Ruby stars of the Kremlin. Secrets of cooking ruby ​​stars: how the main symbol of the Kremlin is produced

What is ruby ​​glass?

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.

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. Behind in the field of glass production, this outstanding master was awarded the State Prize.

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

In the fall 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 symbol Soviet power It was precisely the five-pointed star that became unknown for certain, but what is known is that Leon Trotsky lobbied for this symbol. Seriously interested in esotericism, he knew that the star, the pentagram, has a very powerful energy potential and is one of the most powerful symbols. The symbol of the new state could well be the swastika, the cult of which was very strong in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The swastika was depicted on the “Kerenki”, swastikas were painted on the wall of the Ipatiev House by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna before the execution, but by almost the sole decision of Trotsky, the Bolsheviks settled on a five-pointed star. 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

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 - 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. They collected on it crane. So, in several stages, the double-headed eagles were first dismantled, and then the stars were erected.

Reconstruction of the towers

The weight of each of the Kremlin stars reached up to a ton. Considering the height at which they were supposed to be located and the sail surface of each star (6.3 sq.m.), 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 tower vaults and their tents have fallen into disrepair. Builders strengthened the brickwork upper floors all towers, metal connections were additionally 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 spinning

They didn't make identical stars. The four stars were different from each other decoration. 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, 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 manufactured at the First Bearing Plant were installed at the base of each star. Thanks to this, despite their significant weight, the stars could easily rotate, turning to face the wind. By the location of the stars, therefore, one can judge where the wind is blowing from.

Gorky Park

The installation of the Kremlin stars became a real holiday for Moscow. The stars were not taken under cover of darkness to Red Square. The day before they were installed on the Kremlin towers, the stars were put on display in the Park named after. Gorky. Together with mere mortals, the secretaries of the city and district CPSU(b) came to look at the stars; in the light of the spotlights, Ural gems sparkled and the rays of the stars sparkled. The eagles removed 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 both sides, sparkled precious stones hammer and sickle emblems. The precious stones faded after a year, and the stars were too big and did not fit well into the architectural ensemble. 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. Ruby glass was welded at glass factory in Konstantinovka, according to the recipe of the Moscow glassmaker N.I. Kurochkin. It was necessary to cook 500 square meters 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.

Lamps

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. Throughout history, the stars have gone out twice. Once - during the war, the second - during the filming of "The Barber of Siberia".

On October 24, 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. Let's remember 7 facts about Kremlin stars.

1. SYMBOLICS

Why the five-pointed star became the symbol of Soviet power is not known for certain, but what is known is that Leon Trotsky lobbied for this symbol. Seriously interested in esotericism, he knew that the star - a pentagram, has a very powerful energy potential and is one of the most powerful symbols.

The symbol of the new state could well be the swastika, the cult of which was very strong in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The swastika was depicted on the “Kerenki”; ​​swastikas were painted on the wall of the Ipatiev House by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna before being executed. But by an almost unanimous decision, at the suggestion of Trotsky, the Bolsheviks settled on a five-pointed star. The history of the 20th century will show that the “star” is stronger than the “swastika”... The stars also shone over the Kremlin, replacing the double-headed eagles.

2. TECHNIQUE

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.

3. RECONSTRUCTION OF TOWERS

The weight of each of the Kremlin stars reached up to a ton. Considering the height at which they were supposed to be located and the sail surface of each star (6.3 sq.m.), 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 tower vaults and their tents have fallen into disrepair. The builders strengthened the brickwork of the upper floors of all towers: additional metal connections 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.

4. SO DIFFERENT AND TURNING

They didn't make identical stars. The four stars differed from each other in their artistic design.

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, 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 manufactured at the First Bearing Plant were installed at the base of each star. Thanks to this, despite their significant weight, the stars could easily rotate, turning to face the wind. By the location of the stars, therefore, one can judge where the wind is blowing from.

5. GORKY PARK

The installation of the Kremlin stars became a real holiday for Moscow. The stars were not taken under cover of darkness to Red Square. The day before they were installed on the Kremlin towers, the stars were put on display in the Park named after. Gorky. Together with mere mortals, the secretaries of the city and district CPSU(b) came to look at the stars; in the light of the spotlights, Ural gems sparkled and the rays of the stars sparkled. The eagles removed from the towers were installed here, clearly demonstrating the dilapidation of the “old” and the beauty of the “new” world.

6. 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 both sides, the hammer and sickle emblems, laid out in precious stones, sparkled. The precious stones faded after a year, and the stars were too big and did not fit well into the architectural ensemble.

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.

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 demolished, the stars and tents will remain intact. That's how it was designed and built. But suddenly the following was discovered: 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.

7. LAMPS

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 unintentional 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.

The spiers of the Kremlin towers were decorated with heraldic double-headed eagles. The Moscow Kremlin has 20 towers and only four of them were crowned with the state coat of arms. The first double-headed eagle was erected 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 passage towers of the Kremlin: Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya.

The question of replacing the royal eagles on the Kremlin towers with figures symbolizing new period in the life of the country, arose repeatedly soon after the 1917 revolution. In 1930, specialists from restoration workshops led by Igor Grabar concluded that the figures of double-headed eagles were not of historical value and, therefore, could be replaced. Instead of “symbols of tsarism” they decided to install stars.

On August 23, 1935, the decision of the Council was published people's commissars The USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on replacing the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers with five-pointed stars with a hammer and sickle by November 7, 1935.

On October 24, 1935, with a large crowd of people on Red Square, a five-pointed star was erected on the Spasskaya Tower. 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.

The body of the stars was made of stainless steel, lined with gilded copper sheets. In the center of them, on both sides, were a sickle and a hammer, decorated with Ural gems - topazes, amethysts, aquamarines. Each of the seven thousand stones used for decoration was cut and placed in a frame.

The pattern was not repeated on any of the stars. The distance between their beams on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers was 4.5 meters, on the Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers - four and 3.5 meters, respectively. The star on the Spasskaya Tower was decorated with rays diverging from the center to the tops. The rays of the star installed on the Trinity Tower were made in the form of ears of corn. On the Borovitskaya Tower, the pattern followed the contour of the five-pointed star itself. The star of the Nikolskaya Tower was smooth, without a pattern.

The stars weighed about a ton each. The tents of the Kremlin towers were not designed for such a load, so before installing the stars they were strengthened, and on Nikolskaya they were rebuilt. The rise of the stars at that time was great technical problem, since there were no high-rise tower cranes. Special cranes had to be made for each tower; they were installed on consoles mounted on the upper brick tiers.

Illuminated from below by spotlights, the first stars decorated the Kremlin for almost two years, but under the influence of atmospheric precipitation the gems faded and lost their festive appearance. In addition, they did not fully fit into the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin due to their size. The stars turned out to be too large and visually hung heavily over the towers.

In May 1937, it was decided to establish for the twentieth anniversary October revolution new stars, and on five Kremlin towers, including Vodovzvodnaya.

On November 2, 1937, new stars lit up above the Kremlin. More than 20 enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and glass industries, research and design institutes took part in their creation.

Developed sketches of new stars folk artist USSR Fedor Fedorovsky. He suggested a ruby ​​color for the glass, determined the shape and pattern of the stars, as well as their sizes depending on the architecture and height of each tower. 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 burns on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower, located in the lowland: the distance between the ends of its rays is three 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: the span of their rays is 3.75 meters.

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.

To ensure uniform and bright illumination of the entire surface of the star, the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant developed and manufactured special incandescent lamps with a power of 5000 watts for the stars of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya and Troitskaya towers and 3700 watts for the stars of the Borovitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers, and to protect the stars from overheating, specialists developed a special ventilation system.

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 have extremely high luminous efficiency; the filament temperature reaches 2800°C. 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, each lamp was enclosed in a refractor (a three-dimensional hollow fifteen-sided figure).

The difficult task was to create a special ruby ​​glass, which had to have different densities, transmit red rays of a certain wavelength, be resistant to sudden temperature changes, be mechanically strong, and not discolor or deteriorate from exposure to solar radiation. It was made under the guidance of the famous glassmaker Nikanor Kurochkin.

To ensure that the light was evenly scattered, each Kremlin star had double glazing: the inner one, made of milk glass, two millimeters thick, and the outer one, made of ruby ​​glass, six to seven 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, which 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 in bright conditions. sunny days. Thanks to the internal glazing of the stars with milk glass, the light of the lamp was well scattered, the filaments became invisible, and the ruby ​​glass shone most brightly.

The stars are illuminated from within both day and night. At the same time, to preserve the rich ruby ​​color, they are illuminated more strongly during the day than at night.

Despite their significant mass (about one ton), the stars on the Kremlin towers rotate relatively easily when the wind direction changes. Due to their shape, they are always installed with the frontal side facing the wind.

Unlike the first non-luminous stars, ruby ​​stars have only three different patterns(Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya are identical in design).

Mechanisms for servicing the Kremlin stars are located inside the towers. Control of equipment and mechanisms is concentrated at a central point, where information about the operating mode of the lamps is automatically supplied.

During the Great Patriotic War the stars, like the entire Kremlin, were disguised. In 1945, having removed the camouflage, experts discovered that cracks and holes appeared on the ruby ​​glasses from fragments of anti-aircraft artillery shells, which worsened their appearance and made it difficult to operate. The reconstruction of the Kremlin stars was carried out from September 7, 1945 to February 7, 1946. During it, the glazing of the stars was replaced with a three-layer one, consisting of ruby ​​glass, crystal and milk glass. The ruby ​​glasses on the stars of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers were given a convex shape. During the reconstruction, it was also possible to improve the illumination of the stars. Inspection hatches were made in all five rays of each star.

Electric winches were installed to replace lamps in the stars and install equipment, but the main mechanisms remained the same - model 1937.

Stars 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

24.01.2016 0 5978

Until 1935, in the very center of the country of victorious socialism, the gilded symbols of tsarism—double-headed eagles—still adorned itself. For three centuries they have crowned the four Kremlin towers - Troitskaya, Spasskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya.

These eagles did not sit on the spiers for centuries - they were periodically changed. Disputes still continue about what material they were made of - metal or gilded wood. There are suggestions that the bodies of the eagles were wooden, and individual parts were metal.

Still from the film "Circus". On the Spasskaya Tower and on the Historical Museum we see two-headed eagles. In 1936, when the film was released, the eagles had already been replaced with stars.

TASS IS AUTHORIZED TO DECLARE

In the first years of Soviet power, all double-headed eagles in the state were destroyed. All except four - those who flew higher than everyone else and settled on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. But over time we got to them. In 1930, the authorities turned to the artist and art critic Igor Grabar with a request to evaluate the artistic and historical value Kremlin eagles.

He replied that “... none of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers represent an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.”

Let us leave this conclusion to the conscience of the author. One way or another, in August 1935, a TASS message was published: “The Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the towers of the Kremlin wall, and 2 eagles from the building Historical Museum. By the same date, it was decided to install on the Kremlin towers five pointed stars with a hammer and sickle."

Replacing eagles with stars

On October 18, 1935, all eagles from the Kremlin towers were removed. Due to its old design, the eagle from the Trinity Tower had to be dismantled on the spot. The work of removing the birds and installing the stars was carried out by experienced climbers under the watchful supervision of the NKVD. The design and production of the first Kremlin stars was entrusted to two Moscow factories and TsAGI workshops.

The sketches were presented by the famous decorative artist Academician Fedorovsky. According to his project, stars intended for different towers, differed from each other in size and decor. On the star of the Trinity Tower, the rays were made in the form of ears of corn; the star of the Borovitskaya Tower was two contours inscribed one into the other.

But the rays of the star of the Nikolskaya Tower had no pattern. The stars of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers were the same size. The distance between the ends of their rays was 4.5 m. The stars of the Trinity and Borovitskaya towers were slightly smaller.

The supporting structure was made in the form of a light but durable stainless steel frame, on which red copper sheets coated with gold leaf were applied. On each star, on both sides, the hammer and sickle emblems were strengthened, decorated with precious Ural stones - rock crystal, amethysts, alexandrites, topazes and aquamarines. It took about 7 thousand stones to make the eight emblems.

As a result, each star weighed about 1,000 kg and also had a windage area of ​​up to 6 m2. A thorough examination revealed that the upper ceilings of the towers and their tents were in a deplorable state. It was necessary to strengthen the brickwork of the upper floors and equip the structure with additional metal braces.

FIRST STAR

Based on the sketches accepted by the government, models of stars were made in life size. The hammer and sickle were inlaid with imitation precious stones. Each model was illuminated by several spotlights, in the rays of which the stars sparkled with a myriad of multi-colored lights. Members of the government came to look at them and the eagles removed from the towers on display there, and then many thousands of Muscovites gathered. Everyone wanted to admire the beauty and grandeur of the stars that were soon to flash in the sky of Moscow.

On October 24, 1935, the first star was installed on the Spasskaya Tower, having previously polished it. At 12:40 the command was heard: “Vira little by little!”, and the huge structure, taking off from the ground, slowly crawled up. When she reached a height of 70 m, 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 13:00 the star descended exactly on the support pin. On this day, hundreds of people gathered on Red Square. The moment the star landed on the spire, the crowd burst into applause.

The next day, the star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, and on October 26 and 27 the stars shone above the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. The installers had already mastered the lifting technique so well that they needed no more than an hour and a half to install each star. The exception was the star of the Trinity Tower, whose rise due to strong wind lasted about two hours.

The life of the new symbols was short-lived. Just a year later, under the influence of precipitation, the gemstones faded. In addition, the stars did not really fit into the architectural ensemble because of their too large sizes. Therefore, in May 1937, it was decided to replace them with new ones - luminous, ruby ​​ones, installing the same one on the Vodovzvodnaya Tower.

Special ruby ​​glass for new stars was welded at the Konstantinovsky glass factory. In total, it was necessary to produce 500 m2 of glass. Powerful bearings were installed at the base of each star so that they could rotate like a weather vane. But, unlike a weather vane, which indicates which way the wind is blowing, the stars, thanks to their diamond-shaped cross-section, always face the wind. At the same time, they are able to withstand the pressure of even hurricane winds.

IF THE STARS LIGHT...

It would seem that everything is fine. But suddenly it was discovered that in sunlight, ruby ​​stars look black! A solution was found: the glass should be made of two layers, and the inner layer should be milky white, scattering light well. At the same time, this provided a more even glow and hid the filaments of the lamps.

To ensure that the glow of the entire surface of the star was even, glass of varying thickness and color saturation was used, and the lamps were enclosed in prismatic refractors. To protect the glass from the thermal effects of powerful (up to 5,000 W) lamps, ventilation of the internal cavity was organized. About 600 m3 of air per hour is passed through the stars, which completely protects them from overheating.

The Kremlin luminaries are not threatened by a power outage, since their energy supply is autonomous. Each star lamp contains two filaments connected in parallel. If one of them 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 up to half an hour.

Throughout history, the stars have only gone out twice. The first time was during the war, when they were extinguished so as not to become a guiding beacon for German bombers. Covered with burlap, they patiently waited out the bombing, but when it was all over, it turned out that some of the glass was damaged and required replacement. Moreover, our anti-aircraft gunners turned out to be the unwitting culprits.

The second time the stars went out briefly at the request of Nikita Mikhalkov in 1997, when he was filming his “The Barber of Siberia.” Since then, the Kremlin stars have been burning continuously, becoming the main symbol of the Russian capital.

It would seem that nothing threatens them. After the breakup Soviet Union the Kremlin stars were not dismantled, unlike other Soviet symbols (sickles and hammers, coats of arms on palaces, etc.). And yet their fate today is not so cloudless. For a quarter of a century, discussions about the appropriateness of Soviet symbols over the Kremlin have not subsided in society. Whether they will continue to shine, time will tell.