In the autumn of 1935, the last symbol of the Russian monarchy, the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers, was ordered to live long. Instead, five-pointed stars were installed.
Symbolism
Why exactly the five-pointed star became the symbol of Soviet power is not known for certain, but it is known that this symbol was lobbied by Leon Trotsky. Seriously fond of esotericism, he knew that the star, the pentagram, has a very powerful energy potential and is one of the most powerful symbols. The swastika, the cult of which was very strong in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, could well become a symbol of the new state. The swastika was depicted on the "Kerenki", swastikas were painted on the wall of the Ipatiev House by Empress Alexandra Fedorovna before being shot, but the Bolsheviks settled on a five-pointed star almost by Trotsky's sole decision. The history of the 20th century will yet show that the "star" is stronger than the "swastika"... The stars also shone over the Kremlin, replacing the double-headed eagles.
Technique
Putting a thousand-kilogram stars on the towers of the Kremlin was not an 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 such a height in the country, but for Russian engineers there is no word "no", there is a word "must". Specialists of Stalprommekhanizatsiya designed and built a special crane for each tower, which could be installed on its upper tier. At the base of the tent, through the tower window, a metal base was mounted - a console. A crane was assembled on it. So, in several stages, the double-headed eagles were first dismantled, and then the stars were hoisted.
Tower reconstruction
The weight of each of the stars of the Kremlin reached a ton. Considering the height at which they had to be located and the sail surface of each star (6.3 square meters), there was a danger that the stars would simply be torn out along with the tops of the towers. It was decided to test the towers for durability. Not in vain: the upper ceilings of the vaults of the towers and their tents fell into a dilapidated state. The builders reinforced the brickwork of the upper floors of all the towers, additionally metal ties were introduced into the tents of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers. The tent of the Nikolskaya Tower turned out to be so dilapidated that it had to be rebuilt.
So different and spin
They did not make the same stars. Four stars differed from each other in decoration. On the edges of the Spasskaya Tower star there were rays emanating from the center. On the star of the Trinity Tower, the rays were made in the form of ears of corn. The star of the Borovitskaya Tower consisted of two contours inscribed one into the other, and the rays of the star of the Nikolskaya Tower had no pattern. The stars of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers were the same in size. The distance between the ends of their beams was 4.5 meters. The stars of the Trinity and Borovitskaya towers were smaller. The distance between the ends of their beams was 4 and 3.5 meters, respectively. Stars are good, but spinning stars are doubly good. Moscow is big, there are a lot of people, everyone needs to see the Kremlin stars. Special bearings made at the First Bearing Plant were installed at the base of each star. Thanks to this, despite the significant weight, the stars could easily rotate, turning "face" to the wind. By the arrangement of the stars, thus, one can judge from where the wind is blowing.
Gorky Park
The installation of the Kremlin stars has become a real holiday for Moscow. The stars did not begin to be taken under the cover of night to Red Square. The day before the hoisting on the Kremlin towers, the stars were put on display in the Park. Gorky. Together with mere mortals, the secretaries of the city and district CPSU (b) came to see the stars, Ural gems sparkled in the spotlights and the rays of the stars sparkled. The eagles, taken from the towers, were installed here, clearly demonstrating the dilapidation of the "old" and the beauty of the "new" world.
Ruby
Kremlin stars were not always ruby. The first stars, installed in October 1935, were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper. In the middle of each star, on either side, were the hammer and sickle emblems, inlaid with precious stones. The precious stones faded after a year, and the stars were too large and did not fit well into the architectural ensemble. In May 1937, it was decided to install new stars - luminous, ruby. At the same time, one more tower was added to the four towers with stars - Vodovzvodnaya. Ruby glass was brewed at a glass factory in Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of the Moscow glass maker N. I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 square meters of ruby glass, for which a new technology was invented - "selenium ruby". Prior to this, gold was added to the glass to achieve the desired color; selenium is both cheaper and the color is deeper.
Lamps
The Kremlin stars not only spin, but also glow. To avoid overheating and damage, about 600 cubic meters of air per hour is passed through the stars. The stars are not in danger of a power outage, since their power supply is autonomous. Lamps for the Kremlin stars were developed at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant. The power of three - on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers - is 5000 watts, and 3700 watts - on Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya. In each, two filaments are mounted, connected in parallel. If one burns out, the lamp continues to burn, and a malfunction signal is sent to the control panel. To change the lamps, you do not need to climb to the star, the lamp goes down on a special rod right through the bearing. The whole procedure takes 30-35 minutes. The stars have gone out twice in history. Once - during the war, the second - during the filming of "The Barber of Siberia".
Here we somehow studied, and now let's move on to a more specific topic, especially since the date corresponds. 80 years ago, in the period from October 24 to October 27, 1935, the first five-pointed stars were installed on the 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 hoisted 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 travel towers of the Kremlin - Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya. In October 1935, instead of the two-headed royal eagles, five-pointed stars appeared over the Kremlin.
It was proposed to replace the emblematic eagles with flags, as on other towers, and emblems with a sickle and a hammer, and the coats of arms of the USSR, but it was the stars that were chosen.
They tried several times to change the symbol of the Russian Empire to the symbol of the new Soviet power. Back in the years of the 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 wish of the leader of the revolution was not fulfilled.
Why exactly the five-pointed star became the symbol of Soviet power is not known for certain, but it is known that this symbol was lobbied by Leon Trotsky. Seriously fond of esotericism, he knew that the star is a pentagram, has a very powerful energy potential and is one of the most powerful symbols.
The swastika, the cult of which was very strong in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, could well become a symbol of the new state. The swastika was depicted on the "kerenki", swastikas were painted on the wall of the Ipatiev House by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna before being shot. 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 still show that the "star" is stronger than the "swastika" ... The stars shone over the Kremlin, replacing the double-headed eagles.
1935 parade. 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 released informing the 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 manufacture of new Kremlin symbols was entrusted to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute. 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. Lansere. On the first sketch, Stalin wrote: Okay, but it would be necessary without a circle in the center , with "without" underlined twice. Lansere quickly corrected everything and gave a new sketch for approval. Stalin again made a remark: Good, but it would be necessary without a fastening stick , and the word "without" was again underlined twice. After that, the development of a sketch of the stars was transferred to F.F. Fedorovsky.
When the sketches were created, life-size models of stars were made. The hammer and sickle emblems were temporarily encrusted with imitations of precious stones. Each mock-up star was illuminated by twelve spotlights. This is how the real stars on the Kremlin towers were supposed to be illuminated at night and on cloudy days. When the searchlights were turned on, the stars sparkled and sparkled with a myriad of colored lights.
The leaders of the party and the Soviet government came to inspect the finished models. They agreed to the production of stars with an indispensable condition - to make them rotating so that Muscovites and guests of the capital could admire them from everywhere.
Hundreds of people of various specialties participated in the creation of the Kremlin stars. For the Spasskaya and Troitskaya towers, the stars were made in the workshops of TsAGI under the guidance of the chief engineer of the institute, A. A. Arkhangelsky, and for the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers, at Moscow factories under the supervision of the chief designer.
The first Kremlin stars were made of red copper and stainless steel. Special electroplating shops were built for their gilding. In the center of each star, Ural gems (amethysts, topazes, alexandrites, rock crystal, aquamarines) laid out the symbol of the USSR - a hammer and sickle, covered with gold. In total, it took about 7 thousand stones ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats (one carat is equal to 0.2 grams).
From the report of Pauper, an employee of the operational department of the NKVD:
“Each stone is cut with a brilliant cut (73 facets) and, in order to avoid falling out, is embedded in a separate silver caste with a silver screw and nut. The total weight of all the stars is 5600kg.”
The drawing was unique for each star. So the Star of the Spasskaya Tower was decorated with rays from the center to the tops, the star of the Trinity Tower - ears of corn. On the Borovitskaya tower, the pattern of the star followed its contour. The star of the Nikolskaya tower was without a picture.
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, sheathed with metal sheets and decorated with Ural stones, reached a ton.
The design of the stars was designed for the load of a hurricane wind. Special bearings made at the First Bearing Plant were installed at the base of each star. Thanks to this, the stars, despite their considerable weight, could easily rotate and become their frontal side against the wind.
Star for the Nikolskaya Tower. 1935 ph. B.Vdovenko
Before installing the stars on the Kremlin towers, the engineers had doubts: would the towers withstand their weight and storm wind loads? After all, each star weighed an average of a thousand kilograms and had a sailing surface of 6.3 square meters. A careful study revealed that the upper floors of the vaults of the towers and their tents came to a dilapidated state. It was necessary to strengthen the brickwork of the upper floors of all the towers on which the stars were to be installed. In addition, metal ties were additionally introduced into the tents of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers. And the tent of the Nikolskaya Tower turned out to be so dilapidated that it had to be rebuilt.
Now the specialists of the All-Union office Stalprommekhanizatsiya L. N. Shchipakov, I. V. Kunegin, N. B. Gitman and I. I. Reshetov faced a responsible task - to raise and install stars on the Kremlin towers. But how to do that? After all, the lowest of them, Borovitskaya, has a height of 52 meters, and the highest, Troitskaya, is 77 meters. At that time there were no large cranes, but the specialists of Stalprommekhanizatsiya found an original solution. They designed and built a special crane for each tower, which could be installed on its upper tier. At the base of the tent, a metal base - a console - was built in through the tower window. On it, they assembled a crane.
The day came when everything was ready for the rise of the five-pointed stars. But first we decided to show them to Muscovites. On October 23, 1935, the stars were delivered to the Central Park of Culture and Leisure. M. Gorky and installed on pedestals upholstered with red calico. In the light of searchlights, gilded rays sparkled, Ural gems sparkled. The secretaries of the city and district committees of the CPSU (b), the chairman of the Moscow Council, arrived to inspect the stars. Hundreds of Muscovites and guests of the capital came to the park. Everyone wanted to admire the beauty and grandeur of the stars that were soon to flare up in the sky of Moscow.
Putting a thousand-kilogram stars on the towers of the Kremlin was not an 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 such a height in the country, but for Russian engineers there is no word “no”, there is a word “must”.
Specialists of Stalprommekhanizatsiya designed and built a special crane for each tower, which could be installed on its upper tier. At the base of the tent, through the tower window, a metal base was mounted - a console. A crane was assembled on it. So, in several stages, the double-headed eagles were first dismantled, and then the stars were hoisted.
Star for the Trinity Tower in the Central Park of Culture and Leisure. M. Gorky
The installation of the Kremlin stars has become a real holiday for Moscow. The stars did not begin to be taken under the cover of night to Red Square. The day before the hoisting on the Kremlin towers, the stars were put on display in the Park. Gorky. Together with mere mortals, the secretaries of the city and district CPSU (b) came to see the stars, Ural gems sparkled in the spotlights and the rays of the stars sparkled. The eagles, taken 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, the mechanics checked the winch and the crane motor.
At 12 hours 40 minutes, the command “Vira little by little!” The star broke away from the earth and began to slowly rise upwards. When she was at a height of 70 meters, the winch stopped. The climbers standing at the very top of the tower carefully picked up the star and pointed it at the spire. At 13:30, the star descended exactly on the support pin. Eyewitnesses of the event recall that on that day several hundred people gathered on Red Square to follow the operation. At that moment, when the star was on the spire, this whole crowd began to applaud the climbers.
The next day, a five-pointed star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower. On October 26 and 27, the stars shone over the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. The installers worked out the lifting technique so well that it took them no more than an hour and a half to install each star. The exception was the star of the Trinity Tower, the rise of which, due to a strong wind, lasted about two hours. A little more than two months have passed since the newspapers published the decree on the installation of stars. To be exact - only 65 days. Newspapers wrote about the labor feat of Soviet workers, who created real works of art in such a short time.
However, the new symbols were destined for a short century. Already the first two winters have shown that due to the aggressive impact of Moscow rains and snow, both the Ural gems and the gold leaf that covered metal parts have faded. In addition, the stars turned out to be disproportionately large, which was not revealed 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, People's Artist of the USSR, Academician F.F. Fedorovsky. It was he who came up with the idea to use special ruby glass instead of metal to decorate star rays. He also redefined the shape, size and pattern of the stars.
In May 1937, the Kremlin decided to replace metal stars with ruby stars with powerful internal illumination. Moreover, Stalin decided to install such a star on the fifth Kremlin tower - Vodovzvodnaya: a stunning view of this slender and very architecturally harmonious tower opened from the new Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge. And it became another very advantageous element of the "monumental propaganda" of the era.
Ruby glass was brewed at a glass factory in Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of the Moscow glass maker N. I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 square meters of ruby glass, for which a new technology was invented - "selenium ruby". Prior to this, gold was added to the glass to achieve the desired color; selenium is both cheaper and the color is deeper. At the base of each star, special bearings were installed so that, despite their heaviness, they could rotate like a weather vane. They are not afraid of rust and hurricane, because the "rim" of the stars is made of special stainless steel. The fundamental difference is that weathercocks indicate where the wind is blowing, and the Kremlin stars indicate where. Have you understood the essence and significance of the fact? Due to the diamond-shaped cross-section of the star, it always stubbornly stands head-on against the wind. And any - up to a hurricane. Even if everything around is blown clean, the stars and tents will remain intact. That's how it's designed and built.
But suddenly the following was discovered: in the sunlight, ruby stars appear ... black. The answer was found - the five-pointed beauties had to be made two-layer, and the lower, inner layer of glass should be milky white, which scatters light well. By the way, this provided both a more even glow and hiding the filaments of lamps from human eyes. By the way, a dilemma also arose here - how to make the glow even? After all, if the lamp is installed in the center of the star, the rays will obviously be less bright. A combination of different thicknesses and color saturation of the glass helped. In addition, the lamps are enclosed in refractors consisting of prismatic glass tiles.
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's another story.
As for the first stars, one of them, which was located on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in 1935-1937, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station.
The Kremlin stars not only spin, but also glow. To avoid overheating and damage, about 600 cubic meters of air per hour is passed through the stars. The stars are not in danger of a power outage, since their power supply is autonomous. Lamps for the Kremlin stars were developed at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant. The power of three - on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers - is 5000 watts, and 3700 watts - on Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya. In each, two filaments are mounted, connected in parallel. If one burns out, the lamp continues to burn, and a malfunction signal is sent to the control panel. To change the lamps, you do not need to climb to the star, the lamp goes down on a special rod right through the bearing. The whole procedure takes 30-35 minutes.
In the entire history, the stars went out only 2 times. The first time, during the Second World War. It was then that the stars were extinguished for the first time - after all, they were not only a symbol, but also an excellent beacon-landmark. Covered with burlap, they patiently waited out the bombardment, and when it was all over, it turned out that the glass was damaged in many places and needed to be replaced. Moreover, the accidental pests turned out to be their own - artillerymen who defended the capital from Nazi air raids. The second time 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 glass of the stars is washed by industrial climbers.
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Opal hearts shine with delight,
Burning gold stars of the Kremlin.
There is a mausoleum in the very center of the earth,
The peoples, like rivers, flowed to him ...
folk song about Stalin
The eagles "floated" over the Kremlin until October 1935.
The stars that appeared in place of the imperial double-headed eagles were stainless steel and red copper, with the traditional hammer and sickle symbols. The sickle and hammer were adorned with precious stones, which took a lot. But they still looked weak and in May 1937, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the October Revolution, it was decided to install new, ruby stars on five Kremlin towers, which should burn.
Sketches of new stars were prepared by the People's Artist of the USSR F. Fedorovsky, he calculated the dimensions, determined the shape and pattern, suggested the ruby color of the glass. The industry was given the task of welding ruby glass. The state order was received by the Donbass plant. The difficulty lay not only in the fact that ruby glass had never before been produced in such quantities in our country. According to the terms of reference, it had to have different densities, transmit red rays of a certain wavelength, and be resistant to sudden changes in temperature.
More than 20 ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises, machine-building, electrical and glass industries, research and design institutes participated in the creation of new Kremlin stars.
Special ruby glass that meets the requirements was invented by N. Kurochkin, who made the first sarcophagus for Lenin's mausoleum. For uniform and bright illumination of the entire surface of the stars, unique incandescent lamps with a power of 3,700 to 5,000 watts were made, and to protect the stars from overheating, specialists developed a special ventilation system.
If one of the lamps burns out, it continues to glow with reduced brightness, and the automatic device signals a malfunction to the control panel. Mechanizing devices replace burnt-out lamps within 30-35 minutes. The control of equipment and mechanisms is concentrated at the central point, where information about the operating mode of the lamps is automatically submitted. Due to the fact that the filaments are arranged in the form of a tent, the lamps have an extremely high luminous efficiency. The temperature of the filament reaches 2800 ° C, so the flasks are made of heat-resistant molybdenum glass.
The main load-bearing structure of the star is a voluminous five-pointed frame, which rests at the base on a pipe, in which bearings are placed for its rotation. Each ray is a multifaceted pyramid: the star of the Nikolskaya Tower has a twelve-sided pyramid, and the rest of the stars have an octagonal one. The bases of these pyramids are welded together in the center of the star.
The Kremlin stars have double glazing: inside - milky glass, outside - ruby. The weight of each star is about a ton. The stars on the towers are of different sizes, since the Kremlin towers have different heights.
On Vodovzvodnaya, the beam span is three meters, on Borovitskaya - 3.2 meters, on Troitskaya - 3.5 meters, on Spasskaya and Nikolskaya - 3.75 meters.
The design of the stars provides for their rotation when the wind changes and is designed for the pressure of a hurricane wind. Mechanisms for maintenance of the structure are located inside the towers. Special lifting devices make it possible to periodically clean the internal and external surfaces of the stars from dust and soot.
Ruby stars on the Kremlin towers are lit day and night. In the entire history, they went out only twice, when a historical film was shot in the Kremlin in 1996, and during the Great Patriotic War, when the enemy came close to Moscow.
The star, which in 1935-1937 was on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station.
Five towers of the Moscow Kremlin, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Vodovzvodnaya, still shine with red stars, but the towers of the State Historical Museum are now proudly crowned with double-headed eagles. So on Red Square, the heirs of the glorious past of our great country peacefully coexist.
The basis of information Calend.ru. Photo from internet
In the autumn of 1935, the last symbol of the Russian monarchy, the double-headed eagles, which had been on the tops of the tents of the Kremlin towers since the 17th century, was ordered to live long. About once a century, the gilded copper eagles were changed, just as the image of the state emblem changed. At the time of the removal of the eagles, they were all of different years of manufacture: the oldest eagle of the Trinity Tower - 1870, the newest - the Spasskaya Tower - 1912.
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 with simple flags, as on other towers, the coats of arms of the USSR, gilded emblems with a sickle and a hammer. But in the end we decided to set 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. Yenukidze:
V. I. Lenin several times demanded the removal of these eagles and was angry that this work was not done - I personally confirm this. I think it would be nice to remove these eagles and replace them with flags. Why should we keep these symbols of tsarism?
With communist greetings, Gorbunov.
In an extract from the minutes of the meeting of the secretariat of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR dated December 13, 1931, there is a mention of a proposal to include 95 thousand rubles in the estimate for 1932 for the costs of removing eagles from the Kremlin towers and replacing them with the coats of arms of the USSR. However, only in August 1935 did the Politburo issue a resolution: “The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, 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 sickle and a hammer on the indicated 4 towers of the Kremlin.
It was not easy to remove the double-headed eagles from the Kremlin towers and fix the stars on them. 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 that could help carry out this operation.
Specialists of the all-Union office "Stalprommekhanizatsiya" developed cranes that were installed directly on the upper tiers of the towers. Strong console platforms were built through the tower windows at the base of the tents, on which the cranes were assembled. The installation of cranes and dismantling of the eagles took two weeks.
Double-headed eagles, taken from the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers, in the TsPKiO im. 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 on removing the eagles and raising the stars was carried out by experienced climbers under the guidance and control of the operational department of the NKVD and the commandant of the Kremlin Tkalun. Convinced that the eagles are of no value, the first deputy people's commissar of the NKVD wrote a letter to L. M. Kaganovich: “I ask for your order: 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.”
On October 23, 1935, the stars were delivered to the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure and installed on pedestals upholstered in red calico. Muscovites and guests of the capital saw new symbols of state power shimmering with gold and Ural gems. Next to the golden stars sparkling from the light of the searchlights, they placed the removed eagles with stripped gold, sent the next day to be melted down.
New gemstone 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 a star was installed inside the tent of the Borovitskaya Tower. A strong metal glass was installed on top of the Trinity Tower. The tent of the Nikolskaya Tower turned out to be so dilapidated that it had to be completely dismantled and rebuilt.
On October 24, a large number of Muscovites gathered on Red Square to watch the hoisting of a five-pointed star on the Spasskaya Tower. On October 25, a five-pointed star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, on October 26 and 27 on the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
The 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. For gilding 130 m² of copper sheets, galvanizing shops were specially built. In the center of the star, a sickle and a hammer, a symbol of Soviet Russia, covered with gold 20 microns thick, were laid out with Ural gems.
The pattern was not repeated on any of the stars. The star on the Spasskaya Tower was decorated with rays that radiated from the center to the tops. The rays of the star mounted on the Trinity Tower were made in the form of ears of corn. On the Borovitskaya tower, the pattern repeated the contour of the five-pointed star itself. The star of the Nikolskaya Tower was smooth, without a pattern.
However, very soon the stars lost their original beauty. The soot, dust and dirt of the Moscow air, mixing with precipitation, made the gems fade, and the gold lost its luster, despite the spotlights illuminating them. In addition, they did not fully fit into the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin because of their size. The stars turned out to be too big and visually hung heavily over the towers. The star, which was located on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in 1935-1937, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station.
In May 1937, a decision was made to replace the semi-precious stars that had lost their luster with new stars - luminous, made of ruby glass. Ruby glass was brewed according to the recipe of the Moscow glass maker 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". Before that, to achieve the desired color, gold was added to the glass, which lost 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 had not previously ended in the form of an eagle - Vodovzvodnaya. Unlike semi-precious stars, ruby ones have only 3 different patterns (Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are identical in pattern), and the frame of each star is a multifaceted pyramid. Each beam of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers has 8, and each of the Nikolskaya towers has 12 faces.
Special bearings are installed at the base of each star so that, despite their weight (more than 1 ton), they can rotate like a weather vane. The "frame" of the stars is made of special stainless steel produced by the Elektrostal plant near Moscow.
Each of the five stars has double glazing: the inner one is made of milky glass, which diffuses light well, and the outer one is made of ruby glass, 6-7 mm thick. This was done with the following goal: in bright sunlight, the red color of the stars would appear black. Therefore, a layer of milky-white glass was placed inside the 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 guide for enemy aircraft. When the protective camouflage was removed, shrapnel damage from a medium and small caliber anti-aircraft defense battery of Moscow, located in the area of the Bolshoy Square of the Kremlin, became visible. The stars were removed and lowered to the ground for repairs. A complete restoration was completed by the New Year of 1946. In March, the stars were again raised to the towers.
The stars were glazed in a completely new way this time. According to a special recipe developed by N.S. Shpigov, three-layer ruby glass was made. First, a flask was blown out of molten ruby glass, which was covered with molten crystal, and then with milk glass. The “puff” cylinder welded in this way was cut and straightened into sheets. Three-layer glass was made at the Krasny May glass factory in Vyshny Volochek. 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, since their power supply is autonomous. The lamps were made at the Peterhof Factory of Precision Technical Stones. Each lamp has 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 the lamps, you do not need to climb to the star, the lamp goes down on a special rod right through the bearing. The whole 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 filter and two fans, one of which is a backup. Power outages are not terrible for ruby stars, as they are self-powered.
Stars are usually washed every 5 years. Scheduled preventive maintenance is carried out on a monthly basis to maintain the reliable operation of auxiliary equipment. More serious work is carried out every 8 years.
For the second time in its history, the stars were redeemed in 1996 during the filming of the Moscow night scene for the film The Barber of Siberia at the personal request of director Nikita Mikhalkov.
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