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. Emblems inlaid 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 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 extinguished for the first time 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 had another stage of reconstruction
In 2014, a comprehensive reconstruction of the star was carried out on the Spasskaya Tower: it now has new system lighting 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.
Five-pointed stars were installed, which replaced the double-headed royal eagles. Once every 100 years they were updated, since the image of the state emblem also changed.
All the eagles on the Kremlin towers turned out to be of different times. For example, the eagle was the oldest - 1870.
Lenin said many times that the eagles need to be removed from the Kremlin towers. But they couldn’t find the technology to do this without damaging the towers. For example, in 1924 they wanted to hook eagles to balloons and lower them to the ground. But it turned out that the balloons were not able to withstand such a load. The question of replacing the eagles was raised again in 1935.
Advice people's commissars 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, Borovitskaya, Trinity towers of the Kremlin wall and 2 eagles from the building Historical Museum. By the same date, it was decided to install a five-pointed star with a hammer and sickle on the indicated 4 Kremlin towers.
It was proposed to replace the armorial eagles with flags, emblems with a hammer and sickle, and the coats of arms of the USSR, but stars were chosen. The preparation of sketches was entrusted to Evgeniy Lansere. In the first draft, Stalin did not like the circle in the center. Lanceray quickly corrected everything and submitted a new sketch for approval. Stalin again did not like the project because of the holding stick. After this, the development of the star sketch was transferred to F.F. Fedorovsky.
It took two weeks to dismantle the eagles. The gold covering was removed from them and transferred to the State Bank.
On October 23, 1935, the Kremlin stars sparkling with gold and gems were installed for public viewing in the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure. Eagles with peeled coverings were placed nearby. And the very next day they were sent for smelting.
The new five-pointed stars weighed about a ton, so the tower tents had to be strengthened to install them. And the tent turned out to be so old that it needed to be rebuilt.
On October 24, Muscovites gathered to watch the installation of the star on. On October 25, the star was installed on, and on October 26 and 27 - on Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya.
The first Kremlin stars were cast from red copper and stainless steel. Special galvanic workshops were built for their gilding. In the center of each star, the symbol of the USSR - the hammer and sickle - was laid out with Ural gems. In total, about 7 thousand stones ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats were required (one carat is equal to 0.2 grams).
Each star had its own design. For example, the star was decorated with rays from the center to the tops, the star of the Trinity Tower was decorated with ears of corn. The pattern of the star followed its outline. The star of the Nikolskaya Tower was without a design.
But the first stars quickly lost their shine: soot, dust and dirt, mixing with sediment, caused the gems and gold to fade.
In May 1937, they decided to install new Kremlin stars made of ruby glass. They were lit over November 2, 1937.
History and structure of the star of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin on InfographicsVodovzvodnaya was added to the four towers. So there were symbolically five five-pointed stars. And the semi-precious star from the Spasskaya Tower was moved to Severnaya River Station.
Ruby stars have only 3 types of patterns (Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are the same), and their frame is based on a multifaceted pyramid. The stars vary in size: on Vodovzvodnaya the beam span is 3 meters, on Borovitskaya - 3.2 meters, on Troitskaya - 3.5 meters, on Spasskaya and Nikolskaya - 3.75 meters. Each star has bearings at its base so that it can rotate like a weather vane, despite its weight.
Each star had double glazing: the inner one was made of milk glass, and the outer one was made of ruby glass. This allowed the Kremlin stars to remain red rather than black, even in bright sunlight.
It is known that during the Great Patriotic War, the stars on the towers were extinguished and covered with tarpaulin so that they would not become a reference point for enemy aircraft. At the same time, windows were painted on the walls of the Kremlin. After this, a complete restoration of the Kremlin stars was required. They returned to the towers in March 1946.
This time the stars were glazed in three layers. First, a flask was blown from molten ruby glass, then it was covered with crystal and milk glass. Sheets were melted from this “layered” cylinder. This made the new stars even brighter.
The stars on the Kremlin towers were extinguished for the second time in 1999 to film the Moscow night scene of the film “The Barber of Siberia” at the request of director Nikita Mikhalkov.
The central control panel for monitoring and controlling the ventilation of the Kremlin stars is located in the Trinity Tower of the Kremlin. Twice a day, check the operation of the lamps and switch the fans. Each lamp has two filaments connected in parallel, which allows the lamp to shine even if one of them burns out.
The stars are washed every 5 years, and are carried out monthly preventative work.
On September 10, 2010, members of the Return Foundation appealed to the President with a request to return the eagle to the Spasskaya Tower, but received no response. It is worth noting that the eagles on the towers of the building returned back in 1997.
Do you have anything to tell about the history of the Kremlin stars?
In 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 erected on top of the tent of the Spasskaya Tower in the 50s years XVII century. Later, Russian coats of arms were installed on the highest passage towers of the Kremlin - Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya. 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, the tents of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers were additionally introduced metal connections. 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 cook 500 square meters ruby glass, for which it was invented new technology- “selenium ruby”. Previously, gold was added to glass to achieve the desired color; Selenium is cheaper and the color is deeper.
Special bearings were installed at the base of each star 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 
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. 
The Kremlin stars not only rotate, but also glow. To avoid overheating and damage, about 600 cubic meters of air per hour are passed through the stars. The stars are not in danger of a power outage because their energy supply is self-sufficient. 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. To change lamps you do not need 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 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 installed modern equipment. 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 has been public debate about the appropriateness 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 Kremlin towers double-headed eagles that adorned 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 
The Moscow Kremlin is the oldest and central part Moscow on Borovitsky Hill, on the left bank of the Moscow River. Its walls and towers were built from white stone in 1367, and from brick in 1485-1495. The modern Kremlin has 20 towers.
In the 50s of the 17th century on top of the tent main tower The Kremlin (Spasskaya) emblem was erected Russian Empire- double-headed eagle. Later, coats of arms were installed on the highest passage towers of the Kremlin: Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya.
After the revolution of 1917, the question repeatedly arose about replacing the royal eagles on the Kremlin towers with figures symbolizing new period in the life of the country - the coats of arms of the USSR, gilded emblems with a hammer and sickle, or on simple flags, as on other towers. But in the end they decided to install the stars. However, this required large financial expenses that she could not afford. Soviet authority in the first years of existence.
In August 1935, the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was published to replace the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers with five-pointed stars with a hammer and sickle by November 7, 1935. Before this, back in 1930, the authorities asked the famous artist Igor Grabar about the historical value of eagles. He found out that they were changed on the towers once every century, or even more often. The oldest was the eagle on the Trinity Tower - 1870, and the newest - on Spasskaya - 1912. In a memo, Grabar said that “not one of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers represents an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.”
The double-headed eagles were removed from the Kremlin towers on October 18, 1935. For some time they were exhibited on the territory of the Park of Culture and Recreation, and then.
The first five-pointed star was erected on the Spasskaya Tower on October 24, 1935, with a large crowd of people on Red Square. On October 25, the star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, on October 26 and 27 - on the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
Throughout all the years of their existence, the Kremlin stars were provided with the most careful care. They are usually washed every five years. To maintain reliable operation of auxiliary equipment, scheduled preventative maintenance is carried out monthly; more serious work is carried out every eight years.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
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 Soviet government It was 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 most big stars 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. Meisel and candidates technical sciences N.V. Gorbachev and E.S. Ratner. The authors of the project faced complex 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 Chief Engineer 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 various shapes and sizes: for searchlights, aircraft, river and sea vessels, 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 appears 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 make security easier historical monuments, I had 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 anti-aircraft artillery air defense the capital opened a powerful barrage fire. Shell fragments sometimes hit ruby stars, causing damage to them.
For four years the Kremlin star was covered with protective covers. But then May 1945 came. 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 big number fragmentation holes and cracks in the glasses of stars worsened them appearance, 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 is on high altitude- 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 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.
