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 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. 
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 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".
She replaced the "Tsar's Eagle" on the Spasskaya Tower. Next, the stars were hoisted on the Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya and Troitskaya towers. Then, when the stars were replaced in 1937, the fifth star appeared on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, where before that state symbols had not been placed.
Installing stars on the Kremlin towers
Dismantling the eagles
Double-headed eagles, being the state symbols of Russia, have been on the tops of the tents of the Kremlin towers since the 17th century. About once a century, the gilded copper eagles were changed, 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.
A week later, on June 20, 1930, 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.
While the stars were being made, the builders-installers solved the main problem - how to actually remove the double-headed eagles from the towers and fix the stars. At that time, there were no large high-rise cranes that could help carry out this operation. Specialists of the All-Union office "Stalprommekhanizatsiya" developed special 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.
Finally, on October 18, 1935, all 4 double-headed eagles were removed from the Kremlin towers. Due to the old design of the eagle from the Trinity Tower, it had to be dismantled right at the top of the tower. The work 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. In the memorandum of the head of the Operational Department of the OGPU Pauker to I. V. Stalin and V. M. Molotov dated November 4, 1935, it is reported: “... I was instructed to remove the eagles from the Kremlin towers and from the Historical Museum by November 7, replacing them with stars. I report that this task of the Politburo has been completed ... "
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: Issue 67.9 kilograms of gold to the NKVD of the USSR for gilding the Kremlin stars. The gold covering of the eagles will be removed and handed over to the State Bank.”
gem stars
New gemstone stars weighed about a ton. The tents of the Kremlin towers were not designed for such a load. The tents of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers had to be reinforced from the inside with metal supports and pins, on which it was planned to plant 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 first stars 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, the symbol of Soviet Russia, the hammer and sickle, was laid out with Ural gems. The sickle and hammer were covered with gold 20 microns thick, the pattern was not repeated on any of the stars. The star on the Spasskaya Tower was decorated with rays 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.
ruby stars
Unlike semi-precious stars, ruby ones have only 3 different patterns (Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are the same 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 the Nikolskaya tower has 12 faces.
Design features
Special bearings are installed at the base of each star so that, despite their weight (more than 1 ton), they can rotate like a weather vane. The "frame" of the stars is made of special stainless steel produced by the Elektrostal plant near Moscow.
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 star, which allowed the star to look bright and, in addition, made the filaments of the lamps invisible. Stars have different sizes. On Vodovzvodnaya, the beam span is 3 m, on Borovitskaya - 3.2 m, on Troitskaya - 3.5 m, on Spasskaya and Nikolskaya - 3.75 m.
Ruby glass was brewed at the Avtosteklo plant in the city of Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of the Moscow glass maker N. I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 m² 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.
Lamps for the Kremlin stars were developed by special order at the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant, they were developed by specialists from the lighting laboratory. Each lamp has two filaments connected in parallel, so even if one of them burns out, the lamp will not stop shining. The lamps were made at the Peterhof factory of precise technical stones. The power of electric lamps in the stars on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Nikolskaya towers is 5 kW, on Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya - 3.7 kW.
When solving the problem of uniform illumination of the stars, they immediately abandoned the idea of installing many light bulbs inside the star, therefore, to ensure a uniform distribution of the light flux, the lamp is enclosed in many glass prisms. For the same purpose, the glass at the ends of the rays of stars has a lower density than in the center. During the day, the stars are illuminated more strongly than at night.
The central control panel for the control and ventilation of the stars is located in the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin. Every day, twice a day, the operation of the lamps is visually checked, and the blower fans are switched. 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 their 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.
Red stars abroad of the USSR
Many socialist countries erected red stars over their public institutions as a symbol of state policy and ideology. From 1954 to 1990, a red star towered over the Central House of the BKP in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia - an exact copy of the Soviet ones that were erected over the Moscow Kremlin. Today this star can be seen in the Museum of Socialist Art. The red star was installed on the parliament building in Budapest, built in 1885-1904, and dismantled in 1990.
Since the 1990s, there has been public discussion about the appropriateness of Soviet symbols in the Kremlin. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin stars were not dismantled, unlike other (hammer and sickle, emblems on palaces, etc.) Soviet symbols in the Kremlin. The attitude towards ruby stars in society is ambiguous.
Supporters of the return of double-headed eagles
A number of social movements (“Return”, “People’s Cathedral”, “For Faith and Fatherland”, etc.), as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, take a certain position, declaring “that it would be fair to return the double-headed eagles that adorned them to the Kremlin towers for centuries." In 2010, in connection with the opening of the gate icons of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, disputes about the appropriateness of ruby stars flared up with renewed vigor.
| Above the Kremlin there have always been and will be symbols of the state power of the country. The symbol of state power in Russia is the double-headed eagle. Therefore, the joyful return of the eagle to the holy Spassky Tower will definitely happen. This is historically inevitable. If we live in a democratic Russia, then the president of such a Russia should not work under communist stars and next to the idols of Lenin and Stalin Vladimir Lavrov, Deputy Director for Science |
| Let's remove the stars above the Kremlin - there were eagles hanging there, and what about the stars? The five-pointed star is a sign of Freemasons Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, leader of the LDPR faction |
On September 10, 2010, a month before the 75th anniversary of the installation of stars over the Kremlin, members of the Return Foundation turned to the president with a proposal to return the double-headed eagle to the Spasskaya Tower. The appeal caused a public discussion, but there was no response from the president, and then the opportunity to return the Kremlin eagles was completely canceled due to mass protests from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, as well as due to the elections to the State Duma and the presidential elections in Russia, held on December 4, 2011 and March 4 2012, respectively.
Star conservationists
The museum community is skeptical about the idea of replacing stars with eagles:
| This topic comes up sporadically. But will we return the lost Russia by returning the eagles to the towers? Moreover, they would be a remake ... The stars are also monuments - they symbolize the established image of the Kremlin Andrey Batalov, Deputy General Director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums |
Consistently throughout the entire discussion, the replacement of stars is opposed by and
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
