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

Exactly 80 years ago, the famous ruby ​​stars were installed on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin, which became a symbol of the capital. What they replaced, how much they weigh and why Nikita Mikhalkov needed to extinguish them - the Moscow 24 portal has collected 10 of the most interesting facts.

Fact 1. Before the stars there were eagles

Since the 17th century, gilded double-headed royal eagles made of copper have risen on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya and Nikolskaya towers of the Moscow Kremlin.

They have not survived to this day. By decision of the new government, on October 18, 1935, the eagles were removed and later melted down. Historians of that time decided that they were of no value and the metal was simply disposed of.

Fact 2. The first stars were installed on four towers

The first Kremlin star was installed on October 23, 1935 on the Spasskaya Tower. From October 25 to 27, stars appeared on the Trinity, Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.

Fact 3. Before ruby ​​stars, they were copper and had gems.

Initially, the stars were made of red sheet copper, which was mounted on a metal frame. Each star weighed approximately one ton.

Bronze emblems of the hammer and sickle were placed on the stars. The emblems were inlaid with Ural stones - rock crystal, topaz, amethyst, aquamarine, sandrite, alexandrite. Each stone weighed up to 20 grams.

Fact 4. The spire of the Northern River Station is crowned with the Kremlin star-gem

The gem stars were dismantled shortly before the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution. One of them, taken from the Spasskaya Tower, was subsequently installed on the spire of the Northern River Station in Moscow.

Fact 5. Ruby stars on five towers

The gem stars were replaced by new ones - ruby ​​ones. They were installed on November 2, 1937. The former stars dimmed, and the gems did not shine too brightly.

Fact 6. There are lighting lamps inside the stars

Ruby stars glow from within. To illuminate them, the Moscow Electric Lamp Plant (MELZ) developed special lamps in 1937.
The power of electric lamps in the stars on the Spasskaya, Troitskaya, Nikolskaya towers was 5 kW, on Vodovzvodnaya and Borovitskaya - 3.7 kW.

Fact 7. Stars have different sizes

Photo: TASS/Vasily Egorov and Alexey Stuzhin

The Kremlin's ruby ​​stars have different sizes. The beam span on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers is 3.75 meters, on the Troitskaya tower - 3.5, on Borovitskaya - 3.2, and on Vodovzvodnaya - 3 meters.

Fact 8. The stars rotate like a weather vane

At the base of each star are special bearings. Thanks to them, a star weighing one ton can rotate in the wind like a weather vane. This is done to reduce the load at high air currents. Otherwise, the star may fall from the spire.

Fact 9. During the war, the stars were covered with a tarpaulin

The stars were first extinguished during the Great Patriotic War. They were a good guide for enemy aircraft. The stars were covered in tarpaulin. Subsequently, they were extinguished again at the request of director Nikita Mikhalkov for the sake of filming one of the episodes of “The Barber of Siberia.”

Fact 10. Since 2014, the stars have been undergoing another stage of reconstruction

In 2014, the Spasskaya Tower hosted comprehensive reconstruction stars: she got 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.

What is ruby ​​glass? When did it appear? Who invented it? For what?

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, in our country there was such glass in large volumes didn't cook. 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 high achievements 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.

August 31st, 2016

In August 1935, a Council resolution was adopted people's commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on replacing old symbols with new ones.

Before historical moment the spiers of the Kremlin towers were decorated with heraldic double-headed eagles. 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. In October 1935, instead of the double-headed royal eagles, five-pointed stars appeared above 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.

Change symbol Russian Empire Attempts were made several times for the symbol of the new Soviet power. Back in the years civil war This proposal was made by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Lenin. However, in conditions of total economic collapse, the wishes of the leader of the revolution were not fulfilled.

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.

Parade 1935. Eagles watch Maxim Gorky fly by and spoil the holiday;)))

And only on August 23, 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. Immediately after this, a TASS message was issued, informing Soviet people: by November 7, 1935, 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 five-pointed stars with a hammer and sickle on the Kremlin towers.”

The design and production of new Kremlin symbols was entrusted to the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. Professor N.E. Zhukovsky with the participation of two Moscow defense plants. The sketches were approved by I.V. Stalin.

The preparation of sketches was entrusted to E.E. Lancer. On the first sketch, Stalin wrote: Okay, but it should be without the circle in the center, and “without” was underlined twice. Lanceray quickly corrected everything and submitted a new sketch for approval. Stalin again made the remark: Good, but it would be necessary without a fastening stick, and the word “without” was again emphasized twice. After this, the development of the star sketch was transferred to F.F. Fedorovsky.

When the sketches were created, life-size models of the stars were made. The hammer and sickle emblems were temporarily inlaid with imitations precious stones. Each model star was illuminated with twelve spotlights. This is exactly how they intended to illuminate the real stars on the Kremlin towers at night and on cloudy days. When the spotlights were turned on, the stars sparkled and sparkled with a myriad of colorful lights.

The leaders of the party and the Soviet government came to inspect the finished models. They agreed to make the stars with an indispensable condition - to make them rotating, so that Muscovites and guests of the capital could admire them from everywhere.

Hundreds of people of various specialties took part in the creation of the Kremlin stars. For the Spasskaya and Troitskaya towers, the stars were made in the TsAGI workshops under the leadership of the chief engineer of the institute A. A. Arkhangelsky, and for the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers - at Moscow factories under the leadership of the chief designer.

The first Kremlin stars were made of red copper and stainless steel. Special galvanic workshops were built for their gilding. In the center of each star, the symbol of the USSR was laid out with Ural gems (amethysts, topazes, alexandrites, rock crystal, aquamarines) - a hammer and sickle covered in gold. In total, about 7 thousand stones ranging in size from 20 to 200 carats were required (one carat is equal to 0.2 grams).

From the report of Pauper, an employee of the NKVD operational department: “Each stone is cut with a diamond cut (73 facets) and, to avoid falling out, is embedded in a separate silver caste with a silver screw and nut. The total weight of all stars is 5600 kg.”

The pattern was unique for each star. Thus, the Star of the Spasskaya Tower was decorated with rays from the center to the tops, and the star of the Trinity Tower was decorated with ears of corn. On the Borovitskaya Tower, the star pattern followed its outline. The star of the Nikolskaya Tower was without a design.

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 hurricane wind. 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.

Star for the Nikolskaya Tower. 1935 ph. B. Vdovenko

Before installing the stars on the Kremlin towers, engineers had doubts: would the towers withstand their weight and storm wind loads? After all, each star weighed on average one thousand kilograms and had a sail surface of 6.3 square meters. A thorough examination revealed that the upper ceilings of the tower vaults and their tents had fallen into disrepair. It was necessary to strengthen the brickwork of the upper floors of all the towers on which the stars were to be installed. In addition, metal connections were additionally introduced into the tents of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
And the tent of the Nikolskaya Tower turned out to be so dilapidated that it had to be rebuilt.

Now the specialists of the All-Union Office of Stalprommekhanizatsiya L.N. Shchipakov, I.V. Kunegin, N.B. Gitman and I.I. Reshetov were faced with the important task of raising and installing stars on the Kremlin towers. But how to do that? After all, the lowest of them, Borovitskaya, has a height of 52 meters, and the highest, Troitskaya, is 77 meters. At that time there were no large cranes, but specialists from Stalprommekhanizatsiya found an original solution. They designed and built a special crane for each tower that could be installed on its top tier. At the base of the tent, a metal base - a console - was built through the tower window. The crane was assembled on it.

The day came when everything was ready for the rise of the five-pointed stars. But first they decided to show them to Muscovites. On October 23, 1935, the stars were delivered to the Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after. M. Gorky and installed on pedestals covered with red. In the light of the spotlights, gilded rays sparkled and Ural gems sparkled. The secretaries of the city and district committees of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the chairman of the Moscow City Council arrived to inspect the stars. Hundreds of Muscovites and guests of the capital came to the park. Everyone wanted to admire the beauty and grandeur of the stars that were soon to flash in the sky of Moscow.

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.

Star for the Trinity Tower in Central Park culture and recreation named after. M. Gorky

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.

On October 24, 1935, the first star was installed on the Spasskaya Tower. Before lifting, it was carefully polished with soft rags. At this time, mechanics checked the crane's winch and motor.

At 12:40 the command “Vira little by little!” was heard. The star took off from the ground and began to slowly rise upward. When she reached a height of 70 meters, the winch stopped. The steeplejacks standing at the very top of the tower carefully picked up the star and pointed it at the spire. At 13:30 the star descended exactly on the support pin. Eyewitnesses of the event recall that on this day several hundred people gathered on Red Square to follow the operation. The moment the star was on the spire, the entire crowd began to applaud the climbers.

The next day, a five-pointed star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower. On October 26 and 27, the stars shone over the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers. The installers had perfected the lifting technique so well that it took them no more than an hour and a half to install each star. The exception was the star of the Trinity Tower, whose rise due to strong wind lasted about two hours. A little more than two months have passed since the newspapers published the decree on the installation of stars. Or rather, only 65 days. Newspapers wrote about the labor feat of Soviet workers who, for such short term created real works of art.

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 were literally overwhelming architectural ensemble Moscow Kremlin. And already in 1936, the Kremlin decided to design new stars. The sketches were prepared by a famous theater artist and decorator, folk artist USSR, academician F.F. Fedorovsky. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​using special ruby ​​glass instead of metal to decorate star rays. He redefined the shape, size and pattern of the 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 Bolshoi 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”. Before this to achieve desired color gold was added to glass; 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 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: 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.

Professor Alexander Landa (Fishelevich) was appointed chief engineer for the development and installation of stars. His project is still kept in Samara - five massive albums of drawings in red bindings. They say they are no less impressive than the stars themselves. But that’s another story.

As for the first stars, one of them, which in 1935-1937 was on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, was later installed on the spire of the Northern River Station.

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.
Once every five years, the glasses of the stars are washed by industrial climbers.

And a couple interesting videos about the stars

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Five-pointed stars were installed, which replaced the double-headed royal eagles. Once every 100 years they were updated, since the image state emblem changed too.

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.

The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided by November 7, 1935 to remove 4 eagles located on the Spasskaya, Borovitskaya, Trinity towers of the Kremlin wall and 2 eagles from the building of the Historical Museum. By the same date, it was decided to install a five-pointed star with a hammer and sickle on the indicated 4 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.

Vodovzvodnaya 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 contains 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 preventative maintenance is carried out monthly.

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?

Such a wonderful story about the Kremlin stars, and the plant at which they were made, their glass part, to be more precise, was written by Mikhail Letuev - 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! "They shine over the whole country Kremlin stars, made by the hands of Krasnomaysk craftsmen,” I read a guidebook from 1988. Of course, not entirely: the ruby ​​tops of the tower spiers are 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, has 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 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 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 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, Troitskaya and Vodovzvodnaya towers of the Kremlin, were not the first. For the first time 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 for long Kremlin towers. 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, so to speak, from scratch: archival documents, according to which it was possible to restore the “recipe”, 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 were already paying out wages 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, 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 others public buildings, with a factory-garden in the center, from where products of almost two thousand items 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”. 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 VDNKh 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 there is some small business: car 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.