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 a new period in the life of the country repeatedly arose soon after the 1917 revolution. In 1930, specialists from restoration workshops led by Igor Grabar gave a conclusion according to which 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 USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on replacing the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers five-pointed stars with 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. Lifting stars at that time was a big technical problem, since there were no high-rise tower cranes. For each tower, special cranes had to be made; 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. Moreover, they did not fully fit into architectural ensemble Kremlin because of its 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 throughout inner surface stars, 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
The Moscow Kremlin is the oldest and central part of Moscow on Borovitsky Hill, on the left bank of the Moscow River. Its walls and towers were built from white stone in 1367, and in 1485-1495 - made of brick. The modern Kremlin has 20 towers.
In the 50s of the 17th century, a coat of arms was erected on top of the tent of the main Kremlin tower (Spasskaya) Russian Empire- double-headed eagle. Later, coats of arms were installed on the highest passage towers of the Kremlin: Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Borovitskaya.
After the revolution of 1917, the question repeatedly arose about replacing the royal eagles on the Kremlin towers with figures symbolizing a new period in the life of the country - the coats of arms of the USSR, gilded emblems with a hammer and sickle, or with simple flags, as on other towers. But in the end they decided to install the stars. However, this required large financial expenses, which the Soviet government could not afford in the first years of its existence.
In August 1935, the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was published to replace the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers with five-pointed stars with a hammer and sickle by November 7, 1935. Before this, back in 1930, the authorities requested famous artist Igor Grabar about the historical value of eagles. He found out that they were changed on the towers once every century, or even more often. The oldest was the eagle on the Trinity Tower - 1870, and the newest - on Spasskaya - 1912. In a memo, Grabar said that “not one of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers represents an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.”
The double-headed eagles were removed from the Kremlin towers on October 18, 1935. For some time they were exhibited on the territory of the Park of Culture and Recreation, and then.
The first five-pointed star was erected on the Spasskaya Tower on October 24, 1935, with a large crowd of people on Red Square. On October 25, the star was installed on the spire of the Trinity Tower, on October 26 and 27 - on the Nikolskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
Throughout all the years of their existence, the Kremlin stars were provided with the most careful care. They are usually washed every five years. To maintain reliable operation of auxiliary equipment, scheduled preventative maintenance is carried out monthly; more serious work is carried out every eight years.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
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 fixed to 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.
Spasskaya Tower(until 1658 - Frolovskaya) - the most famous of the 20 towers Moscow Kremlin, goes to Red Square close Execution Place And Intercession Cathedral. The tower's tent is decorated with a chiming clock, which has made the Spasskaya Tower a collective symbol of the Kremlin and Moscow as a whole.
The tower was built in 1491 according to the design of a Milanese architect Pietro Antonio Solari, subsequently built on by an English architect Christopher Galovey together with the Russian master Bazhen Ogurtsov. Originally built of red brick, different years depending on aesthetic preferences.
The shape of the base of the tower is a quadrangle, which is crowned with a multi-tiered hipped roof with a chiming clock and rich decorative design. Upper part The quadrangle is decorated with a lace arched belt with turrets at the corners and figures of fantastic animals; also in the carved design of the belt you can find images of flowers and shells, and above the chimes - figures of peacocks. Above the chimes there is a belfry; the tower is crowned with a tent with a red star on top.
The total height of the Spasskaya Tower with the star is 71 meters. The tower is adjacent to a massive diversion arch with a drive-through gate.
History of the Spasskaya Tower
During the reign Ivan III In Moscow, a radical restructuring of the Kremlin began, during which in 1485-1495, instead of the old white stone walls and towers, new ones were erected - from baked bricks. The construction of the Spasskaya Tower, designed by the Italian architect Pietro Antonio Solari from Milan, became initial stage construction of the eastern line of fortifications of the Moscow Kremlin; before it, the Frolovskaya strelnitsa was located in this place. Since a moat was dug under the Kremlin walls, a bridge was built across it from the tower.
In memory of the construction of the tower, 2 white stone tablets with a commemorative inscription in Latin (from the Red Square side) and Russian (from the Kremlin side) were installed above the gate:
At the end of the 16th century, the tower was crowned with a wooden hipped top with a double-headed eagle, but in 1624-1625 another reconstruction was carried out: according to the design of the English architect Christopher Galovey, with the participation of the Moscow master Bazhen Ogurtsov, a multi-tiered top was erected over the tower in gothic style, decorated with naked “boobs” figures. The naked figures on the tower were perceived ambiguously, and by order of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, special caftans were sewn for them, however, the “blockheads” did not have long to live in any case - in 1628 they burned down in a fire. In the mid-17th century, it was re-erected onto the top of the tower. double headed eagle- coat of arms Russian state, subsequently installed on the Nikolskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers.
Before the Revolution of 1917, there were chapels to the left and right of the Spassky Gate - first wooden, then built in stone, but in 1925 they were demolished.
Initially, the tower, like the strelnitsa that preceded it, was called Frolovskaya - after the Church of Frol and Lavra on Myasnitskaya Street, where the road from the gate led - until 1658, when Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered to call it Spasskaya, since icons of the Savior were placed above the Spassky Gate Smolensky (from the Red Square) and the Savior Not Made by Hands (from the Kremlin).
Savior of Smolensk and Savior Not Made by Hands
One of the features of the tower, thanks to which it received its modern name, icons of the Savior of Smolensk and the Savior Not Made by Hands began to be placed above the passage gates.
Image Savior of Smolensky was written in 1514 in gratitude for the capture of Smolensk and placed above the gate from Red Square. In 1521, when Moscow managed to avoid a siege by the troops of Khan Mehmed-Girey, instead of the icon, a fresco was painted on the wall, depicting the Savior with the opened Gospel and the saints falling at his feet Venerable Sergius Radonezhsky and Varlaam Khutynsky. During the years of Soviet power, the image was plastered over and was considered lost for a long time, since official documents did not record what happened to it, and experts did not have accurate information about whether it was painted on the wall or was a separate element. When the issue of restoring the icon was raised in the 2000s, they searched for it in the storerooms for a long time. art museums, but in the end the image was discovered under a layer of plaster in its rightful place: in 2010 it was cleared and restored.
Appearance of the image Savior Not Made by Hands on inside gate (from the Kremlin) is associated with the plague epidemic that swept through Russia in the mid-17th century. Moscow suffered greatly from the epidemic, but one of the cities - Khlynov (modern Kirov) - was spared; There were rumors that the reason for Khlynov’s deliverance from the disease was the miraculous image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, to whom the residents of the city prayed. In 1648, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the image was delivered to Moscow. Having placed the original icon in the Novospassky Monastery, two copies were made from it: the first was sent to Khlynov, the second was placed on the inside of the gate of the Spasskaya Tower. Unfortunately, in Soviet years the image was destroyed and the original icon disappeared; Today, the icon case on the inside of the gate of the Spasskaya Tower remains empty.
Chimes of the Spasskaya Tower
- probably the most famous watch in Russia, because it is with them that Russians greet New Year- the chiming of the Kremlin chimes has become one of the brightest New Year traditions in the world.
The chimes are installed on the upper quadrangle of the tower on all four sides and have impressive dimensions:
Dial diameter - 6.12 meters;
The length of the minute hand is 3.27 meters;
The length of the hour hand is 2.97 meters;
The height of Roman numerals is 0.72 meters.
The clock has a musical mechanism: the anthem is played at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00 Russian Federation, at 03:00, 09:00, 15:00 and 21:00 - the melody of the choir “Glory” from Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar”.
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower first appeared in the 16th century and almost nothing is known about it. In 1625, according to the project of Christopher Galovey, the old clock was replaced with new ones, which had a unique structure: the clock counted day and night time, indicated Slavic letters and Arabic numerals, while the hand stylized as the Sun was motionless - the dial itself rotated. In 1705, by decree of Peter I, the clock was remade in the German style: with a dial at 12 o'clock, and in 1770 an English clock was installed on the tower. Modern chimes were made by brothers Nikolai and Ivan Butenop in 1851-1852.
Star of the Spasskaya Tower
The star on top of the Spasskaya Tower appeared in 1935, when the Soviet government wanted to erect Kremlin towers a new symbol to replace the ideologically outdated double-headed eagle.
First Kremlin stars were made of stainless steel and red copper, in the middle there was a gilded sickle and hammer, lined with Ural gems. The star on the Spasskaya Tower, among other things, was decorated with rays diverging from the middle. Unfortunately, the stars of 1935 quickly dimmed due to the weather, and in 1937 they were replaced by the glowing ruby ones that can still be seen today.
The span of the rays of the star on the Spasskaya Tower is 3.75 meters.
Spasskaya Tower Today it is one of the symbols of Moscow and a prominent landmark on tourist routes.
You can get to the Spasskaya Tower on foot from metro stations "Okhotny Ryad" Sokolnicheskaya line, "Theatrical" Zamoskvoretskaya and "Revolution Square" Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya.
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 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, the pentagram, has a very powerful energy potential and is one of the most powerful symbols. The swastika, the cult of which was very strong in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, could well have become a symbol of the new state. 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. A crane was assembled on it. 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. The builders strengthened the brickwork of the upper floors of all towers, and additionally introduced metal connections 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, the emblem of the hammer and sickle, laid out in precious stones, sparkled. Gems after a year they dimmed, 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 the 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 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.
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, since 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”.