The stars on the Kremlin towers appeared not so long ago. Until 1935, in the very center of the country of victorious socialism, there were still gilded symbols of tsarism, double-headed eagles. Below the cut is the difficult story of the Kremlin stars and eagles.
Since the 1600s, the four Kremlin towers (Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya) have been decorated with symbols of Russian statehood - huge gilded double-headed eagles. These eagles did not sit on spiers for centuries - they changed quite often (after all, some researchers still argue what material they were made of - metal or gilded wood; there is information that the body of some eagles - if not all - was wooden, and other parts - metal; but it is logical to assume that those first two-headed birds were made entirely of wood). This fact - the fact of constant rotation of spire decorations - should be remembered, because it is he who will subsequently play one of the main roles during the replacement of eagles with stars.
In the first years of Soviet power, all double-headed eagles in the state were destroyed, all but four. Four gilded eagles sat on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The question of replacing the royal eagles with red stars on the Kremlin towers repeatedly arose soon after the revolution. However, such a replacement was associated with large financial expenses and therefore could not be carried out in the first years of Soviet power.
The real opportunity to allocate funds for installing stars on the Kremlin towers appeared much later. In 1930, they turned to the artist and art critic Igor Grabar with a request to establish the artistic and historical value of the Kremlin eagles. He replied: “... none of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers represent an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.”
Parade 1935. Eagles watch Maxim Gorky fly by and spoil the holiday of Soviet power.
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 (Bolsheviks) decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Trinity 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 design and production of the first Kremlin stars was entrusted to two Moscow factories and workshops of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). An outstanding decorative artist, academician Fyodor Fedorovich Fedorovsky took up the development of sketches of future stars. He determined their shape, size, pattern. They decided to make the Kremlin stars from high-alloy stainless steel and red copper. In the middle of each star, on both sides, the emblems of the hammer and sickle, lined with precious stones, were supposed to sparkle.
When the sketches were created, life-size models of the stars were made. The hammer and sickle emblems were temporarily inlaid with imitation precious stones. Each model star was illuminated with twelve spotlights. This is exactly how they intended to illuminate the real stars on the Kremlin towers at night and on cloudy days. When the spotlights were turned on, the stars sparkled and sparkled with a myriad of colorful lights.
The leaders of the party and the Soviet government came to inspect the finished models. They agreed to make the 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 took part in the creation of the Kremlin stars. For the Spasskaya and Troitskaya towers, the stars were made in the workshops of TsAGI under the leadership of the chief engineer of the institute A. A. Arkhangelsky, and for the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers - at Moscow factories under the leadership of the chief designer.
All four stars differed from each other in artistic design. So, on the edges of the star of the Spasskaya Tower 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. But 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.
The supporting structure of the stars was made in the form of a light but durable stainless steel frame. Framing decorations made of red copper sheets were placed on this frame. They were plated with gold with a thickness of 18 to 20 microns. Each star had a hammer and sickle emblem measuring 2 meters in size and weighing 240 kilograms on both sides. The emblems were decorated with precious Ural stones - rock crystal, amethysts, alexandrites, topazes and aquamarines. To make eight emblems, 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 (on 73 sides) and is sealed to prevent falling out in a separate silver cast with a silver screw and nut. The total weight of all stars is 5600 kilograms."
Star for the Nikolskaya Tower. 1935 ph. B. Vdovenko. 
The frame of the emblem was made of bronze and stainless steel. Each precious stone in a frame of gilded silver was separately attached to this frame. Two hundred and fifty of the best jewelers in Moscow and Leningrad worked for a month and a half to create the emblems. The principles for the arrangement of stones were developed by Leningrad artists.
The design of the stars was designed to withstand the load of hurricane winds. Special bearings manufactured at the First Bearing Plant were installed at the base of each star. Thanks to this, the stars, despite their significant weight, could easily rotate and become their frontal side against the wind.
Before installing the stars on the Kremlin towers, engineers had doubts: would the towers withstand their weight and storm wind loads? After all, each star weighed on average one thousand kilograms and had a sail surface of 6.3 square meters. A thorough examination revealed that the upper ceilings of the tower vaults and their tents had fallen into disrepair. 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 connections 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 of Stalprommekhanizatsiya L.N. Shchipakov, I.V. Kunegin, N.B. Gitman and I.I. Reshetov were faced with the responsible 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 specialists from Stalprommekhanizatsiya found an original solution. They designed and built a special crane for each tower that could be installed on its top tier. At the base of the tent, a metal base - a console - was built through the tower window. The crane was assembled on it.
The day came when everything was ready for the rise of the five-pointed stars. But first they decided to show them to Muscovites. On October 23, 1935, the stars were delivered to the Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after. M. Gorky and installed on pedestals covered with red. In the light of the spotlights, gilded rays sparkled and Ural gems sparkled. The secretaries of the city and district committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the chairman of the Moscow City 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 flash in the sky of Moscow.
The captured eagles were put on display there.
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, mechanics checked the crane's winch and motor. At 12:40 the command “Vira little by little!” was heard. The star took off from the ground and began to slowly rise upward. When she reached a height of 70 meters, the winch stopped. The steeplejacks 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 this day several hundred people gathered on Red Square to follow the operation. The moment the star was on the spire, the entire crowd began to applaud the climbers.
The next day, a five-pointed star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower. On October 26 and 27, the stars shone over the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. The installers had perfected 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 winds, 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 Soviet workers, who created real works of art in such a short period of time.
The star from the Spasskaya Tower now crowns the spire of the River Station. 
The first stars did not decorate the towers of the Moscow Kremlin for long. Just a year later, under the influence of atmospheric precipitation, the Ural gems faded. In addition, they did not fully fit into the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin due to their large size. Therefore, in May 1937, it was decided to install new stars - luminous, ruby ones. At the same time, another one was added to the four towers with stars - Vodovzvodnaya. 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.
Ruby glass was welded at a glass factory in Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of Moscow glassmaker N.I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 square meters of ruby glass, for which a new technology was invented - “selenium ruby”. Previously, gold was added to glass to achieve the desired color; Selenium is cheaper and the color is deeper.
But suddenly the following was discovered: in sunlight, ruby stars appear... black. The answer was found - the five-pointed beauties had to be made in two layers, and the bottom, inner layer of glass had to be milky white, scattering light well. By the way, this provided both a more even glow and hiding the filaments of the lamps from human eyes. By the way, a dilemma arose here too - 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. The combination of different thicknesses and color saturations of the glass helped. In addition, the lamps are enclosed in refractors consisting of prismatic glass tiles.
Photo chistoprudov
Powerful lamps (up to 5000 watts) raised the temperature inside the stars, like in a locomotive furnace. The heat threatened to destroy both the lamp bulbs themselves and the precious five-pointed rubies. The professor wrote: “It is quite clear that the glass cannot be allowed to burst and crack in the event of rain or a change in weather and the glass falling down. The fans work flawlessly. About 600 cubic meters of air per hour are passed through the stars, which completely guarantees against overheating.”
The five-pointed Kremlin luminaries are not in danger of a power outage, since their energy supply is autonomous.
Lamps for the Kremlin stars were developed at the Moscow Electric Tube Plant. The power of three - on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers - is 5000 watts, and 3700 watts - on Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya. Each contains two filaments connected in parallel. If one lamp burns out, the lamp continues to light, and a fault signal is sent to the control panel. The mechanism for changing lamps is interesting: you don’t even have to go up to the star, the lamp goes down on a special rod directly through the bearing. The entire procedure takes 30-35 minutes.
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...
It was proposed to replace the armorial eagles with flags, as on other towers, and with emblems with a hammer and sickle, and with the coats of arms of the USSR, but stars 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, covered with metal sheets and decorated with Ural stones, reached a ton.
The design of the stars was designed to withstand the load of hurricane winds. Special bearings manufactured at the First Bearing Plant were installed at the base of each star. Thanks to this, the stars, despite their significant weight, could easily rotate and become their frontal side against the wind. 
Before installing the stars on the Kremlin towers, engineers had doubts: would the towers withstand their weight and storm wind loads? After all, each star weighed on average one thousand kilograms and had a sail surface of 6.3 square meters. A thorough examination revealed that the upper ceilings of the tower vaults and their tents had fallen into disrepair. 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 connections 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. 
Placing thousand-kilogram stars on the Kremlin towers was no 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 this height in the country, but for Russian engineers there is no word “no”, there is the word “must”.
Stalprommekhanizatsiya specialists designed and built a special crane for each tower, which could be installed on its upper tier. At the base of the tent, a metal base - a console - was mounted through the tower window. A crane was assembled on it. So, in several stages, the double-headed eagles were first dismantled, and then the stars were erected.
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 had perfected 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 winds, 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 Soviet workers, who created real works of art in such a short period of time. 
However, the new symbols were destined for a short life. Already the first two winters showed that due to the aggressive influence of Moscow rains and snow, both the Ural gems and the gold leaf that covered the metal parts became tarnished. In addition, the stars turned out to be disproportionately large, which was not identified 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 the metal stars with ruby ones with powerful internal illumination. Moreover, Stalin decided to install such a star on the fifth Kremlin tower - Vodovzvodnaya: from the new Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge there was a stunning view of this slender and very architecturally harmonious tower. And it became another very advantageous element of the “monumental propaganda” of the era. 
Ruby glass was welded at a glass factory in Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of Moscow glassmaker N.I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to weld 500 square meters of ruby glass, for which a new technology was invented - “selenium ruby”. Previously, gold was added to glass to achieve the desired color; Selenium is cheaper and the color is deeper.
At the base of each star, special bearings were installed so that, despite their weight, they could rotate like a weather vane. They are not afraid of rust and hurricanes, since the “frame” of the stars is made of special stainless steel. The fundamental difference: weather vanes indicate where the wind is blowing, and Kremlin stars indicate where the wind is blowing. Have you understood the essence and significance of the fact? Thanks to the diamond-shaped cross-section of the star, it always stubbornly faces the wind. And any - up to a hurricane. Even if everything around is completely destroyed, the stars and tents will remain intact. That's how it was designed and built. 
But suddenly the following was discovered: in sunlight, ruby stars appear... black. The answer was found - the five-pointed beauties had to be made in two layers, and the bottom, inner layer of glass had to be milky white, scattering light well. By the way, this provided both a more even glow and hiding the filaments of the lamps from human eyes. By the way, a dilemma arose here too - 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. The combination of different thicknesses and color saturations of the glass helped. In addition, the lamps are enclosed in refractors consisting of prismatic glass tiles. 
In the entire history of the stars, they went out only 2 times. The first time was during World War II. It was then that the stars were extinguished for the first time - after all, they were not only a symbol, but also an excellent guiding light. Covered in burlap, they patiently waited out the bombing, and when it was all over, it turned out that the glass was damaged in many places and required replacement. Moreover, the unexpected pests turned out to be their own - the artillerymen who defended the capital from fascist air raids. The second time was when 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 glasses of the stars are 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, declaring “that it would be fair to return to the Kremlin towers the double-headed eagles that have decorated them for centuries.” 
As for the first stars, one of them, which was on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in 1935-1937, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station 
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 replaced, how much they weigh and why Nikita Mikhalkov needed to extinguish them - the Moscow 24 portal has collected 10 of the most interesting facts.
Fact 1. Before the stars there were eagles
Since the 17th century, gilded double-headed royal eagles made of copper have risen on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya towers of the Moscow Kremlin.
They have not survived to this day. By decision of the new government, on October 18, 1935, the eagles were removed and later melted down. Historians of that time 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, stars appeared on the Trinity, Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
Fact 3. Before ruby stars, they were copper and had gems.
Initially, the stars were made of red sheet copper, which was mounted on a metal frame. Each star weighed approximately one ton.
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 with the Kremlin star-gem
The gem stars were dismantled shortly before the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution. One of them, taken from the Spasskaya Tower, was subsequently installed on the spire of the Northern River Station in Moscow.
Fact 5. Ruby stars on five towers
The gem stars were replaced by new ones - ruby ones. They were installed on November 2, 1937. The former stars dimmed, and the gems did not shine too brightly.
Fact 6. There are lighting lamps inside the stars
Ruby stars glow from within. To illuminate them, 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
The Kremlin's ruby stars have different sizes. The beam span on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers is 3.75 meters, on the Troitskaya tower - 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 from the spire.
Fact 9. During the war, the stars were covered with a tarpaulin
The stars were first extinguished during the Great Patriotic War. They were a good guide for enemy aircraft. The stars were covered in tarpaulin. Subsequently, they were extinguished again at the request of director Nikita Mikhalkov for the sake of filming one of the episodes of “The Barber of Siberia.”
Fact 10. Since 2014, the stars have been undergoing another stage of reconstruction
In 2014, a comprehensive reconstruction of the star was carried out on the Spasskaya Tower: it had 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 - in the Nikolskaya Tower. In 2018, renovations will be carried out on the Borovitskaya Tower.
The first stars did not decorate the towers of the Moscow Kremlin for long. Just a year later, under the influence of atmospheric precipitation, the Ural gems faded. Now the stars were clearly visible only in the immediate vicinity of the Kremlin walls. In addition, they did not fully fit into the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin due to their large size. Therefore, in May 1937, the Soviet government decided to install new stars, luminous, ruby, and not on four, but on five Kremlin towers - Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya.
Prominent scientists, artists, architects, engineers, and workers of many specialties took a direct part in the creation of new Kremlin stars. More than 20 enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and glass industries, research and design institutes participated in the production of parts and materials.
People's Artist of the USSR F. F. Fedorovsky redefined the shape and design of the stars, as well as their sizes, depending on the architecture and height of each tower. He also suggested a ruby glass color. This time the proportions and sizes were chosen so well that the new stars, despite the fact that they were installed on towers of different heights, appear the same from the ground. This was achieved thanks to the different sizes of the stars themselves. The smallest star is now burning on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, located in the lowland: the distance between the ends of its rays is 3 meters. On Borovitskaya and Troitskaya the stars are larger - 3.2 and 3.5 meters, respectively. The largest stars are installed on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, located on a hill: their span is 3.75 meters.
One of the Moscow research institutes was commissioned to develop structural elements of the Kremlin ruby stars and ventilation devices for them.
According to the new project, the main supporting structure of the star was a three-dimensional five-pointed frame, resting at the base on a pipe in which bearings were placed for its rotation. Each ray was a multi-sided pyramid: the star of the Nikolskaya Tower has a twelve-sided one, the other stars have an octagonal one. The bases of these pyramids were welded together at the center of the star. All structural elements of the star were made of high-quality stainless steel, specially welded at the Elektrostal plant near Moscow.
A lot of work in creating ruby stars was done by a team of specialists from the lighting laboratory of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute under the leadership of Professor S. O. Maizel and candidates of technical sciences N. V. Gorbachev and E. S. Ratner. The authors of the project faced difficult tasks. How to ensure that the entire surface of the star is brightly and evenly illuminated, from the center to the tip of the rays? Place dozens of light points inside stars? But then every now and then you will have to change the burnt out lamps. Install one powerful one in the middle? But no matter how powerful the lamp is placed, its light at the end of the rays will be much weaker than in the center of the star. And one more thing: at night the ruby stars will be beautiful, and under the sun their rich red glass will seem almost black. Still, we settled on one lamp.
For this purpose, the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant developed and manufactured special incandescent lamps with a power of 5 thousand watts for the stars of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers and 3700 watts for the stars of the Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers.
These lamps are still unique today. Their creator was the chief engineer of the plant, R. A. Nelender.
For more reliable operation of the lamps, two incandescent filaments (spirals) connected in parallel are mounted in each of them. If one of them burns out, the lamp continues to glow with reduced brightness, and the automatic device signals the control panel about the malfunction. The lamps are relatively small in size: they resemble a cylindrical glass bulb with a metal base. Due to the fact that the filaments are arranged in a tent shape, the lamps have extremely high luminous efficiency. The temperature of the filament reaches 2800°, so the bulbs are made of heat-resistant molybdenum glass.
In order for the light flux to be evenly distributed over the entire inner surface of the star, and especially at the ends of the rays, the lamp was enclosed in a refractor (a three-dimensional hollow fifteen-sided figure). The purpose of the refractor, the edges of which are assembled from prismatic heat-resistant glasses, is to evenly disperse the light flux of the lamp over the entire surface of the star.
A serious task was set for the glass industry: to weld special ruby glass for the Kremlin stars. Before this, such glass was not brewed in large quantities in our country. The task was assigned to the Konstantinovsky Glass Factory in Donbass.
The difficulty in making glass was that it had to have different densities and transmit only 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 or destroyed by exposure to solar radiation.
The recipe for making glass was compiled by the famous Moscow glass specialist 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 innate gift, 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, and cars.
Under the direct supervision and with the participation of N.I. Kurochkin, the melting and processing of ruby glass for the Kremlin stars was carried out. For his high achievements in the field of glass production, this outstanding master was awarded the State Prize.
Each Kremlin star had double glazing: the inner one, made of milk glass, 2 millimeters thick, and the outer one, made of ruby glass, 6-7 millimeters thick. An air gap of 1-2 millimeters was provided between them. The double glazing of the stars was caused by the characteristics of ruby glass. The fact is that it has a pleasant color only when illuminated from the opposite side, but the contours of the light source are clearly visible. Without backlighting, ruby glass looks dark even on bright sunny days. Thanks to the internal glazing of the stars with milk glass, the lamp light was well diffused and the filaments became invisible. And the ruby glass shone most brightly.
It was decided to illuminate the stars from the inside with a lamp both during the day and at night. However, to maintain their rich ruby color during the day, they needed to be illuminated more intensely than at night.
The glazing surface of each star of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers was about 9 square meters, and the Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya - about 8 meters. In the center of the star, where the luminous flux of the lamp is greatest, the ruby glass had a greater color density, and at the ends of the rays, where the flux is weaker, it was less. In this way, uniform illumination of the ruby glass was achieved over the entire surface of the star.
The outer contour and artistic design of each star was framed with details made of red sheet copper, plated with gold. The thickness of the gold coating was 40 microns. Almost 11 kilograms of gold were spent on gilding all the framing parts of the stars. In order to use this valuable metal economically, the framing parts of the stars were gilded only on the front side.
In order for the stars not to overheat from the heat generated by powerful lamps, they needed to be continuously cooled. Workers at one of Moscow's research institutes quickly created a special ventilation system. It consists of a filter to clean the air from dust and two cooling fans, one of which is a backup. The air sucked in by the fan is first purified in a filter and fed into the star through the tower spire (which is the support of the star and at the same time a channel for lifting the lamp). Here the air cools both the lamp and the refractor.
The fans are interlocked not only with each other, but also with the lamp installed in the star. When one fan stops for any reason, the backup fan is automatically switched on. In the event of a stop and standby, the burning lamp turns off immediately. It cannot be otherwise: after all, the temperature on the surface of stars can reach more than 100°. And until the fan starts working, until strong cooling jets of air flow in, the lamp will not light up. Specialists from the all-Union office Stalprommekhanizatsiya proposed original devices that made it possible to replace burnt-out lamps in stars in just 20-30 minutes.
Remote control of the complex equipment of the ruby stars was concentrated on local consoles in each tower and on the central control panel, where a variety of equipment was located on large marble panels: switches, ammeters, switches, warning alarms. Automatic control over the operation of all stars is concentrated on the central control panel. From here, the personnel on duty can perform any operations to turn on and off lamps, fans and other equipment of each star, set the required voltage, etc.
The design of unique electrical equipment and the development of complex electrical circuits for star control were carried out by Elektroprom specialists.
One of the first non-luminous stars, taken from the Spasskaya Tower, but without the hammer and sickle, later crowned the spire of the Khimki railway station. It is still admired by thousands of people arriving in the capital along the Moscow-Volga canal.
After turning on the Kremlin ruby stars, a crucial time has come for the specialists who ensured their uninterrupted operation. At first, there were people on duty at each tower at the control panels around the clock. But after we were convinced of the reliability of the ventilation systems and electrical equipment, round-the-clock duty was concentrated only on the central control panel.
Now, along with the Kremlin chimes, five-pointed ruby stars have also stood on eternal watch. But this watch was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War.
Immediately after the start of the war, the Kremlin, like all of Moscow, changed its appearance. To facilitate the protection of historical monuments, it was necessary to resort to camouflage. The Kremlin walls, as well as all buildings, squares and gardens of the Kremlin were camouflaged. The shiny golden domes of churches and cathedrals and the cross of the bell tower of Ivan the Great were painted over.
They went out, dressed in protective covers and Kremlin stars. It was not easy to cover them. Strong winds were blowing when this work was carried out. The climbers first climbed to the star of the Spasskaya Tower, began to put a cover on the upper beam, and it inflated with the wind like a sail, rushed and pulled people down with it from a great height. Safety belts saved the day. The cover was later found on the roof of GUM... The stars of the other Kremlin towers soon dressed in protective “military” uniforms.
Nazi aviation, every time it managed to break into the skies of Moscow, tried to bomb the Kremlin, but the anti-aircraft artillery of the capital's air defense opened powerful barrage fire. Shell fragments sometimes hit ruby stars, causing them damage.
For four years the Kremlin star was covered with protective covers. But then May 1945 came. The Soviet people celebrated the victory over Nazi Germany. And already on the second day after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the commandant of the Moscow Kremlin N.K. Spiridonov instructed the operators to prepare the ruby stars for inclusion.
Climbers began lifting repair cradles on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers. They removed the camouflage covers from the stars and were saddened to see cracks and holes in the ruby glass from fragments of anti-aircraft artillery shells. Working for three days from dawn until late evening, the operators washed the glass, polished the gilded frame parts to a shine, and put the mechanisms and equipment in order.
And then, at the same time, ruby stars flashed again on all five towers of the Kremlin. It was a joyful event. That May evening, many residents and guests of the capital came to Red Square to admire the peaceful light of the Kremlin stars.
However, a few months later, on August 27, 1945, it was decided to carry out a major overhaul and reconstruction of the Kremlin stars. The fact is that a large number of fragmentation holes and cracks in the glasses of stars worsened their appearance and made operation difficult.
For about eight years now, ruby stars have been crowning the Kremlin towers, and during this period a number of shortcomings have emerged that require elimination. Firstly, the framed gilded details of the stars quickly dimmed and became covered with dark spots. It was necessary to lift the repair cradles twice a year, usually in spring and autumn, in order to polish the parts to a shine again and again. And this work at high altitude is not easy. Consequently, it was necessary to improve the quality of gilding of the artistic details of the stars.
In addition, the ends of the rays, especially the upper ones, were obscured by the internal structural elements of the stars and were poorly illuminated in the evening and at night. The rays seemed to be cut off, and thus the integrity of the impression was violated. Milk glass glazing turned out to be not strong enough. Due to the high temperature, the glass inside the star almost all cracked, and in some places completely collapsed. Through ventilation slits and holes from fragments, dust, soot, rain, and snow penetrated into the star. All this was deposited on the refractor glasses and on the inner surface of the milky glazing, causing the stars to lose their brightness and appear as if they were spots. Another significant drawback was revealed in the design of the stars - they did not have inspection hatches, without which it was impossible to carry out internal inspections, check the serviceability of the optical system, and remove accumulated dirt.
The reconstruction of the Kremlin stars was carried out from September 7, 1945 to February 7, 1946. The star from the Trinity Tower was the first to be removed; the star removed from the Spasskaya Tower was the last to be repaired.
During the reconstruction, large and complex work was carried out, significantly improving the performance of the stars. This time the framing parts, made of red copper sheets, were gilded on both sides by electroplating. The thickness of the gold coating is now 50 microns. More than 27 kilograms of gold were used to gild all the stars. The most labor-intensive process of gilding was polishing the parts. This complex and painstaking work was carried out by the best Moscow jewelers.
This time the stars were glazed in a completely new way. According to a special recipe developed by N. S. Shpigov, three-layer ruby glass was made. It was brewed at the Krasny May glass factory in Vyshny Volochyok.
The technology for manufacturing three-layer glass is interesting. A glassblower would blow a large flask from molten ruby glass, envelop it in molten crystal, and then in milk glass. The “layered” cylinder welded in this way was cut while hot and straightened into sheets. The crystal layer performs an important function in a star: when the milk glass cracks, it prevents the ruby glass from breaking, and, conversely, when the ruby glass cracks, it prevents the milk glass from breaking.
The ruby glasses on the stars of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers were given a convex shape. This made the stars more voluminous and elegant, since the convexity of the glass enhances the effect of ruby reflection. During the reconstruction, it was also possible to improve the illumination of the Kremlin stars. In particular, some structural elements that shade the rays were thinned, and in some places completely removed.
Inspection hatches were made in all five rays of each star. Now, if necessary, operators could open the star, check the condition of the glazing, optical system and structural elements, and remove dust that had penetrated inside.
The workers and engineers who took part in the reconstruction of the Kremlin ruby stars showed great diligence and a lot of imagination. As a result, complex and painstaking work was completed in an extremely short time frame. Much credit for this also belonged to the chief engineer of the plant where the stars were being reconstructed.
At the beginning of 1946, the updated ruby stars, even more beautiful and elegant, lit up again - brighter and more festive than before. Since then, like beacons, they have been keeping a constant watch in the Moscow sky.
To serve the stars, there are special hatches in the upper part of the tower tents, to which steeplejacks reach via a steep spiral staircase located inside the tower. Through the hatch, the worker enters an open area rising more than 50 meters above the ground. And then the steeplejack climbs up an invisible metal ladder pressed to the roof of the tent. At the tower spire, he strengthens consoles with blocks, passes cables through them, to which a repair cradle is attached on the ground. It is lifted with winches with great care so as not to damage the architectural decorations of the tower. The steeplejack climbs onto the cradle, and from there climbs up a metal ladder to the star itself.
Star inspection hatches, as a rule, are opened by two people: one opens the hatch frame, removes the glass, and the other helps him. Opening a hatch is perhaps one of the most difficult operations, requiring high skill. When examining a star, you not only have to clean it of dust, but sometimes also replace the defective ruby glass. And this is also not easy. The glass must be cut according to the template and carefully adjusted to the opening. Up there, sometimes you have to do welding work.
The staff servicing the ruby stars had to work a lot in 1974, when extensive work was carried out on the repair and restoration of Red Square and the structures of the Moscow Kremlin.
As you know, from May to November 1974, Red Square was a work site. The booms of cranes shot up to the height of the Kremlin towers, and the towers themselves were dressed in scaffolding. Art historians and restorers, masons and granite workers, finishers, roofers, and mechanics came to the main square of the country. For five months, more than a thousand highly qualified specialists worked around the clock here in the center of Moscow.
On Red Square, builders re-paved the paving stones in some places and rebuilt the guest stands, lining them with light gray granite. The Kremlin wall between the Nikolskaya and Spasskaya towers was restored. Special bricks for restoring the ancient wall were produced by a factory in the city of Zagorsk. And high-quality clay for making such bricks was supplied from a quarry of one of the Latvian factories.
Restoration work was also carried out on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Senate and Nabatnaya towers of the Kremlin. Snow-white stone for the restoration of plinths, decorative ornaments and sculptures on the Kremlin towers was mined in quarries in the Crimean region, not far from Bakhchisarai.
During the same period, the famous Kremlin chimes were not operational for three months. Workers at the Watch Industry Research Institute completely restored their unique mechanism.
The work carried out in 1974 was only the beginning of the implementation of a comprehensive plan for the restoration and reconstruction of Red Square and the most valuable historical and architectural monuments of the Kremlin - its palaces, cathedrals, churches. This comprehensive plan also included a major overhaul of the Kremlin ruby stars. Over the many years of uninterrupted operation since the last reconstruction of the stars, inevitable defects in the glazing have arisen: cracks and corrosion have appeared on some ruby glasses. The reflectivity of the refractors also weakened somewhat, and the glass of the optical system became dusty, which ultimately reduced the illumination of the stars.
All these defects were completely eliminated during the overhaul of the stars on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers in October 1974.
After the overhaul of the stars crowning the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers was completed, the operation of their mechanisms was repeatedly checked.
In 1977, all major work on the restoration of the Kremlin stars was completed.
Opal hearts shine with delight,
Burning gold stars of the Kremlin.
There is a mausoleum in the very center of the earth,
Peoples, like rivers, flowed to him...
folk song about Stalin
Eagles “soared” over the Kremlin until October 1935.
The stars that appeared in place of the imperial double-headed eagles were made of stainless steel and red copper, with the traditional symbols of the hammer and sickle. The sickle and hammer were decorated with precious stones, of which there were countless quantities. But they still looked weak, and in May 1937, on the twentieth anniversary of the October Revolution, it was decided to install new ruby stars on five Kremlin towers that should burn.
Sketches of the new stars were prepared by People's Artist of the USSR F. Fedorovsky, he calculated the sizes, determined the shape and design, and suggested a ruby color for the glass. The industry was given the task of welding ruby glass. The Donbass plant received the state order. The difficulty was not only that ruby glass had never been produced in such quantities in our country before. According to the technical specifications, it had to have different densities, transmit red rays of a certain wavelength, and be resistant to sudden temperature changes.
More than 20 enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and glass industries, research and design institutes took part in the creation of new Kremlin stars.
Special ruby glass that meets the requirements was invented by N. Kurochkin, who made the first sarcophagus for Lenin’s mausoleum. To ensure uniform and bright illumination of the entire surface of the star, unique incandescent lamps with a power of 3700 to 5000 watts were made, and to protect the stars from overheating, specialists developed a special ventilation system.
If one of the lamps burns out, it continues to glow with reduced brightness, and the automatic device signals the control panel about the malfunction. Mechanical devices replace burnt-out lamps within 30-35 minutes. Control of equipment and mechanisms is concentrated at a central point, where information about the operating mode of the lamps is automatically supplied. Due to the fact that the filaments are arranged in a tent, the lamps have extremely high luminous efficiency. The temperature of the filament reaches 2800 °C, so the flasks are made of heat-resistant molybdenum glass.
The main supporting structure of the star is a three-dimensional five-pointed frame, resting at the base on a pipe in which bearings are placed for its rotation. Each ray is a multi-sided pyramid: the star of the Nikolskaya Tower has a twelve-sided one, the other stars have an octagonal one. The bases of these pyramids are welded together in the center of the star.
The Kremlin stars have double glazing: milk glass inside, ruby glass outside. The weight of each star is about a ton. The stars on the towers are of different sizes, since the Kremlin towers have different heights.
On Vodovzvodnaya the beam span is three meters, on Borovitskaya - 3.2 meters, on Troitskaya - 3.5 meters, on Spasskaya and Nikolskaya - 3.75 meters.
The design of the stars allows them to rotate when the wind changes and is designed to withstand the pressure of hurricane winds. Mechanisms for servicing the structure are located inside the towers. Special lifting devices make it possible to periodically clean the internal and external surfaces of stars from dust and soot.
Ruby stars on the Kremlin towers burn day and night. Throughout history, they went out only twice, when a historical film was being filmed in the Kremlin in 1996, and during the Great Patriotic War, when the enemy came close to Moscow.
The star, which was on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin in 1935-1937, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station.
The 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. This is how the heirs of the glorious past of our great country coexist peacefully on Red Square.
The basis of information Calend.ru. Photo from the internet
