placing thousand-kilogram stars on the Kremlin towers was no easy task. The catch was that there was simply no suitable equipment in 1935. 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.

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, the rise of which, due to strong winds, 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, for such short term created real works of art.

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.

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 Bolshoy 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 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 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 of the star, it always stubbornly faces 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.

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.

Since the 1990s, there have been public discussions about the appropriateness of Soviet symbols in the Kremlin. In particular, the Russian Orthodox Church and a number of patriotic organizations take a categorical position, declaring “that it would be fair to return to the Kremlin towers the double-headed eagles that have decorated them for centuries.”

As for the first stars, one of them, which was on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in 1935-1937, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station

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 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, as was the image of the state emblem. At the time the eagles were removed, they were all of different years of manufacture: the oldest eagle of the Trinity Tower was from 1870, the newest one from the Spasskaya Tower was from 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.

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 multi-faceted 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.

Ruby glass was welded at the Avtosteklo plant in the city of Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of the 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.

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 - an exact copy of the Soviet ones that 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 collapse of the Soviet Union, the 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

Row 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 have adorned 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.

Above the Kremlin there have always been and will be symbols of the country's state power. The symbol of state power in Russia is the double-headed eagle. Therefore, the joyful return of the eagle to the holy Spasskaya Tower will definitely happen. This is historically inevitable. If we live in a democratic Russia, then the president of such 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, what do the stars have to do with it?
Five-pointed star - sign of the 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 approached the president with a proposal to return the double-headed eagle to the Spasskaya Tower. The appeal sparked a public debate, but there was no response from the president.

Supporters of star conservation

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

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

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

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 of removal of the eagles, they were all of different years of manufacture: the oldest eagle of the Trinity Tower was made in 1870, the newest one, of the Spasskaya Tower, was made in 1912.

After the 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 the 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 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.”

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-altitude 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 climbers 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 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.”

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.

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 of Soviet Russia, 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.

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 weld 500 square meters 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.

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 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 ray of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers has 8, and the Nikolskaya tower has 12 faces.

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, as 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. To maintain reliable operation of auxiliary equipment, scheduled preventative maintenance is carried out monthly. More serious work is carried out every 8 years.

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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 tortuous...

The first eagle settled on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin around 1600, and the last one built a nest on the Spasskaya Tower only in 1912. The birds themselves were made of wood, their parts were fastened together with bolts. The wings and heads were cast from metal. The entire structure was covered in gilding.

It would seem that the Bolsheviks should have removed the eagles first. But it was not there! They continued to decorate the Kremlin towers until 1935. And they first started talking about their demolition 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 assess the historical value of the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers. Fearing for his life, the restoration artist said what they expected to hear from him: eagles are not an ancient monument and cannot be subject to state protection.

Soon, the Secretary of the Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee, Enukidze, received a note from Lenin’s former personal secretary, 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 this, 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 USSR Central Executive Committee dated December 13, 1931: a proposal was received to include in the estimate for 1932 the cost of removing eagles from the Kremlin towers in the amount of 95,000 rubles. It was planned 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?

NKVD special operation

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 report read: “The Council People's Commissars The USSR and 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, and Trinity towers of the Kremlin wall, and two eagles from the building of the Historical Museum. By this date, they decided to install five-pointed stars on the indicated four towers of the Kremlin.” Responsibility for the operation of national importance assigned to the Kremlin commandant Tkalun and, of course, the all-powerful NKVD. The preparation took a record two months, including the time for creating sketches, coordinating and manufacturing the stars themselves.

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

However, coming up with an image of the stars turned out to be not difficult - unlike making them. The star bodies were welded from high-alloy stainless steel and then lined with gold-plated copper sheets.

A memorandum has been preserved in which Kaganovich agrees to allocate 68 kg of gold for the gilding of 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 diamond 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, ranging from 20 to 200 carats each, and two hundred and fifty of the country's best jewelers were involved in their processing. Everything would be fine, but the stars turned out to be too bulky and heavy. The authorities even had to strengthen the dilapidated Kremlin towers. 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 shaped like ears of corn. On the star of the Borovitskaya Tower two contours were depicted - 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, grass little by little...

The installation of stars also turned out to be a serious problem. There were no appropriate mechanisms for lifting heavy loads onto the towers. The most difficult task decided by the specialists of Stalprommekhanizatsiya, designing and creating its own unique crane for each of the towers. It was mounted on the top tier of each tower. At the base of the tent, a console was installed through the tower window, on which the crane was then assembled.

Before climbing the towers, the stars were put on public display in Gorky Park. They were installed on special pedestals covered with red calico, after which the light of spotlights fell on their edges. According to eyewitnesses, at that moment the Ural gems sparkled with a myriad 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 at the top of the Trinity Tower. On October 26 and 27, five-pointed stars decorated the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers of the Kremlin.

The first damn thing is lumpy

But no matter how hard the Bolsheviks tried, the first attempt was unsuccessful. By 1937, the stars suddenly went out. The culprit was soot and smog big city, as well as unfavorable meteorological conditions. The stones simply darkened. And the stars themselves turned out to be so massive that they began to overwhelm the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin.

Having complained about wasted money and time, having calculated the optimal proportions, the authorities ordered new glowing ruby stars. Gemstones were replaced with internal lighting, and to the four towers with a star, a fifth was added - Vodovoznaya.

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

The fact is that the legendary ruby glass was brewed with special additions of selenium and gold. When the test batch was taken outside, it turned out that in daylight the ruby glass looked 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 are shining with the even color of natural rubies.

Powerful (up to 5000 watts!) lamps also caused a lot of trouble. As they warmed up, 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 will go out, then it will go out

Despite the fact that the creators of the 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 was 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 camouflage was removed from the stars, it was discovered that they were riddled with holes from fragments. The stars underwent extensive restoration and were returned to the towers only in March 1946. The reconstruction was beneficial: to the two layers, ruby and milky, a third was added - made of crystal. Now the stars shone even brighter than before.

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

Why star?

Since the times of the USSR, residents of Russia have become so accustomed to the abundance of red stars that they have long stopped asking the question, why exactly did the stars shine 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, with one ray turned upward, has been considered a symbol of protection and security since ancient times. It is now difficult to say which of these options the Bolsheviks had in mind...

By the way

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