Red May Vyshny Volochek plant products. Glass Museum of the Red May Factory in Vyshny Volochyok - podmoskva

nord_traveller wrote in February 27th, 2016

Part 1. Say a word about the Kremlin stars
The coming year could be marked by two dates - albeit not jubilees, but significant in their own way: the 157th anniversary of the founding of a chemical plant near Vyshny Volochok and the 87th anniversary of the day when this plant received its last name, under which it is all they know - “Red May”. They knew. Today, instead of a unique enterprise, once famous for its crystal, there are only ruins.

However, there is also a round date - exactly 70 years ago, stars made of glass made at Red May shone over the Moscow Kremlin. Once upon a time the plant was famous throughout the USSR. Still would! "They shine over the whole country Kremlin stars made by the hands of Krasnomaysk craftsmen" , - I’m reading a guidebook from 1988. Of course, not entirely: the ruby ​​tops of the tower spiers are a complex engineering structure, on the creation of which dozens of enterprises and research institutes worked. But the laminated glass manufactured at Krasny May is far from the last part of this structure. Therefore, the words of almost thirty years ago, despite the pathos, are close to the truth. What remains of that pride? Destroyed workshops that are unlikely to ever be rebuilt. Yes, a museum that survives on nothing more than a word of honor.

* * *
A few kilometers from Vyshny Volochyok towards St. Petersburg is the village of Krasnomaysky. Is it true, local residents it is not called that; this toponym exists only in official documents. “I’ll go to Red May”, “I live on Red May” - when people say this, they mean the village, not the plant. IN mid-19th century, here was the village of Klyuchino, where in 1859 the future flagship of the glass industry arose. First as a chemical. Its first owner, titular councilor Samarin, had further development production did not have enough funds, and three years later the plant was bought by the merchant of the second guild, Andrei Bolotin, who soon built a glass factory on this site. Later, he founded another plant in the territory of the current Vyshnevolotsky district - Borisovsky (now - OJSC Medsteklo Borisovskoe). The first glass melting furnace at the Klyuchinsky plant was launched by the merchant and founder of the Bolotin dynasty of glassmakers in 1873. Also, at the expense of the plant’s owners, a workers’ settlement, quite comfortable by the standards of that time, was built.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Klyuchinsky plant produced glass pharmaceutical, tableware and confectionery dishes, kerosene lamps, lampshades, fulfilling orders from almost all parts of the empire. Soon it struck October Revolution, the plant was nationalized and in 1929 received the name “Red May”. A village of 5 thousand inhabitants with a hospital, school, music school, a vocational school that trained, in addition to specialist glassmakers, tractor drivers and car mechanics. Much was written about “Red May” in the regional and central press. Let's remember what newspapers and magazines talked about then and compare all this with the current remnants of its former greatness.

“When you look at the Kremlin stars, it seems as if from time immemorial they have been crowning the pointed towers: so organic is their flame in unity with the beautiful monument of Russian architecture, so natural in our minds is the inseparability of two symbols - the heart of the Motherland and the five-pointed star.”(“Pravda”, 1985). It just so happened that when we say “Red May,” we mean five ruby ​​finials. And vice versa. That’s why I want to start my story from this page. Moreover, the Vyshnevolotsk stars, which now decorate the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Trinity and Vodovzvodnaya towers of the Kremlin, were not the first.

First five pointed stars changed the symbol of autocratic Russia - double-headed eagles - in the fall of 1935. They were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper, with a gold-plated hammer and sickle in the center of each star. However, the first stars did not decorate the Kremlin towers for long. Firstly, they quickly faded under the influence of precipitation, and secondly, in overall composition The Kremlin looked rather ridiculous and violated the architectural ensemble. Therefore, it was decided to install ruby ​​luminous stars.

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

During the Great Patriotic War the stars were extinguished and sheathed. When they were reopened after the Victory, multiple cracks and traces of shell fragments were discovered on the ruby ​​surface. Restoration was needed. This time, the Vyshnevolotsk plant “Red May” was entrusted with the task of making glass. The local craftsmen made it four layers: transparent crystal at the bottom, then frosted glass, again crystal and, finally, ruby. This is necessary so that the star and during the day sunlight, and at night, illuminated from within, it was the same color. « Ruby stars, manufactured at the Konstantinovsky plant, did not fulfill the task set by the designers. A double layer of glass - milky and ruby ​​- did not make it possible to preserve the bright color of the stars. Dust accumulated between the layers. And by that time, laminated glass was produced, in my opinion, only at Krasny May.(“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1987). “I think that readers will be interested to know how prototypes of star glass were made. To produce a multilayer ruby ​​for just one star, it took 32 tons of high-quality Lyubertsy sand, 3 tons of zinc muffle white, 1.5 tons boric acid, 16 tons of soda ash, 3 tons of potash, 1.5 tons of potassium nitrate"(“Youth”, 1981).

The renewed stars began to shine in 1946. And they still shine, despite calls from some public figures to replace them with eagles again. The next reconstruction of the ruby ​​“luminaries” was in 1974, and again Krasnomaysk craftsmen took part in it. Despite the existing experience, the cooking technology had to be created, as they say, from scratch: archival documents from which the “recipe” could be restored have not been preserved.

I must say that in 2010, about the 75th anniversary of the first Kremlin stars They wrote a lot in the central media, but they never mentioned the contribution of “Red May”. Not in 1996, when the plant was still working, at the very least, despite the fact that they began to pay out salaries in vases and wine glasses. Not in 2006 - at least to catch up with the already departed train...

* * *
“Yesterday, a batch of parts made of colorless and milky glass for lighting fixtures at the Moscow Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky was sent from the Vyshnevolotsk “Red May” plant. It was not easy for glassmakers to repeat the bizarre shapes of ancient chandeliers and sconces that have illuminated the halls of this musical for more than a hundred years. educational institution» (Kalininskaya Pravda, 1983). “Several years ago, master Vyshnevolotsky glass factory“Red May”, at the request of Bulgarian friends, produced ruby ​​glass for the friendship memorial built on the famous Shipka. And here is a new order from Bulgaria - to make four-layer glass for the star that will crown the Party House in Sofia. The teams of craftsmen N. Ermakov, A. Kuznetsov, N. Nasonov and A. Bobovnikov were entrusted with executing the export order.” (“Pravda”, 1986).

“A beautiful garden village with asphalt roads, comfortable cottage houses, a club, a school and other public buildings, with a factory-garden in the center, from where almost two thousand items of products are sold all over the world”(“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1959). “Yesterday, a joyful message came from Moscow to GPTU-24 of the Vyshnevolotsk plant “Red May”. Resolution of the Main Exhibition Committee of the VDNKh USSR for the development and participation in the production of the “Jubilee” and “Cup” vases presented at the All-Union Show artwork vocational schools, vocational training masters T. Orlova and T. Shamrina were awarded bronze medals. And students Irina Yarosh and Eduard Vedernikov were awarded the medal “Young Participant of the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements”(“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1983). For comparison. The garden village is an ordinary outlying village, of which there are thousands. It doesn’t seem to be abandoned, but there’s also no hint of being well-groomed. The cottage houses are apparently wooden two-story barracks that still have cesspools. The only thing you can catch your eye on is the small church of the holy martyr Thaddeus, completed just a few years ago.

Glass Museum of the Red May Factory August 5th, 2011

(This is my first post, so please don't judge too harshly.)
This summer in July I was on vacation with my family in the village. Krasnomaysky, Vyshnevolotsk district, Tver region. This is not the first time I have been there, and I know about a glass factory that has not been operating for a long time. I knew from my wife that there was a museum of historical exhibits at the plant and modern works glass art. I was sure that the museum no longer existed, because... The plant has been bankrupt for many years; the remains of equipment are being hastily cut up for scrap metal on its territory. And so, from one friend I heard that someone visited the museum quite recently. I decided to try my luck too, and went to the factory entrance to find out information about opening hours.

Arriving there, I learned that you can get to the museum from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on any day except Saturday and Sunday. Since it was already late, I postponed the trip to another day.
The next morning I stood at the entrance at 9am like a bayonet. The woman who runs the museum was not there yet, so I looked around the hall. There were some slot machines, a whole warehouse, some scooters, ATVs, and a lot of other things in a bunch. The handle of the front door caught my attention. Apparently the thick glass front door has been preserved in its original form.

Soon the head of the museum came. I think her name is Svetlana (I don’t know her middle name). A friendly woman of about thirty-five (in my opinion). She immediately led me through the factory territory to the museum building. By the way, the path to the museum was all overgrown with grass, which Svetlana complained to me about later.
Having opened the lock on the door, we went up to the second floor of a separate building. Showcases and shelves full of exhibits appeared before my eyes. I have not seen such a cluster of glass objects for a long time!!! Having secured permission, I began taking photographs as I walked further into the hall.

Previously, this plant was very famous, from my wife’s lips I had previously heard that the Kremlin stars were made at this plant, and I found confirmation of this information in the museum records. Even on one cabinet there are exactly the same glasses as exhibits, here they are, two triangles at the bottom:

I found out that the plant has been in existence since 1859. Founded by the merchant of the II guild Andrei Vasilyevich Bolotin. A little history:
The glass factory "RED MAY" is located on the banks of the Shlina River. One of the largest in the country, it was founded in 1859 as a chemical enterprise by Moscow titular councilor Samarin. But Samarin did not have enough funds for further development of production and the plant was purchased by the Vyshnevolotsk merchant of the II guild, Andrei Vasilyevich Bolotin. In 1873, the owners of the plant - the merchants of Bolotina - built the first furnace, which produced glassware: tableware, confectionery, lampshades. In the same year, an experienced glassmaker - Vasily Alekseevich Vekshin, the owner of the secret of preparing a charge for melting colored glass - came to the plant. And for the first time in Russia, the Bolotinsky plant began to produce colored glass with a variety of colors. Already in 1882 and 1886, the plant’s new products, “absolutely remarkable in their diversity and unexpected grace” (as the once famous professor and “glass expert” A.K. Krupsky assessed them), were awarded two gold and two silver medals of the All-Russian Artistic -industrial exhibitions in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod for the rich color scheme and for the thoroughness of processing. In 1920, the plant was nationalized and it became state property. On May 1, 1923, a meeting of workers and employees of the plant was held, at which it was decided to rename the plant into the “RED MAY” plant. Since that time, the plant began to expand, and new glass melting furnaces began to be built. During the Patriotic War (1942-1945) large quantities the plant produced technical glass for the needs Navy and aviation, semaphore and traffic light lenses, lamp glass, and battery vessels were manufactured. The 40s were a very important period in the history of the plant, when the first government order for the production of ruby ​​glass for Kremlin stars was honorably fulfilled. In 1946, the task was completed successfully. In the 50-60s, cutting glass products with gold, enamel, chandelier, and silicate paints became widespread at the plant. Products made from two- or three-layer glass were also produced. But Krasnomaysk is especially famous for its sulfide glass, which is not without reason called the “Russian miracle” for its inexhaustible richness of color. And it is also called so for its exceptional property of changing color depending on the temperature and duration of processing, which gives the mass product a unique uniqueness. This material was mastered by the plant in 1959, “RED MAY” was, in essence, the only enterprise not only in our country, but throughout the world, where sulfide glass was established as an indispensable glass in the plant’s assortment.

It turns out that kerosene lamps can be like this:

And in general I was amazed by the variety of shapes and colors, and all this glass in in capable hands masters Here are some more interesting exhibits:
Funny boot:

Abstract vase:

Olympic bear on a decanter)))
Interesting abstract idea by the artist:

Green glass bouquet:
Jug:

Unusual pumpkins)))
What a blessed material glass is in the hands of a master. The flowers are very similar to real, very graceful petals:

This exhibit interested me because... I was born in 1981)))

Petition to the Tver governor for the construction of the plant:

Unfortunately, the photographs were without captions... like all the exhibits in the museum.

This is how the ancient documents and photographs are located (glued to the stand, and the stand is removed behind the exhibits against the wall):

Model of a furnace for melting sand into glass:
In fact, there are a lot of photographs, and anyone interested can go to my Yandex photos page.

Having photographed enough, I decided not to detain Svetlana any longer. Together we went to the entrance, where she said that she was in such a hurry that she forgot to take the fee for visiting. At first I was wary, but when they told me the amount of 30 rubles, I relaxed, because there’s a lot to do interesting photos definitely costs more. This was the end of my trip to the museum. I complain that I forgot to photograph the very inscription on the building “Museum of the Factory”.
The visit to the museum left a mixed impression. On the one hand - admiration for the work, on the other - the depressing state of the plant itself, and the futility of this museum. Upon arrival home, I found out that the plant was put up for sale for 152 million rubles (or $5.72 million). As follows from the text accompanying the announcement: the buildings and equipment are of no value or interest and are subject to demolition. The infrastructure is of interest: ease of access, its own railway line, electricity and gas power. That is, it is interesting for those who decide to build a factory on this territory from scratch.

Here's what we learned about the museum's prospects: The new St. Petersburg owners of the plant tried to take the collection to St. Petersburg. And apparently they wanted to “push” the exhibits from the auction, but so far the indignant people and local press interfered. Details in

Part 1. Say a word about the Kremlin stars
The coming year could be marked by two dates - albeit not jubilees, but significant in their own way: the 157th anniversary of the founding of a chemical plant near Vyshny Volochok and the 87th anniversary of the day when this plant received its last name, under which it is all they know - “Red May”. They knew. Today, instead of a unique enterprise, once famous for its crystal, there are only ruins.

However, there is also a round date - exactly 70 years ago, stars made of glass made at Red May shone over the Moscow Kremlin. Once upon a time the plant was famous throughout the USSR. Still would! “The Kremlin stars, made by the hands of Krasnomaysk craftsmen, shine over the entire country” , - I’m reading a guidebook from 1988. Of course, not entirely: the ruby ​​tops of the tower spiers are a complex engineering structure, on the creation of which dozens of enterprises and research institutes worked. But the laminated glass manufactured at Krasny May is far from the last part of this structure. Therefore, the words of almost thirty years ago, despite the pathos, are close to the truth. What remains of that pride? Destroyed workshops that are unlikely to ever be rebuilt. Yes, a museum that survives on nothing more than a word of honor.

* * *
A few kilometers from Vyshny Volochyok towards St. Petersburg is the village of Krasnomaysky. True, local residents do not call it that; this toponym exists only in official documents. “I’ll go to Red May”, “I live on Red May” - when people say this, they mean the village, not the plant. In the middle of the 19th century, there was the village of Klyuchino, where in 1859 the future flagship of the glass industry arose. First as a chemical. Its first owner, titular councilor Samarin, did not have enough funds for further development of production, and three years later the plant was bought by the merchant of the second guild, Andrei Bolotin, who soon built a glass factory in its place. Later, he founded another plant in the territory of the current Vyshnevolotsky district - Borisovsky (now - OJSC Medsteklo Borisovskoe). The first glass melting furnace at the Klyuchinsky plant was launched by the merchant and founder of the Bolotin dynasty of glassmakers in 1873. Also, at the expense of the plant’s owners, a workers’ settlement, quite comfortable by the standards of that time, was built.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Klyuchinsky plant produced glass pharmaceutical, tableware and confectionery dishes, kerosene lamps, lampshades, fulfilling orders from almost all parts of the empire. Soon the October Revolution broke out, the plant was nationalized and in 1929 received the name “Red May”. A village of 5 thousand inhabitants grew up around the enterprise with a hospital, school, music school, and a vocational school, which trained, in addition to specialist glassmakers, tractor drivers and auto mechanics. Much was written about “Red May” in the regional and central press. Let's remember what newspapers and magazines talked about then and compare all this with the current remnants of its former greatness.

“When you look at the Kremlin stars, it seems as if from time immemorial they have been crowning the pointed towers: so organic is their flame in unity with the beautiful monument of Russian architecture, so natural in our minds is the inseparability of two symbols - the heart of the Motherland and the five-pointed star.”(“Pravda”, 1985). It just so happened that when we say “Red May,” we mean five ruby ​​finials. And vice versa. That’s why I want to start my story from this page. Moreover, the Vyshnevolotsk stars, which now decorate the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Troitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers of the Kremlin, were not the first.

For the first time, five-pointed stars replaced the symbol of autocratic Russia - double-headed eagles - in the fall of 1935. They were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper, with a gold-plated hammer and sickle in the center of each star. However, the first stars did not decorate the Kremlin towers for long. Firstly, they quickly faded under the influence of precipitation, and secondly, in the overall composition of the Kremlin they looked rather ridiculous and disturbed the architectural ensemble. Therefore, it was decided to install ruby ​​luminous stars.

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

During the Great Patriotic War, the stars were extinguished and covered up. When they were reopened after the Victory, multiple cracks and traces of shell fragments were discovered on the ruby ​​surface. Restoration was needed. This time, the Vyshnevolotsk plant “Red May” was entrusted with the task of making glass. The local craftsmen made it four layers: transparent crystal at the bottom, then frosted glass, again crystal and, finally, ruby. This is necessary so that the star is the same color both during the day in sunlight and at night, illuminated from the inside. “The ruby ​​stars manufactured at the Konstantinovsky plant did not fulfill the task set by the designers. A double layer of glass - milky and ruby ​​- did not make it possible to preserve the bright color of the stars. Dust accumulated between the layers. And by that time, laminated glass was produced, in my opinion, only at Krasny May.(“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1987). “I think that readers will be interested to know how prototypes of star glass were made. To make a multilayer ruby ​​for just one star, it took 32 tons of high-quality Lyubertsy sand, 3 tons of zinc muffle white, 1.5 tons of boric acid, 16 tons of soda ash, 3 tons of potash, 1.5 tons of potassium nitrate."(“Youth”, 1981).

The renewed stars began to shine in 1946. And they still shine, despite calls from some public figures to replace them with eagles again. The next reconstruction of the ruby ​​“luminaries” was in 1974, and again Krasnomaysk craftsmen took part in it. Despite the existing experience, the cooking technology had to be created, as they say, from scratch: archival documents from which the “recipe” could be restored have not been preserved.

It must be said that in 2010, a lot was written about the 75th anniversary of the first Kremlin stars in the central media, but the contribution of “Red May” was never mentioned anywhere. Not in 1996, when the plant was still working, at the very least, despite the fact that they began to pay out salaries in vases and wine glasses. Not in 2006 - at least to catch up with the already departed train...

This was once a hall of honor

* * *
“Yesterday, a batch of parts made of colorless and milky glass for lighting fixtures at the Moscow Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky was sent from the Vyshnevolotsk “Red May” plant. It was not easy for glassmakers to repeat the bizarre shapes of ancient chandeliers and sconces that have been lighting the halls of this musical educational institution for more than a hundred years.”(Kalininskaya Pravda, 1983). “Several years ago, the craftsmen of the Vyshnevolotsk glass factory “Red May”, at the request of Bulgarian friends, made ruby ​​glass for the friendship memorial built on the famous Shipka. And here is a new order from Bulgaria - to make four-layer glass for the star that will crown the Party House in Sofia. The teams of craftsmen N. Ermakov, A. Kuznetsov, N. Nasonov and A. Bobovnikov were entrusted with executing the export order.” (“Pravda”, 1986).

“A beautiful garden village with asphalt roads, comfortable cottage houses, a club, a school and other public buildings, with a factory-garden in the center, from where almost two thousand items of products are sold all over the world”(“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1959). “Yesterday, a joyful message came from Moscow to GPTU-24 of the Vyshnevolotsk plant “Red May”. By the resolution of the Main Exhibition Committee of VDNKh of the USSR, vocational training masters T. Orlova and T. Shamrina were awarded bronze medals for the development and participation in the production of the “Jubilee” and “Cup” vases presented at the All-Union Review of Artistic Works of Vocational Schools. And students Irina Yarosh and Eduard Vedernikov were awarded the medal “Young Participant of the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements”(“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1983). For comparison. The garden village is an ordinary outlying village, of which there are thousands. It doesn’t seem to be abandoned, but there’s also no hint of being well-groomed. The cottage houses are apparently wooden two-story barracks that still have cesspools. The only thing you can catch your eye on is the small church of the holy martyr Thaddeus, completed just a few years ago.

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

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


The coming year could be marked by two dates - albeit not jubilees, but significant in their own way: the 157th anniversary of the founding of a chemical plant near Vyshny Volochok and the 87th anniversary of the day when this plant received its last name, under which it is all they know - “Red May”. They knew. Today, instead of a unique enterprise, once famous for its crystal, there are only ruins. However, there is also a round date - exactly 70 years ago, stars made of glass made at Red May shone over the Moscow Kremlin. Once upon a time the plant was famous throughout the USSR. Still would! “The Kremlin stars, made by the hands of Krasnomaysk craftsmen, shine over the entire country,” I read from a 1988 guidebook. Of course, not entirely: the ruby ​​tops of the tower spiers are a complex engineering structure, on the creation of which dozens of enterprises and research institutes worked. But the laminated glass manufactured at Krasny May is far from the last part of this structure. Therefore, the words of almost thirty years ago, despite the pathos, are close to the truth. What remains of that pride? Destroyed workshops that are unlikely to ever be rebuilt. Yes, a museum that survives on nothing more than a word of honor. A few kilometers from Vyshny Volochyok towards St. Petersburg is the village of Krasnomaysky. True, local residents do not call it that; this toponym exists only in official documents. “I’ll go to Red May”, “I live on Red May” - when people say this, they mean the village, not the plant. In the middle of the 19th century, there was the village of Klyuchino, where in 1859 the future flagship of the glass industry arose. First as a chemical. Its first owner, titular councilor Samarin, did not have enough funds for further development of production, and three years later the plant was bought by the merchant of the second guild, Andrei Bolotin, who soon built a glass factory in its place. Later, he founded another plant on the territory of the current Vyshnevolotsky district - Borisovsky (now - OJSC Medsteklo Borisovskoe). The first glass melting furnace at the Klyuchinsky plant was launched by the merchant and founder of the Bolotin dynasty of glassmakers in 1873. Also, at the expense of the plant’s owners, a workers’ settlement, quite comfortable by the standards of that time, was built.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Klyuchinsky plant produced glass pharmaceutical, tableware and confectionery dishes, kerosene lamps, lampshades, fulfilling orders from almost all parts of the empire. Soon the October Revolution broke out, the plant was nationalized and in 1929 received the name “Red May”. A village of 5 thousand inhabitants grew up around the enterprise with a hospital, school, music school, and a vocational school, which trained, in addition to specialist glassmakers, tractor drivers and auto mechanics. Much was written about “Red May” in the regional and central press. Let us remember what newspapers and magazines were talking about then and compare all this with the current remnants of former greatness. “When you look at the Kremlin stars, it seems as if from time immemorial they have been crowning pointed towers: so organic is their flame in unity with the beautiful monument of Russian architecture, so Moreover, the natural inseparability of two symbols in our minds is the heart of the Motherland and the five-pointed star” (“Pravda”, 1985). It just so happened that when we say “Red May,” we mean five ruby ​​finials. And vice versa. That’s why I want to start my story from this page. Moreover, the Vyshnevolotsk stars, which now decorate the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya, Trinity and Vodovzvodnaya towers of the Kremlin, were not the first. For the first time, five-pointed stars replaced the symbol of autocratic Russia - double-headed eagles - in the fall of 1935. They were made of high-alloy stainless steel and red copper, with a gold-plated hammer and sickle in the center of each star. However, the first stars did not decorate the Kremlin towers for long. Firstly, they quickly faded under the influence of precipitation, and secondly, in the overall composition of the Kremlin they looked rather ridiculous and disturbed the architectural ensemble. Therefore, it was decided to install ruby ​​luminous stars.

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

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

It must be said that in 2010, a lot was written about the 75th anniversary of the first Kremlin stars in the central media, but the contribution of “Red May” was never mentioned anywhere. Not in 1996, when the plant was still working, at the very least, despite the fact that they began to pay out salaries in vases and wine glasses. Not in 2006 - at least to catch up with the already departed train...

“Yesterday, a batch of parts made of colorless and milky glass for lighting fixtures at the Moscow Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky was sent from the Vyshnevolotsk “Red May” plant. It was not easy for glassmakers to repeat the bizarre shapes of ancient chandeliers and sconces that have been illuminating the halls of this musical educational institution for more than a hundred years” (Kalininskaya Pravda, 1983). “Several years ago, the craftsmen of the Vyshnevolotsk glass factory “Red May”, at the request of Bulgarian friends, made ruby ​​glass for the friendship memorial built on the famous Shipka. And here is a new order from Bulgaria - to make four-layer glass for the star that will crown the Party House in Sofia. The teams of craftsmen N. Ermakov, A. Kuznetsov, N. Nasonov and A. Bobovnikov were entrusted with executing the export order” (“Pravda”, 1986). “A beautiful garden village with asphalt roads, comfortable cottage houses, a club, a school and other public buildings, with a factory-garden in the center, from where almost two thousand items of products are distributed all over the world” (“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1959) . “Yesterday, a joyful message came from Moscow to GPTU-24 of the Vyshnevolotsk plant “Red May”. By the resolution of the Main Exhibition Committee of VDNKh of the USSR, vocational training masters T. Orlova and T. Shamrina were awarded bronze medals for the development and participation in the production of the “Jubilee” and “Cup” vases presented at the All-Union Review of Artistic Works of Vocational Schools. And students Irina Yarosh and Eduard Vedernikov were awarded the medal “Young Participant of the Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the USSR” (“Kalininskaya Pravda”, 1983). For comparison. The garden village is an ordinary outlying village, of which there are thousands. It doesn’t seem to be abandoned, but there’s also no hint of being well-groomed. The cottage houses are apparently wooden two-story barracks that still have cesspools. The factory-garden now has pipes rising above the ruins of the workshops, a rusty honor board, like a ghost from the past. On the territory itself - some small business: auto repair, warehouses. In the former factory premises there was not even any old furniture left, only heaps of construction waste. The railway line, with the exception of a few sections, has been almost completely dismantled. GPTU also keeps up with the times. Back in the mid-2000s, the specialty of tractor driver, once the most popular among teenagers, was closed there. And not the most hopeless one in life. Is there really no need for tractor drivers anymore? Naturally, there are no blowers or glass grinders either. “A glass is a seemingly simple product, but its manufacture requires great skill. The glassmakers of the Vyshnevolotsk plant “Red May” are fluent in this skill. Two types of glasses produced here in millions of copies have been awarded the State Quality Mark. A vase for berries, a rosette for jam, and an ashtray made of zinc sulfide glass received the same high praise" (" Soviet Russia", 1975). In the workshops of the plant, by the way, the third largest after similar ones in Gus-Khrustalny and Dyatkovo, not only crystal products and ruby ​​stars were produced.