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.
Materials used:
Exactly 80 years ago, the famous ruby stars were installed on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin, which became a symbol of the capital. What they came to replace, how much they weigh and why Nikita Mikhalkov needed to put them out - the Moscow 24 portal has collected 10 of the most interesting facts.
Fact 1. There were eagles before the stars
From the 17th century on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya towers of the Moscow Kremlin towered gilded double-headed royal eagles made of copper.
They have not reached our days. By decision of the new government, on October 18, 1935, the eagles were removed and later melted down. The then historians decided that they were of no value and the metal was simply disposed of.
Fact 2. The first stars were installed on four towers
The first Kremlin star was installed on October 23, 1935 on the Spasskaya Tower. From October 25 to 27, the stars appeared on the Troitskaya, Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
Fact 3. Before ruby stars were copper and with gems
Initially, the stars were made of red copper sheet, which was fixed on a metal frame. Each star weighed approximately one ton.
The bronze emblems of the hammer and sickle were placed on the stars. The emblems were inlaid with Ural stones - rock crystal, topaz, amethyst, aquamarine, sandrite, alexandrite. Each stone weighed up to 20 grams.
Fact 4. The spire of the Northern River Station is crowned by the Kremlin Gem Star
The gem stars were dismantled shortly before the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution. One of them, taken from the Spasskaya Tower, was subsequently hoisted onto the spire of the Northern River Station in Moscow.
Fact 5. Ruby stars on five towers
Gem stars were replaced by new ones - ruby ones. They were installed on November 2, 1937. The old stars were dimmed, and the gems did not shine very brightly.
Fact 6. Inside the stars - lighting lamps
Ruby stars glow from within. For their illumination, the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant (MELZ) developed special lamps in 1937.
The power of electric lamps in the stars on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Nikolskaya towers was 5 kW, on Vodovzvodnaya and Borovitskaya - 3.7 kW.
Fact 7. Stars have different sizes
Photo: TASS/Vasily Egorov and Alexey Stuzhin
Ruby stars of the Kremlin have different sizes. The span of the rays on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers is 3.75 meters, on Troitskaya - 3.5, on Borovitskaya - 3.2, and on Vodovzvodnaya - 3 meters.
Fact 8. The stars rotate like a weather vane
At the base of each star are special bearings. Thanks to them, a star weighing one ton can rotate in the wind like a weather vane. This is done to reduce the load at high air flows. Otherwise, the star may fall off the spire.
Fact 9. During the war, the stars were covered with a tarpaulin
The stars were extinguished for the first time during the Great Patriotic War. They were a good guide for enemy aircraft. The stars were covered in a tarpaulin. Subsequently, they were repaid again at the request of director Nikita Mikhalkov for the sake of shooting one of the episodes of The Barber of Siberia.
Fact 10. Since 2014, the stars have the next stage of reconstruction
In 2014, a complex reconstruction of the star was carried out at the Spasskaya Tower: it received a new lighting system with several metal halide lamps with a total power of 1000 W.
In 2015, the lamps in the star of the Trinity Tower were replaced, and in 2016, the Nikolskaya Tower. In 2018, the Borovitskaya Tower will be renovated.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 is blown clean around, 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.
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
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, stating "that it would be fair to return the double-headed eagles that have adorned them for centuries to the Kremlin towers."
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
They installed five-pointed stars, which replaced the two-headed royal eagles. Once every 100 years they were updated, as 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 should be removed from the Kremlin towers. But they could not find the technology how to do it and not damage the towers. For example, in 1924 they wanted to pick up the eagles to balloons and lower them to the ground. But it turned out that balloons are 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 of 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 sickle and a hammer on the indicated 4 towers of the Kremlin.
It was proposed to replace the emblematic eagles with flags, emblems with a hammer and sickle, emblems of the USSR, but stars were chosen. The preparation of sketches was entrusted to Evgeny Lansere. In the first draft, Stalin did not like the circle in the center. Lansere quickly corrected everything and gave a new sketch for approval. Stalin again did not like the project because of the fastening stick. After that, the development of a sketch of the stars was transferred to F.F. Fedorovsky.
It took two weeks to dismantle the eagles. The gold coating was removed from them and transferred to the State Bank.
On October 23, 1935, the Kremlin stars sparkling with gold and gems were placed on public display in the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure. Nearby they placed eagles with peeled coverings. 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 was so old that it had to be rebuilt.
On October 24, Muscovites gathered at to watch the installation of a star on. On October 25, the star was installed on, on October 26 and 27 - on Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya.
The first Kremlin stars were cast from red copper and stainless steel. For their gilding, special electroplating shops were built. In the center of each star, the symbol of the USSR, the hammer and sickle, was laid out with Ural gems. In total, it took about 7 thousand stones ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats (one carat is equal to 0.2 grams).
Each star had its own pattern. For example, the star was decorated with rays from the center to the tops, the star of the Trinity Tower - ears of corn. The pattern of the star repeated its contour. The star of the Nikolskaya tower was without a picture.
But the first stars quickly lost their brilliance: soot, dust and dirt, mixing with precipitation, caused the gems and gold to fade.
In May 1937, they decided to install new Kremlin stars made of ruby glass. They lit up over November 2, 1937.
The history and structure of the Spasskaya Tower star of the Moscow Kremlin on InfographicsVodovzvodnaya was added to the four towers. So the five-pointed stars became symbolically five. And the semi-precious star from the Spasskaya Tower was transferred to the Northern River Station.
Ruby stars have only 3 types of pattern (Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are the same), and their frame is based on a multifaceted pyramid. The stars differ 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. Bearings are installed at the base of each star so that they can rotate like a weather vane, despite their weight.
Each star had double glazing: the inner one was made of milky glass, and the outer one was made of ruby. This allowed the Kremlin stars to remain red instead of black, even in bright sunlight.
It is known that during the Great Patriotic War, the stars on the towers were extinguished and covered with a tarpaulin so that they would not become a guide for enemy aircraft. At the same time, windows were painted on the walls of the Kremlin. After that, a complete restoration of the Kremlin stars was required. They returned to the towers in March 1946.
This time the stars were glazed with three layers. First, a flask was blown out of molten ruby glass, then it was covered with crystal and milk glass. Sheets were smelted from this “puff” cylinder. This made the new stars even brighter.
The second time the stars on the Kremlin towers were extinguished in 1999 for the filming of the Moscow night scene of the film "The Barber of Siberia" at the request of director Nikita Mikhalkov.
The central console for monitoring and controlling the ventilation of the Kremlin stars is located in the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin. Twice a day, check the operation of the lamps and switch the blowers. Each lamp has two filaments connected in parallel, which allows the lamp to shine even if one of them burns out.
Stars are washed every 5 years, and preventive work is carried out monthly.
On September 10, 2010, the members of the Return Foundation addressed the President with a request to return the eagle to the Spasskaya Tower, but received no answer. 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?
In the evening and at night, bright scarlet stars are burning over the Moscow Kremlin - symbols of the socialist past of our country. These five-pointed lamps, made of special "ruby" glass, were installed to replace the Armorial Eagles of the Russian Empire in the 1930s of the last century.
Ideas about replacing the royal eagles on the Kremlin towers with stars were repeatedly expressed immediately after the October Revolution. But such a reconstruction was associated with too much money and therefore could not be carried out for a long time.
In August 1935, the following TASS message was published in the central press: "The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya towers of the Kremlin wall, and 2 eagle from the building of the Historical Museum.
By the same date, it was decided to install a five-pointed star with a hammer and sickle on the indicated 4 towers of the Kremlin.
The first star replaced the eagle on the Spasskaya Tower. This event took place on October 24, 1935, and the next day the second star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower. On October 26 and 27, the stars shone over the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. On Vodovzvodnaya, the star appeared later than the others - only in May 1937.
The design and manufacture of the first Kremlin stars were carried out by two Moscow factories at once, as well as by the workshops of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute. The drawings were created by an outstanding decorator, academician Fedor Fedorovich Fedorovsky, who not only calculated their shape and dimensions, but also made sketches of finishing options.
It was decided to make the first Kremlin stars from stainless steel and red copper. In the middle of each of them, on both sides, the emblems of the Soviet state, laid out from precious stones, were supposed to sparkle - a sickle and a hammer.
For presentation to the leaders of the party and government, full-size models of all four stars were made, which, it must be said, differed from each other in decoration.
On the edges of the Spasskaya Tower star there were rays emanating from the center; on the Trinity star - the rays were made in the form of ears of corn. The "Borovitskaya" star consisted of two contours inscribed one into the other, and the rays of the star of the Nikolskaya Tower had no pattern at all.
The leaders of the country appreciated the magnificence shown to them and agreed to the manufacture of stars. True, with one condition: that the symbols of the country be rotating - let Muscovites and guests of the capital admire them from everywhere. Soon several factories received government orders of particular importance.
The supporting structure of the huge stars was made in the form of a light but strong stainless steel frame, on which framing decorations made of red copper sheets were superimposed. The red metal was plated with gold 18 to 20 microns thick.
Hammer and sickle emblems measuring 2 meters and weighing 240 kilograms were fixed on each star on both sides. The frame of the emblem was made of bronze and stainless steel. Precious stones in a frame of gilded silver were attached to it separately, making up a hammer and sickle.
Two hundred and fifty of the best jewelers of Moscow and Leningrad worked on the creation of these emblems for a month and a half. In total, about 7,000 Ural gems - topazes, aquamarines, amethysts and alexandrites, ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats - were used to make eight emblems.
At the base of each star, the craftsmen installed special bearings manufactured at the First Bearing Plant. Thanks to this, the stars, despite their significant weight (on the order of a ton), could easily rotate and withstand any wind.
The task of raising the stars was entrusted to specialists from the All-Union Stalprommekhanization office, who found an original solution - they designed and built a special crane for each tower, which could be installed on its upper tier. The operation to install one star took about two hours.
However, the first stars of the Kremlin did not decorate its towers for long. Under the influence of atmospheric precipitation, a year later, the Ural gems faded and the gilding ceased to shine.
In May 1937, it was decided to install new stars - luminous, ruby. The star, which in 1935-1937 crowned the Spassky Tower of the Kremlin, was transferred to the spire of the Northern River Station of the capital.
New stars received double glazing: the inner one is made of milky glass, which diffuses light well, and the outer one is made of ruby, bright red glass, 6–7 mm thick. This was done because in bright sunlight, the red color of the stars from the earth would appear black.
There are no precious stones in them: the resemblance to a ruby is given to glass by the selenium added to it during cooking.
The lamps of the Kremlin stars deserve special attention. They were developed by special order at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant. They contain two filaments connected in parallel. Therefore, even if one of them burns out, the lamp will not stop shining.
During the war, in order to blackout the capital, the Kremlin stars were covered with a tarpaulin. When the disguise was removed, it turned out that the glasses of the stars were badly damaged. Probably, they were repeatedly hit by anti-aircraft artillery shells that defended Moscow from German air raids.
A complete restoration of the Kremlin stars was carried out in late 1945 - early 1946. The craftsmen renewed the gilding of the frame, and the glasses were made three-layered: a crystal layer appeared between the ruby and milky glass. The Kremlin stars have become even brighter, stronger and more beautiful.
A few years ago, the ruby stars were once again subjected to restoration - the craftsmen examined the lamps and replaced some cracked glass.
Stars are usually washed every five years. Every month, to maintain the reliable operation of auxiliary equipment, scheduled preventive maintenance is carried out, more serious ones are carried out every eight years.
The system of Kremlin stars has a single control center, which is located in the Trinity Tower. Twice a day, the operation of the lamps is visually checked, and the fans for blowing them are also switched. There is no danger of a power outage for the five-pointed Kremlin luminaries - their power supply is autonomous.
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.
