Glass of Kremlin stars. Big encyclopedia of oil and gas

What is ruby ​​glass? When did it appear? Who invented? For what?

People's Artist of the USSR F.F. Fedorovsky redefined the shape and pattern of the stars, as well as their sizes, depending on the architecture and height of each tower. He also suggested the ruby ​​color of the glass.

A serious task was set before the glass industry: to weld a special ruby ​​glass for the Kremlin stars. Prior to that, in our country, such glass was not brewed in large volumes. The task was entrusted to the Konstantinovsky glass factory in Donbass.

The difficulty in making glass was that it had to have different densities and only let through red rays of a certain wavelength. At the same time, the glass had to be resistant to sudden changes in temperature, mechanically strong, not discolored and not destroyed by exposure to solar radiation.

The recipe for melting glass was compiled by the famous Moscow glazier Nikanor Illarionovich Kurochkin, a man of amazing talent and extraordinary skill. Even as a village boy, Kurochkin became interested in glassmaking and, thanks to his inquisitive mind and natural gift, he came to know the "soul" of glass. He was the first in our country to produce curved glass various shapes and sizes: for searchlights, aircraft, river and sea vessels, cars.

Under the direct supervision and with the participation of N. I. Kurochkin, ruby ​​glass was melted and processed for the Kremlin stars. For high achievements in the field of glass production, this eminent master was awarded the State Prize.

This ruby ​​glass is obtained by introducing selenium into its composition in combination with other chemical compounds. It is called selenium ruby.
There is also a golden ruby, a copper ruby ​​(hematinone - blood-colored glass), a sulfur ruby.
Selenium ruby ​​glasses have a very beautiful, bright color and have one very important and interesting property. By changing the ratio between the amounts of dyes, it is possible to obtain yellow, orange, red and very dark red glasses. Selenium glasses are much cheaper than gold ones, and in terms of beauty the colors are not inferior to gold ones and are much superior to copper ones.

Such wonderful story about the Kremlin stars, and the factory where they were made, their glass part, to be more precise, was written by Mikhail Letuev - nord_traveller . Due to a little confusion, and a glitch in the LiveJournal, the authorship was initially incorrectly indicated. Now I'm fixing it. Here is a link to the original post - Part 1. Say a word about the Kremlin stars. And there is another continuation, no less interesting - Part 2. Is it too late for us to make a stop? .

Tver region Vyshny Volochek Red May, Glass Factory - where the Kremlin stars were made.


The coming year could be marked by two dates - albeit not jubilee, but significant in their own way: the 157th anniversary of the founding of a chemical plant near Vyshny Volochok and the 87th anniversary of the day this plant received its last name, under which it all know - "Red May". They knew. Today, instead of a unique enterprise, once famous for its crystal, there are only ruins. However, there is also a round date - exactly 70 years ago, stars made of glass made at Krasny May shone over the Moscow Kremlin. Once the plant was famous throughout the USSR. Still would! "Above the whole country shine Kremlin stars made by the hands of Krasnomai masters, ”I read a 1988 guide. Of course, not entirely: the ruby ​​tops of the spiers of the towers are a complex engineering structure, which was created by dozens of enterprises and research institutes. But the laminated glass made at Krasny May is far from the last part of this structure. Therefore, the words of almost thirty years ago, despite the pathos, are close to the truth. What's left of that pride? Destroyed workshops, which are unlikely to be rebuilt when. Yes, a museum that survives on just one word of honor. A few kilometers from Vyshny Volochok towards St. Petersburg is the village of Krasnomaisky. Truth, locals it is not called that, this toponym exists only in official documents. “I will go to Red May”, “I live on Red May”, - saying this, people mean exactly the village, not the factory. AT mid-nineteenth century here was the village of Klyuchino, where in 1859 the future flagship of the glass industry arose. First, as a chemical Its first owner, titular adviser Samarin, had further development production did not have enough funds, and three years later the plant was bought out by the merchant of the second guild Andrey Bolotin, who soon built a glass factory in its place. Later, he founded another plant on the territory of the current Vyshnevolotsk district - Borisovsky (now - OJSC Medsteklo Borisovskoye). The first glass-making furnace at the Klyuchinsky plant was launched by the merchant and founder of the Bolotin dynasty of glassmakers in 1873. Also, at the expense of the owners of the plant, a working settlement, quite comfortable by the standards of that time, was built.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Klyuchinsky plant produced glass pharmaceutics, tableware and confectionery utensils, kerosene lamps, ceiling lamps, fulfilling orders from almost all parts of the empire. Soon the October Revolution broke out, the plant was nationalized and in 1929 was named "Red May". A settlement for 5 thousand inhabitants with a hospital, a school, music school, a vocational school that trained, in addition to glass specialists, tractor drivers and car mechanics. A lot was written about "Red May" in the regional and central press. Let's remember what the newspapers and magazines were talking about then and compare all this with the current remnants of the former greatness. Moreover, the inseparability of two symbols is natural in our minds - the heart of the Motherland and the five-pointed star ”(“ Pravda ”, 1985). It just so happened that we say "Red May", and we mean five ruby ​​finials. And vice versa. Therefore, I want to start my story from this page. Moreover, the Vyshnevolotsk stars, which now adorn the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers of the Kremlin, were not the first. For the first time, five-pointed stars replaced the symbol of autocratic Russia - double-headed eagles - in the fall of 1935. They were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper, with a gilded hammer and sickle in the center of each star. However, the first stars did not decorate for long Kremlin towers. Firstly, they quickly faded under the influence of precipitation, and secondly, in overall composition The Kremlin looked rather ridiculous and violated the architectural ensemble. Therefore, it was decided to install ruby ​​luminous stars.

New finials appeared on November 2, 1937. Each of them could rotate like a weather vane and had a frame in the form of a multifaceted pyramid. The order for the production of ruby ​​glass was received by the Avtosteklo plant in the city of Konstantinovka in the Donbass. It had to pass red rays of a certain wavelength, be mechanically strong, resistant to sudden changes in temperature, not discolor and not be destroyed by solar radiation. The glazing of the stars was double: the inner layer consisted of milky (opaque, deaf white) glass 2 mm thick, due to which the light from the lamp was scattered evenly over the entire surface, and the outer layer was made of ruby ​​6-7 mm. The weight of each star was about a ton, the surface area was from 8 to 9 square meters.

During the Great Patriotic War the stars were extinguished and sheathed. When they were reopened after the Victory, numerous cracks and traces of shell fragments were found on the ruby ​​surface. Restoration was needed. This time, the Vyshnevolotsk factory "Red May" was entrusted with making glass. The local craftsmen made it four layers: transparent crystal at the bottom, then frosted glass, again crystal and, finally, ruby. This is necessary so that the star and during the day sunlight, and at night, illuminated from the inside, was the same color. “The ruby ​​stars made at the Konstantinovsky plant did not fulfill the task set by the designers. A double layer of glass - milk and ruby ​​- did not make it possible to save bright color stars. Dust accumulated between the layers. And by that time, laminated glass was being produced, in my opinion, only at Krasny May (Kalininskaya Pravda, 1987). “I think that readers will be interested to know how prototypes of star glass were made. It took 32 tons of high-quality Lyubertsy sand, 3 tons of zinc muffle white, 1.5 tons of boric acid, 16 tons of soda ash, 3 tons of potash, 1.5 tons of potassium nitrate to make a multilayer ruby ​​for only one star ”(“ Yunost ”, 1981). New stars shone in 1946. And they still shine, despite the calls of some public figures to replace them with eagles again. The next reconstruction of the ruby ​​"luminaries" was in 1974, and again Krasnomai masters took part in it. Despite the existing experience, the brewing technology had to be created, as they say, from scratch: archival documents that could be used to restore the "recipe" have not been preserved.

I must say that in 2010, about the 75th anniversary of the first Kremlin stars a lot was written in the central media, but the contribution of "Red May" was never mentioned anywhere. Not in 1996, when the plant was still, at the very least, working, despite the fact that wages there were already being paid out in vases and wine glasses. Not in 2006 - at least in pursuit of the departed train ...

“Yesterday, a batch of colorless and milky glass parts for lighting fixtures of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory was sent from the Vyshnevolotsk Krasny May plant. It was not easy for glassmakers to repeat the bizarre shapes of ancient chandeliers and sconces that have illuminated the halls of this musical theater for more than a hundred years. educational institution"(Kalininskaya Pravda, 1983). “Several years ago, at the request of Bulgarian friends, the masters of the Vyshnevolotsk Krasny May glass factory made ruby ​​glass for the friendship memorial built on the famous Shipka. And here is a new order from Bulgaria - to make four-layer glass for a star that will crown the Party House in Sofia. The teams of craftsmen N. Ermakov, A. Kuznetsov, N. Nasonov and A. Bobovnikov were entrusted with fulfilling the export order” (“Pravda”, 1986). “A beautiful garden village with paved roads, comfortable cottages, a club, a school and others. public buildings, with a plant-garden in the center, from where products of almost two thousand items disperse all over the world ”(“ Kalininskaya Pravda ”, 1959). “Yesterday, a joyful message came from Moscow to GPTU-24 of the Vyshnevolotsk Krasny May plant. Decree of the Main Exhibition Committee of VDNKh of the USSR for the development and participation in the manufacture of vases "Jubilee" and "Cup", presented at the All-Union Review artwork vocational schools, bronze medals were awarded to the masters of industrial training T. Orlova and T. Shamrina. And the students Irina Yarosh and Eduard Vedernikov were awarded the medal "Young Participant of the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements" ("Kalininskaya Pravda", 1983). For comparison. The village-garden is an ordinary outlying village, of which there are thousands. It seems not abandoned, but there is also no hint of grooming. Cottage houses are, apparently, wooden two-story barracks still with cesspools. Plant-garden now - pipes towering over the ruins of workshops, a rusty honor board, like a ghost from the past. On the territory itself - some small business: car repair, warehouses. In the former factory premises, even the old furniture was gone, only heaps of construction debris. railway line, with the exception of a few sections, has been almost completely dismantled. GPTU also keeps pace with the times. Back in the middle of the 2000s, the specialty of a tractor driver-machinist, once the most popular among teenagers, was closed there. Yes, and in life is not the most unpromising. Is there really no need for tractor drivers anymore? Of course, there are no blowers and grinders of glass products either. “A seemingly simple product is a glass, but its manufacture requires great skill. Glass makers of the Vyshnevolotsk plant "Krasny May" master this skill to perfection. Two types of glasses produced here in millions of "circulations" were awarded the State Quality Mark. A vase for berries, a rosette for jam, an ashtray made of zinc sulfide glass were awarded the same high rating. Soviet Russia", 1975). In the workshops of the plant, by the way, the third largest after those in Gus-Khrustalny and Dyatkovo, not only crystal products and ruby ​​stars were produced.

August 31st, 2016

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.

Before 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.

Change symbol Russian Empire to the symbol of the new Soviet power tried several times. Back in the years civil war this proposal was made by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Lenin. However, in conditions of total economic collapse, the 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 that, a TASS message was released informing Soviet people: by November 7, 1935, remove 4 eagles located on the towers of the Kremlin wall, and 2 eagles from the building 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: Good, but it would be necessary without a circle in the center, while “without” was underlined twice. Lansere quickly corrected everything and gave a new sketch for approval. Stalin again made the remark: Good, but it would be necessary without a fastening stick, and the word "without" 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. Hammer and sickle emblems temporarily inlaid with imitations 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 diamond 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 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 - with 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 the important task of raising and installing stars on the Kremlin towers. But how to do that? After all, the lowest of them, Borovitskaya, has a height of 52 meters, and the highest, Troitskaya, is 77 meters. At that time there were no large cranes, but 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 through the tower window, a metal base was built in - the console. 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 suitable technique in 1935 it simply did not exist. The height of the lowest tower, Borovitskaya, is 52 meters, the highest, Troitskaya, is 72. There were no tower cranes of 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 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 strong wind lasted about two hours. A little more than two months have passed since the newspapers published the decree on the installation of stars. Or rather, only 65 days. Newspapers wrote about the labor feat of the Soviet workers, who, for such short term created true works of art.

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, folk artist 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 it was invented new technology- selenium ruby. Until then, in order to achieve desired color gold was added to glass; selenium is both cheaper and the color is deeper. Special bearings were installed at the base of each star 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-layered, 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 first extinguished - 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.

And a couple interesting videos about the stars

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What is ruby ​​glass? When did it appear? Who invented? For what?

People's Artist of the USSR F.F. Fedorovsky redefined the shape and pattern of the stars, as well as their sizes, depending on the architecture and height of each tower. He also suggested the ruby ​​color of the glass.

A serious task was set before the glass industry: to weld a special ruby ​​glass for the Kremlin stars. Prior to that, in our country, such glass was not brewed in large volumes. The task was entrusted to the Konstantinovsky glass factory in Donbass.

The difficulty in making glass was that it had to have different densities and only let through red rays of a certain wavelength. At the same time, the glass had to be resistant to sudden changes in temperature, mechanically strong, not discolored and not destroyed by exposure to solar radiation.

The recipe for melting glass was compiled by the famous Moscow glazier Nikanor Illarionovich Kurochkin, a man of amazing talent and extraordinary skill. Even as a village boy, Kurochkin became interested in glassmaking and, thanks to his inquisitive mind and natural gift, he came to know the "soul" of glass. He was the first in our country to produce curved glass of various shapes and sizes: for searchlights, airplanes, river and sea vessels, cars.

Under the direct supervision and with the participation of N. I. Kurochkin, ruby ​​glass was melted and processed for the Kremlin stars. For high achievements in the field of glass production, this outstanding master was awarded the State Prize.

This ruby ​​glass is obtained by introducing selenium into its composition in combination with other chemical compounds. It is called selenium ruby.
There is also a golden ruby, a copper ruby ​​(hematinone - blood-colored glass), a sulfur ruby.
Selenium ruby ​​glasses have a very beautiful, bright color and have one very important and interesting property. By changing the ratio between the amounts of dyes, it is possible to obtain yellow, orange, red and very dark red glasses. Selenium glasses are much cheaper than gold ones, and in terms of beauty the colors are not inferior to gold ones and are much superior to copper ones.

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

Gem Stars Dismantled Shortly Before 20th Anniversary 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 was done to reduce the load at large air currents. 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 had new system lighting with several metal halide lamps with a total power of 1000 watts.

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.