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 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 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. 
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 console for monitoring and controlling the ventilation of stars 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. 
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 
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.
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Until 1935, in the very center of the country of victorious socialism, the gilded symbols of tsarism, the double-headed eagles, still flaunted. For three centuries they crowned four Kremlin towers - Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya.
These eagles did not sit on spiers for centuries - they were periodically changed. Until now, disputes continue as to what material they were made of - metal or gilded wood. There are suggestions that the bodies of the eagles were wooden, and some parts were metal.
Frame from the film "Circus". On the Spasskaya Tower and on the Historical Museum we see two-headed eagles. In 1936, when the film was released, the eagles had already been replaced by stars.
TASS IS AUTHORIZED TO STATE
In the first years of Soviet power, all double-headed eagles in the state were destroyed. All but four - those that took off and above all and settled on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. But over time, they got to them. In 1930, the authorities turned to the artist and art critic Igor Grabar with a request to evaluate the artistic and historical value of the Kremlin eagles.
He replied that "... none of the eagles that currently exist on the Kremlin towers represent an ancient monument and cannot be defended as such."
Let's leave this conclusion to the conscience of the author. One way or another, but in August 1935, a TASS message was published: “The Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the towers of the Kremlin wall, and 2 eagles from the building of the Historical Museum. By the same date, it was decided to install five-pointed stars with a hammer and sickle on the Kremlin towers.
Replacing eagles with stars
On October 18, 1935, all the eagles were removed from the Kremlin towers. The eagle from the Trinity Tower, due to its old design, had to be dismantled right on the spot. Work on the removal of birds and the installation of stars was carried out by experienced climbers under the vigilant control of the NKVD. The design and manufacture of the first Kremlin stars was entrusted to two Moscow factories and TsAGI workshops.
The sketches were presented by the famous decorator Academician Fedorovsky. According to his project, the stars intended for different towers differed from each other in size and decor. On the star of the Trinity Tower, the rays were made in the form of ears of corn, the star of the Borovitskaya Tower was two contours inscribed one into the other.
And the rays of the star of the Nikolskaya Tower had no pattern. The stars of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers were the same size. The distance between the ends of their beams was 4.5 m. The stars of the Trinity and Borovitskaya towers were slightly smaller.
The supporting structure was made in the form of a light but strong stainless steel frame, on which sheets of red copper covered with gold leaf were superimposed. Hammer and sickle emblems adorned with precious Ural stones - rock crystal, amethysts, alexandrites, topazes and aquamarines - were strengthened on both sides of each star. It took about 7,000 stones to make eight emblems.
As a result, each star weighed about 1,000 kg and also had a sail area of up to 6 m2. A careful study revealed that the upper floors of the towers and their tents are in a deplorable state. It was necessary to strengthen the brickwork of the upper floors and equip the structure with additional metal ties.
FIRST STAR
Life-size models of stars were made according to the sketches accepted by the government. The sickle and hammer were inlaid with imitations of precious stones. Each layout was illuminated by several spotlights, in the rays of which the stars sparkled with a myriad of multi-colored lights. Members of the government came to look at them and the eagles taken down from the towers, and then many thousands of Muscovites gathered. Everyone wanted to admire the beauty and grandeur of the stars that were soon to flare up in the sky of Moscow.
On October 24, 1935, the first star was installed on the Spasskaya Tower, having previously polished it. At 12:40 a command was heard: “Vira little by little!”, And a huge structure, breaking off from the ground, slowly crawled up. When she was at a height of 70 m, 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 13:00, the star descended exactly on the support pin. Hundreds of people gathered on Red Square that day. The moment the star was on the spire, the crowd burst into applause.
The next day, the star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, and on October 26 and 27, the stars shone over the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. The installers had already 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.
The life of the new characters was short-lived. A year later, under the influence of precipitation, gemstones faded. In addition, the stars did not really fit into the architectural ensemble because of their too large sizes. Therefore, in May 1937, it was decided to replace them with new ones - luminous, ruby, installing the same on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower.
Special ruby glass for new stars was welded at the Konstantinovsky glass factory. In total, it was required to produce 500 m2 of glass. Powerful bearings were installed at the base of each star so that they could rotate like a weather vane. But, unlike the weather vane, which indicates which way the wind is blowing, the stars, thanks to the diamond-shaped cross-section, always face it. At the same time, they are able to withstand the pressure of even a hurricane wind.
IF THE STARS LIGHT...
It would seem that everything is fine. But suddenly it turned out that ruby stars look black in sunlight! The solution was found: the glasses should be made two-layer, and the inner layer should be milky white, well scattering light. At the same time, this provided a more even glow and hid the filaments of the lamps.
In order for the glow of the entire surface of the star to be even, glass of various thicknesses and color saturation was used, and the lamps were enclosed in prismatic refractors. To protect the glass from the thermal effects of powerful (up to 5,000 W) lamps, ventilation of the internal cavity was organized. About 600 m3 of air per hour is passed through the stars, which completely protects them from overheating.
The Kremlin luminaries are not threatened by a power outage, since their energy supply is autonomous. Each star lamp has two filaments connected in parallel. If one of them burns out, the lamp continues to burn, and a malfunction signal is sent to the control panel. The mechanism for changing lamps is interesting: you don’t even have to climb to the star, the lamp goes down on a special rod right through the bearing. The whole procedure takes up to half an hour.
In the entire history of the stars went out only twice. The first time was during the war, when they were extinguished so as not to become a beacon for German bombers. Covered with burlap, they patiently waited out the bombardment, but when it was over, it turned out that some of the glass was damaged and needed to be replaced. Moreover, our anti-aircraft gunners turned out to be the unwitting culprits.
The second time the stars briefly went out at the request of Nikita Mikhalkov in 1997, when he was filming his "The Barber of Siberia". Since then, the Kremlin stars have been burning unceasingly, becoming the main symbol of the Russian capital.
It would seem that nothing threatens them. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin stars were not dismantled, unlike other Soviet symbols (hammers and sickles, coats of arms on palaces, etc.). And yet their fate today is not so cloudless. For a quarter of a century, discussions about the appropriateness of Soviet symbols over the Kremlin have not ceased in society. Whether they will continue to shine, time will tell.
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 Feodorovna 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 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".
Beautiful ruby stars fit so harmoniously into the appearance of five ancient Moscow towers that they seem to be their natural continuation. But for many years no less beautiful double-headed eagles sat on the Kremlin towers.
Huge gilded double-headed eagles appeared on the four towers of the Kremlin from the mid-50s of the seventeenth century.
In the first years after the revolution, the Bolsheviks tried to destroy all the symbols of the old world, but they did not touch the eagles on the Kremlin towers, the hands of the Soviet government did not reach them. Although Lenin repeatedly reminded of the need to dismantle them, this operation required a lot of money, was very technically difficult, and at first the Bolsheviks could not decide what to replace the eagles with? Various proposals came in - with flags, the coat of arms of the USSR, the emblem with a sickle and a hammer ... Finally, they settled on the stars.
In the spring of 1935, watching the planes flying by at the parade, Stalin was especially annoyed by the sight of the royal eagles, spoiling the whole picture.
At the end of the summer of 1935, a TASS message came out: " 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 hammer and sickle on the indicated 4 towers of the Kremlin".
All the stars decided to make it different, each with its own unique pattern. For the Nikolskaya Tower, they designed a smooth, without a pattern, star.
When the layouts were ready, the leaders of the country came to look at them and gave the go-ahead for the production of real stars. Their only wish was to make the stars rotate, and they could be admired from everywhere.
They decided to make the stars from high-alloy stainless steel and red copper. The symbol of Soviet Russia, the hammer and sickle, sparkling in the sun and under the beams of searchlights, was to become a real decoration. A whole army of jewelers worked on the creation of this beauty from a huge number of Ural gems for a month and a half.
The stars turned out to be much heavier than the eagles, the weight of each star was about 1000 kg. Before installing them, it was necessary to additionally strengthen the tents on the towers. The design had to withstand even hurricane winds. And in order for the stars to become rotating, bearings were installed at their base, which were made for this purpose at the First Bearing Plant.
Now the daunting task of dismantling the double-headed eagles and the subsequent erection of huge stars in their place was ahead. The towers had a height of 52 to 72 meters, and there were no suitable equipment - high cranes - then. It was necessary to come up with something, and the engineers still found a way out. A crane was designed separately for each tower, which was installed on the upper tier on a special metal base, specially mounted for this.
After the eagles were dismantled with the help of this technique, they did not immediately raise the stars in their place, but decided to show them to Muscovites first. To do this, for one day they were put on public display in the Park. Gorky.
Eagles were also placed nearby, from which the gilding has already been removed. Of course, the eagles lost next to the sparkling sparkling stars, symbolizing the beauty of the new world.
On October 24, 1935, having thoroughly checked the equipment, they began to slowly raise the star to the Spasskaya Tower. Having reached a height of 70 meters, the winch was stopped, and the climbers, carefully guiding the star, very accurately lowered it onto the supporting spire. Everything worked out! Hundreds of people gathered in the square and watching this unique operation applauded the installers.
Over the next three days, three more stars were installed, shining on the Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya and Troitskaya towers.
However, these stars did not last long on the towers. Two years later, they lost their luster, faded - soot, dust and dirt did their job.
It was decided to replace them, while it was recommended to reduce their size, since the first stars still looked rather heavy. The task was set - to do it as soon as possible, by the 20th anniversary of the revolution.
This time it was decided to make stars from ruby glass and glow from the inside, and not from spotlights. To solve this problem, the best minds of the country were involved.
The recipe for ruby glass was developed by the Moscow glassmaker N. I. Kurochkin - to achieve the desired color, selenium was added to the glass instead of gold. Firstly, it was cheaper, and secondly, it made it possible to obtain a richer and deeper color.
And so, on November 2, 1937, new, ruby stars lit up on the Kremlin towers. Another star appeared - on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, and there were five such towers, like the rays of the star.
These stars really shine from within.
This effect is achieved thanks to special custom-made 5000 watt lamps inside them. In addition, they have two filaments, one for safety net. In order to change the lamp, you do not need to climb up to it, you can lower it on a special bar.
Glazing at the stars is double. Outside, ruby glass for color, and milky white inside, for better dispersion. Milky white glass is used so that ruby glass does not appear too dark in bright light.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Kremlin stars went out - they were sheathed, since they were an excellent guide for the enemy. And after the war, when the tarpaulin was removed, it turned out that they received minor shrapnel damage from an anti-aircraft battery located nearby. I had to send the stars for restoration, after which they shone even brighter. A new three-layer glazing of the stars was made (ruby glass, frosted glass and crystal), and their gilded frame was also updated. In the spring of 1946, the stars were returned to the towers.
