Funny and educational - Stalin, the Savior Not Made by Hands and mysticism November 14th, 2012

New on the mare.
The Savior is coming to the world.
Our faith is strong.
Our truth is in us!
S. A. Yesenin, “Inonia”

There is an icon of the Savior on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin. But few people know that the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands on the main gate of the country survived thanks to J.V. Stalin! (+ Stalingrad Planetarium in which Stalin’s portrait suffered an absolutely similar fate)

The story goes: In the middle of the 17th century, a plague epidemic raged in the Moscow state. Only the city of Khlynov (Vyatka), preserved by the miraculous icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, was not affected by the pestilence. In 1648, by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the miraculous icon was delivered to the Kremlin in a religious procession. The relic was transferred to the Novospassky Monastery, and the exact copy of the icon was returned to Khlynov; the second list was installed above the Kremlin gates, through which the image arrived in the Kremlin. In the image of the Savior, the gates and gate tower began to be called Spassky.
It was believed that with the advent of Soviet power, the ancient icon was lost. A list of the miraculous image is preserved in the iconostasis of the Transfiguration Cathedral in the Novospassky Monastery and on the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin. On November 2, 1917, during the capture of the Kremlin by revolutionaries, a shell hit the chime dial on the Spasskaya Tower, but the icon was not damaged. In 1918, for the holiday of May Day, the miraculous icon on the Spasskaya Tower was shyly draped with red cloth, but in the midst of the celebration, a gust of wind tore off the drapery, and the people, overshadowed by the face of the Savior, saw this as a sign.

On May 22, 1918, Patriarch Tikhon celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, ending with a procession of the cross at the St. Nicholas Gate and a solemn prayer service to St. Nicholas before his image above the gates. The gate image of the Savior was opened until 1934, when work began to replace the double-headed eagles on the Kremlin towers with stars. For the holiday of the October Revolution on October 24, 1935, a gilded star was hoisted on the Spasskaya Tower. Then it was replaced with ruby. All this time the image was draped.
In 1937, A.N. Poskrebyshev and N.S. Vlasik, discussing the completion of the reconstruction of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower, asked Stalin what we would do with the icon - close it or remove it completely? “...close it, but carefully, it might come in handy,” the leader answered. Then the leader’s word was carried out clearly and with lightning speed. The builders respectfully packed the icon, carefully walling it up with iron mesh and plaster. This is how J.V. Stalin preserved the ancient relic of the Russian people - the miraculous icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands.

This innermost secret was kept only by a narrow circle of Orthodox officers. Apparently, it reached the owner of the Kremlin museums - the daughter of the first Soviet cosmonaut E.Yu. Gagarina and even the President of Russia V.V. Putin himself, who in 2007 was blessed by the ever-memorable His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all to restore the gate icons of the towers of the Moscow Kremlin Rus' Alexy II. And now I am glad to inform you that the legend has come true: the miraculous image of the Savior Not Made by Hands once again rose above the Spassky Gate.

Continuation:

The planetarium was presented to the residents of Stalingrad by the people of the GDR on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Comrade Stalin. This was in the early 50s. A mosaic portrait of Joseph Vissarionovich was hung in the foyer opposite the entrance. (Florentine mosaic). Quite impressive. It is collected from Ural gems. In the early 60s, the museum's management was ordered to destroy this portrait, but in the end it was disguised with a layer of plaster.

A magnificent artistic portrait-panel of the USSR Generalissimo I.V. Stalin, made in the style of Florentine mosaic, is the work of the outstanding Soviet artist Arakelov Vartan Nersesovich, the author of many similar portraits of scientists and cosmonauts decorating the interiors of buildings in the cities of the former great USSR. Since 1954, the mosaic panel has been located opposite the main entrance - in the hall of the Stalingrad Planetarium.

The white color of the portrait is made of mother-of-pearl, the green color is made of jasper and malachite. The shoulder straps and buttons are trimmed with so-called “fake gold”. Other details of the portrait are also made of precious stones - Ural gems.

During the period of de-Stalinization carried out in the late 50s and early 60s by the degenerate Khrushchev and his hangers-on, the mosaic was ordered to be destroyed. But one smart woman was working as the director of the planetarium at that time, who ignored the order of Khrushchev’s de-Stalinizers and ordered to hide the mosaic. The museum staff smeared the portrait with oil, covered it with several layers of parchment, covered it with oil paint, sealed it with several layers of newspaper, primed and puttied it in several layers, and finally walled it up using cement.

In the 1990s, museum staff remembered that they had a magnificent portrait hidden in the wall of the planetarium. At one of the meetings with the participation of the director of the Planetarium, Vladimir Ivanovich Frolov, and the head of the city of Volgograd, Yuri Chekhov, it was decided to restore the work of art. Work to restore the exhibit was carried out by two artists over two months at night.

Materials used in writing

MOSCOW, June 29 - RIA Novosti, Olga Lipich. Experts began on Tuesday the restoration of the ancient gate icon of the Savior on the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, walled up during the years of Soviet power, after a series of studies on the initiative of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation (FAP), a RIA Novosti correspondent reports.

The first stage of restoring the image is to remove the layer of plaster, under which there is a metal mesh and lattice. It is approximately 10 centimeters away from the iconographic image.

“At 11 o’clock they began to open the plaster from the gate icon of the Spasskaya Tower. I can testify that I personally saw it: the icon is definitely there,” Vladimir Yakunin, head of the board of trustees of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation and president of Russian Railways, told reporters at a briefing near the Kremlin walls.

According to him, the image is protected not just by a mesh, but by a “powerful metal structure.”

Yakunin expressed admiration for “those who preserved the icon” and called on those who know something about the history of the closure and preservation of the images to pass on information to the fund.

He called the very discovery and restoration of the Kremlin gate icons “a symbol of the revival of Russia.”

Chief restorer Sergei Filatov noted that the icon on the Spasskaya Tower has existed since the 17th century and was restored several times in the 18th and 19th centuries, most recently in 1895.

“This icon was covered by a professional restorer,” Filatov is convinced.

According to him, the image was made “using oil technique” and restoration work will take about two months.

Presumably, work on the opening of the gate icon on the Spasskaya Tower will last for several days, after which specialists will have to assess the safety of the icon and determine the methods and timing of restoration.

In the coming days, the gate icon of the Kremlin’s Nikolskaya Tower will also be unveiled.

Structurally highlighted elements reminiscent of icon cases can be seen on the outside of the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Kutafya, Konstantino-Eleninskaya towers, as well as on the inside of the Spasskaya, Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers.

The issue of returning icons to the Kremlin towers (in particular, the icon of the Savior to the Spasskaya Tower, and the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to Nikolskaya) has been raised more than once by the Russian public.

In 2007, the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation took the initiative to restore the icons, and it was supported by the president and the patriarch. According to Yakunin, the goal of restoring the plastered gate images is “to help ensure that the historical image of the Kremlin is recreated, and examples of the spiritual heritage of the people reappear on the Kremlin towers and in our lives.”

To study the possibility of restoring the icons, the foundation created a special group, headed by the chairman of the FAP board of trustees, president of JSC Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin. The group also included the heads of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the commandant of the Kremlin, the head of presidential affairs, the head of Rosokhrankultura, the general director of the Moscow Kremlin museums and a number of other experts.

The work began with the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers, because it was on them that experts considered it most likely to find icons preserved under a layer of plaster. There was no documented evidence that they were destroyed.

From April 23 to 27 of this year, specialists from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Interregional Scientific and Restoration Art Directorate" made soundings in the icon cases of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers from Red Square, as a result of which iconographic images were revealed under the plaster.

According to historical materials, on the Spasskaya Tower there is an icon of the Savior with the Monks Sergius and Varlaam. A fresco of St. Nicholas dating back to the late 15th and early 16th centuries is supposedly preserved on the Nikolskaya Tower.

It is not known exactly when the icons on the Kremlin towers were walled up. One of the expert assumptions is that they were covered with mesh and then with plaster in 1937, in connection with the celebration of the anniversary of the establishment of Soviet power.

The names of the Kremlin towers were initially, according to the director of its museums Elena Gagarina, not associated with the icons on them. Thus, the Spasskaya Tower, before the icon of the Savior was painted on its wall, was called Frolovskaya, and then received the name Spasskaya, since the road to the Spaso-Smolensk Church, located behind St. Basil's Cathedral, went through it. And from the Nikolskaya Tower the path to the Church of St. Nicholas the Old began. And it is unknown whether the icons on the towers were copies from the temple ones.

How to read facades: a cheat sheet on architectural elements

At first the tower was called Frolovskaya - after the Church of Frol and Lavra, to which the road led from the tower. The church has not survived. The prison where the participants of the salt and copper riots languished has not survived either.

The increase in salt tax put the “black people” of Posad in a difficult situation. Under pressure from the population, the government abolished the tax, but decided to collect arrears within 3 years. The abuses of people close to the tsar aggravated the situation, and on June 1, 1648, Alexei Mikhailovich, on the way from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, was surrounded by a crowd demanding to punish the extortionists.
The next day, the tsar was surrounded again: people demanded the extradition of the villains and even began to destroy the boyars' houses. The Tsar decided to hand Pleshcheev over to the executioner, but the crowd dragged him to Red Square and tore him to pieces. Then Alexei Mikhailovich promised to expel the hated boyars from Moscow. And then the fire started. According to rumors, those close to the king were guilty. In response, the people destroyed the mansions of Morozov, the courtyard of the merchant Vasily Shorin, and killed the clerk Chisty and the boyar Trakhaniotov. The uprising began to wane.

Soon, new reasons for discontent were added to the previous ones: the protracted war against Poland and the depreciation of copper money. Trying to get out of the financial crisis, the government issued copper money, making it equal in price to silver. Because of this, prices have risen and many fakes have appeared. On the night of July 25, 1662, “thieves’ sheets” appeared in crowded places in Moscow, accusing the Tsar’s relatives. The sounds of the alarm floated over the city, and the crowd rushed to the village of Kolomenskoye to see Alexei Mikhailovich.
The king had already persuaded the people to disperse, but reinforcements were added to the rebels. Then the “quiet” king ordered to deal with the rebels. Many people were hurt, but the copper money was abolished.

Treasures found by Soviet archaeologists on the site are reminiscent of that time. One of them contained 33,000 silver coins from the time of Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich.

The name of the Spasskaya Tower was given by the icon of the Savior of Smolensk over the gate.

What is what in the church

To the left and right of the Spassky Gate until 1925 there were chapels - the chapel of the Great Council Revelation (Smolenskaya), and the chapel of the Great Council Angel (Spasskaya). Regiments left for battle from the gates of the Spasskaya Tower, and foreign ambassadors were also met here. All religious processions went through these gates; all the rulers of Russia, starting with Mikhail Fedorovich, passed through them before their coronation. Therefore, the Spassky Gate was also called the Royal or Holy Gate.

In the 17th century, the icon of the table was in a special icon case, and it was strictly forbidden to pass through the gates of the Spasskaya Tower wearing a headdress or riding a horse. For “forgetfulness” they were beaten with batogs or forced to make 50 prostrations. Moreover, when Napoleon drove through the Spassky Gate, a gust of wind tore off his cocked hat. And when the French tried to steal the precious frame from the icon of the Savior of Smolensk in 1812, a miracle happened: the attached ladder fell, but the shrine remained unharmed.

But during Soviet times, the icon disappeared from the Spasskaya Tower and was considered lost until May 11, 2010. In its place was a plastered white rectangle. And during the restoration of the tower, it became clear that the icon of the Savior of Smolensk was not lost, but hidden. Architect Konstantin Apollonov, fulfilling the order to destroy the painting, hid the image under a chain-link mesh and a layer of concrete. This is how the icon was saved, and the safety of the image was 80%.

Now the icon of the Savior of Smolensk is again above the gates of the Spasskaya Tower. And from the diaries of N.D. Vinogradov, it becomes clear that the Kremlin commandant himself allowed the icons to be hidden in any way, so long as they were not visible.

In the 16th century, figures of lions, bears and peacocks were installed on the Spasskaya Tower. It is now believed that these were symbols of royal power (lions and unicorns). They survived, although they were damaged in 1917.

And back in the 16th century, figures of naked people appeared on the Spasskaya Tower. But the church in Rus' did not even allow ordinary figurative images! True, under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, their nakedness was bashfully covered with specially tailored clothes. But we won’t be able to see this curiosity - time and fires have not spared it. The statues themselves were used as foundation stones.

And during the time of Peter I, mannequins with exemplary clothes of French and Hungarian cut appeared near the Spasskaya Tower on Red Square. Guards stood nearby and, in the absence of those traveling in proper clothing, they shortened their skirts and beards with scissors.

The first clock in Russia appeared on the Spasskaya Tower in the 15th century. And at the end of the 16th century there were clocks on two more Kremlin towers - Trinity and Tainitskaya.

In 1585, watchmakers were in service at all these towers. In 1613-1614, watchmakers were also mentioned under. This work was very responsible and required compliance with the rules: do not drink alcohol, do not play cards, do not sell wine and tobacco, do not communicate with thieves.

At that time, watch dials were huge so that anyone who did not have a personal watch could tell the time. That is, the passage of time in the city depended on the clocks on the Kremlin towers. There was no minute hand on the clock, but it could still be in a hurry or behind by a couple of hours - this depended on the haste of the watchmaker, who manually moved the hands every hour. The countdown was even more interesting: the day was not divided in half, but into day and night. In the summer, the day began at 3 am and ended at 8 pm, which is why the dial was designed for 17 o'clock.

Galloway created the first mechanical clock for the Spasskaya Tower. They weighed 400 kg. Along the contour of the dial painted “under the sky” were Arabic numerals and Church Slavonic letters, denoting numbers in pre-Petrine Rus'. At the same time, the dial rotated, and the arrow looked straight up.

On our watches the hand moves towards the number, in Russia, on the contrary - the numbers move towards the hand. A certain Mr. Galloway - a very inventive man - came up with a dial of this kind. He explains this as follows: “Since Russians do not act like all other people, then what they produce must be arranged accordingly.”

Sometimes watchmakers set up shop right next to the tower. So on the Spasskaya Tower the watchmaker built himself a hut, planted a vegetable garden and raised chickens. And this caused great displeasure among the authorities and residents of the city.

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower served faithfully until it was sold to Yaroslavl. In 1705, by decree of Peter I, a new clock with a dial at 12 o'clock, ordered from Amsterdam, was installed. It is unknown what melody these chimes played. And they didn’t delight Muscovites with their chimes for long: the clocks often broke down, and after the fire of 1737 they became unusable. And since the capital was moved to St. Petersburg, there was no hurry with the repairs.

In 1763, large English chimes were found in the Chamber of Facets and the German master Fatz was invited to install them. And so in 1770, the Kremlin chimes began to play the German song “Ah, my dear Augustine.”

During the fire of 1812 this clock was damaged. A year later, watchmaker Yakov Lebedev offered to repair the chimes, and in 1815 the clock was started again. But still time did not spare them.

The Spassky tower clock is currently in a state of close to complete disrepair: the iron wheels and gears are so worn out from long-term use that they will soon become completely unusable, the dials have become very dilapidated, the wooden floors have sagged, the stairs require constant rework, ... the oak foundation under rotted for hours from long periods of time.

New chimes were manufactured in 1851-1852 at the Russian factory of the Butenop brothers. Some old parts and all the developments in watchmaking of that time were used.

The melody was played on a playing shaft - a drum with holes and pins connected by ropes to bells under the tower's tent. To do this, it was necessary to remove 24 bells from the Troitskaya and Borovitskaya towers and install them on Spasskaya, bringing the total number to 48.

The question of choosing music turned out to be difficult. Composer Verstovsky and conductor of Moscow theaters Stutsman selected 16 melodies most familiar to Muscovites, but Nicholas I left only two - the Preobrazhensky March of the times of Peter the Great and the prayer “How glorious is our Lord in Zion.” They wanted to play the anthem of the Russian Empire “God Save the Tsar!” on the playing shaft, but the emperor forbade it, saying that the chimes could play any songs except the anthem.

In 1913, for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower were restored.

But on November 2, 1917, during the storming of the Kremlin, a shell hit the clock. He damaged the mechanism, and the clock stopped for almost a year. Only in 1918, at the direction of V.I. Lenin's chimes have been restored.

At first, they turned to the company of Bure and Roginsky to repair the chimes, but they asked for 240 thousand in gold. Then the authorities turned to the Kremlin mechanic Nikolai Behrens, who knew the structure of the chimes (he was the son of a master from the Butenop Brothers company). By July 1918, Behrens started the chimes again. But since he did not understand the musical structure of the clock, the setting of the ringing was entrusted to the artist and musician Mikhail Cheremnykh. Of course, preference was given to revolutionary melodies, so the chimes began to play “The Internationale” at 12 o’clock, and “You have fallen a victim...” at 24 o’clock. In August 1918, the Mossovet commission accepted the work after listening to each melody from Lobnoye Mesto three times.

But in the 1930s, the commission recognized the sound of the chimes as unsatisfactory: the worn-out striking mechanism and frost greatly distorted the sound. Therefore, in 1938, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower fell silent again.

In 1941, an electromechanical drive was installed specifically for the performance of the Internationale, but it did not save the musical structure. In 1944, at the direction of I.V. Stalin tried to set the clock on the Spasskaya Tower to play a new anthem to the music of Alexandrov, but this also failed.

A major restoration of the chime mechanism, which was stopped for 100 days, took place in 1974, but even then the musical mechanism was not touched.

History of the Kremlin stars

In 1991, the Plenum of the Central Committee decided to resume the operation of the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower, but it turned out that there were not enough 3 bells to play the USSR anthem. They returned to the task in 1995.

Then they planned to approve M.I.’s “Patriotic Song” as the new anthem. Glinka, and in 1996 during the inauguration of B.N. Yeltsin, the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower, after the traditional chiming and striking of the clock, began to play again after 58 years of silence! And although only 10 out of 48 bells remained on the belfry, the missing ones were replaced with metal bells. At noon and midnight, 6 am and 6 pm, the chimes began to play the “Patriotic Song”, and at 3 and 9 am and evening - the melody of the choir “Glory” from the opera “Life for the Tsar” by M.I. Glinka. After restoration in 1999, the clock on the Spasskaya Tower began to play the national anthem of the Russian Federation instead of the “Patriotic Song”.

The chimes on the Spasskaya Tower are unique and completely mechanical.

The dial diameter is 6.12 meters. The dial is so huge that a Moscow metro train could pass through it! The height of the Roman numerals is 0.72 meters, the length of the hour hand is 2.97 meters, the length of the minute hand is 3.27 meters. The entire clock mechanism occupies 3 of the 10 floors of the tower.

The weight of the clock on the Spasskaya Tower is 25 tons, and it is driven by 3 weights weighing from 160 to 224 kg. Now they are lifted using an electric motor twice a day. Accuracy is achieved thanks to a pendulum weighing 32 kilograms. At the same time, the hands were moved to winter and summer time only manually (to change the hour back, the chimes were simply stopped for 1 hour). And although the accuracy of the movement is almost impeccable, the Astronomical Institute on Vorobyovy Gory monitors the clock.

The striking mechanism of the clock consists of 9 quarter bells (about 320 kg) and 1 full hour bell (2,160 kg). Every 15, 30, 45 minutes of the hour the chime is played 1, 2 and 3 times respectively. And at the beginning of each hour, the Kremlin chimes ring 4 times, and then a large bell strikes the hours.

The musical mechanism of the chimes consists of a programmed copper cylinder with a diameter of about 2 meters, which is rotated by a weight weighing more than 200 kg. It is dotted with holes and pins in accordance with the typed tunes. When the drum rotates, the pins press the keys, from which the cables stretch to the bells on the belfry. The rhythm lags far behind the original, so it’s not easy to recognize the melodies. At noon and midnight, 6 and 18 o'clock the anthem of the Russian Federation is performed, at 3, 9, 15 and 21 o'clock - the melody of the choir "Glory" from M. Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar".

The clock on the Spasskaya Tower has become not only a symbol of Moscow, but also a symbol of all of Russia.
By the way, the first newspaper in Russia was also called “Chimes”. It began to be produced in the 17th century and was a long handwritten scroll. It was glued together from sheets on which the most interesting information collected by the Ambassadorial Order was recorded - they were reported by Russian envoys in other states.

Mini-guide to the Kremlin walls and towers

They say that......when in old Moscow a merchant went to the doctor with a complaint of a headache, the following dialogue usually took place: “Where do you trade? In the Kremlin? Which gate do you drive through, Borovitsky or Spassky? So, you need to travel through others.” And this helped, because a revered icon hung over the Spassky Gate, and upon entry you had to take off your headdress. My head was getting hypothermic… .
...during the retreat of the French army from Moscow, the Spasskaya Tower was ordered to be blown up. But the Don Cossacks arrived in time and extinguished the already lit wicks.
...they built on the Spasskaya Tower to protect the chimes from the rain. But there were clocks on other Kremlin towers. In fact, they tried to give this Jerusalem Tower (leading to the Moscow Jerusalem Temple) a special look.
...The New Year begins with the first or last strike of the Kremlin chimes. But in fact, the change of year occurs with the beginning of the clock chime - 20 seconds before the first strike of the bell. And the 12th strike ends the first minute of the New Year.

Spasskaya Tower in photographs from different years:

Would you like to add something to the story about the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin?
On June 9, 2010, work began on the Spasskaya Tower to uncover the gate icon, which was considered lost, because historians were sure that it had been destroyed during the years of Soviet power. According to available historical information, on the Spasskaya Tower there was an icon of the Savior with the Venerables Sergius and Varlaam falling at His feet. However, even historians cannot name the exact date of its writing. It is only known that the image above the gate was dedicated to the salvation of Moscow from the invasion of the Crimean Khan Makhmet-Girey on May 21 (June 3, n.st.) 1521, in whose honor the celebration of the Vladimir Icon was established in the Russian Orthodox Church.

According to restorer S. Filatov, “the icon of the Savior of Smolensk has been on the Kremlin tower since the 17th century. Until that moment, the clock tower was called Frolovskaya.
Since then, the icon has been restored several times, put in order after the invasion of Napoleon. And the last time it was updated in 1896 using the technique of oil painting.” Back in 2007, the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation took the initiative to search and restore shrines on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers. The initiative was supported by the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin and received the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II. In February 2010, after carrying out the necessary approvals, the initiative group decided to conduct field research in the icon cases of the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers. On April 23-27 this year, on the eve of the Victory Parade, specialists from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise MNRKhU made two soundings in the icon case on the Spasskaya Tower, which confirmed the hypothesis about the preservation of iconographic images under a layer of plaster (see illustration). Thus, throughout all the years of Soviet power (almost eight decades!) the shrine, being hidden from view, consecrated the entire life of the capital of our Motherland on its main square!

Surprisingly, historians cannot yet establish exactly when the acquired image was secretly hidden on the Spasskaya Tower. And who gave such an order? Some believe that during the NEP, in the mid-20s. Others - that in the 37th year. According to the director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums E.Yu. Gagarina, before the disbandment of the restoration workshops in 1934, there was no archival information about the gate icons on the two main Kremlin towers, so, most likely, they were walled up later. That is why the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation called on everyone who may have any information about the circumstances of the preservation of icons on the Spasskaya and Nikolskaya towers in the Soviet years to pass on this information to them. Rossiyskaya Gazeta correspondent Igor Elkov recently approached us with a similar request: “Dmitry Mikhailovich, good afternoon! Could you please provide some of your contact information? In particular - the telephone. Your consultations may be of interest not only for our newspaper, but also for the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation - they, in fact, are the organizers of the entire project.”

Most of the authors associated the appearance of the gate image on the Spasskaya Tower with the miracle of 1521 (Snegirev I.M. Kremlin Spassky Gates in Moscow // Soulful Reading. 1862. Part II. P. 199-203). It has been recorded in sources since the 16th century. entitled “A terrible and glorious sign of how the city of Moscow was saved from the invasion of godless Tatars like God by the prayers of the Most Pure Mother of God and the great Russian wonderworkers” (Zimin A.A. Stories of the 16th century in the collection of the Rogozh collection // Notes of the Manuscript Department of the State Library named after V. .I.Lenin. Issue 20. M., 1958. P. 189-198). When the Crimean Tatars under the leadership of Makhmet-Girey approached Moscow in 1521, a certain blind old woman of the Kremlin Ascension Monastery saw “as if a many-lighted cathedral of venerable men in consecrated robes were walking through the Frolov Gate” - Metropolitans Peter, Alexy and Jonah, Bishop Leonty Rostovsky and other saints who carried out the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God and “other shrines” from the Kremlin. At the gate they were met by the Monks Sergius and Varlaam, who fell at the feet of the saints, asking, “why should we leave this city?” The saints responded that they were leaving the Kremlin by the will of God, since the Muscovites “had angered God and His saints” and were punished for this by the Tatar invasion. Sergius and Varlaam with tears began to beg them not to leave their flock. After the conciliar prayer, the miracle workers, touched by the request of the saints, returned back to the Kremlin, and Makhmet-Girey withdrew his troops without a fight.

The earliest description of this image (see illustration) is from Paul of Aleppo, who visited Moscow in the middle of the 17th century: “Over the large royal eastern gate outside there is an image of the Lord Christ (Savior), standing blessing; his lower robe is blue with gold streaks, and his upper robe is velvet, also with gold. This image is called Spas, that is, the Savior of Smolensk; that’s exactly how he appeared to Saints Zosima and Savvaty” (Foreigners about ancient Moscow (Moscow XV-XVII centuries). M., 1991. P. 324). Since ancient times, the gate icon of the Savior reflected the main content of the Spasskaya Tower above the main entrance to the Moscow Kremlin: “The image is not written on a board, but directly on a stone wall. The Savior is depicted standing. With his right hand he blesses, and with his virgin he holds the Gospel, revealed in the words: “The Lord said to the Jews who came to him: I am the Door.” On the sides of the Savior are depicted below the kneeling saint St. Sergius and the holy Rev. Barlaam, and at the top two Angels, one with a cross in his hand, the other with a spear and a lip. Above the image in a triangular icon case is written the honest, life-giving Cross of the Lord with two Angels holding it” (Bartenev S.P. The Moscow Kremlin in the Old Time and Now. T. 1. M., 1912. P. 126). Some believe that the image of the Savior of Smolensk, painted in gratitude for the capture of Smolensk in 1514 and placed above the Frolov Gate of the Kremlin, was replaced in 1521 by a fresco (Antonova V.I. Ancient Russian art in the collection of Pavel Korin. M., 1966. P. 127; Vygolov V.P. Sculpture of George on the tower of the Moscow Kremlin // Monuments of Russian architecture and monumental art. Cities, ensembles, architects. M., 1985. P. 21-22). Others consider only the gate image with the falling Varlaam and Sergius as the source of the iconography of the Savior of Smolensk himself (Pripachkin I.A. Iconography of the Lord Jesus Christ. M., 2001. P. 80-81). In memory of the miracle of 1521, during the “procession on a donkey,” “arriving at the Spassky Gate, the Patriarch, in front of the images of the Savior and the Mother of God written on the gate, stopped and read the litany and prayer to the city. At this time, bells were ringing, both in the Kremlin and throughout Moscow” (Lyubetsky S.M. The Antiquity of Moscow and the Russian People in Historical Relation to the Everyday Life of Russians. M., 1872. P. 216).

One of the early archival documents mentions on June 27, 1585 the Frolovsky Gate chapelmaster Yakov Nikiforov (DAI. T. 1. St. Petersburg, 1846. P. 208). In the middle of the 17th century, the Spasskaya Tower was restored after a serious fire that occurred on October 5, 1654. The image of the Savior of Smolensk, considered miraculous, was decorated with a gilded robe, placed in an icon case, and a lantern was hung in front of the icon case. Since in the royal decree of 1654 the tower was already called Spasskaya, the incorrectly widespread statement in the literature about the renaming of the tower to Spasskaya only in 1658. By decree of 1658, Emperor Alexei Mikhailovich prohibited the use of all other names of many fortress gates, except those associated with dedication to God (PSZ. T. 1. SPb., 1830. P. 418). Since 1802, to the left and right of the Spassky Gate there have been stone chapels (see illustration).

Both chapels belonged to the clergy of the Intercession Cathedral. On the left stood the chapel of the Great Council of Revelation (Smolenskaya), on the right - the Great Council of the Angel (Spasskaya). The duties of the rectors of the chapels included caring for the unquenchable lamp at the gate icon of the Savior of Smolensk. A legend has been preserved that when the French tried to steal the precious frame in 1812, the icon showed miraculous power: the ladder attached to it overturned, but the shrine remained unharmed.

In 1821, the stone chapels on both sides of the Spassky Gate were restored according to the design of O.I. Beauvais, because “The old ones that existed here did not at all resemble the facade of the tower and in such a visible and open place they could create a complete disgrace” (see View of the Spasskaya Tower with two chapels, 1821, by the architect O.I. Bove. Lithograph by A. Durand, 1842) . In 1868, during the next restoration of the Spasskaya Tower, the chapels were dismantled and rebuilt according to the design of the architect P.A. Gerasimova. On October 22, 1868, the new hipped, single-domed chapels were consecrated (see illustration). In 1912, Tsar Nicholas II ordered the re-production of the sovereign double-headed eagle that crowned the Spasskaya Tower.

Both chapels near the Spasskaya Tower were demolished in the 1930s, and in their place public toilets were built, which are still functioning today! Engineer F. Gause was involved in the design of public toilets in the Red Square area. Back in 1928, he wrote: “The lack of public restrooms is especially noticeable during the May and October celebrations, with huge crowds of several hundred thousand people. We often receive letters from workers participating in demonstrations, pointing out the unacceptability of the lack of latrines in the area and demanding their immediate construction. The project of latrines proposed below in the area of ​​the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod therefore needs to be implemented in the near future... On Vasilyevskaya Square... a latrine can be built in the slope of the Kremlin wall, or part of an existing shop can be occupied for this purpose.” Franz Gause's project is complemented by a drawing of St. Basil's Cathedral against the backdrop of the Spasskaya Tower, in the basement of which two entrances to toilets are shown with an explanatory inscription “Public restroom in the premises of an existing shop in the retaining wall surrounding the temple.” Noteworthy is the intensification of activities to desecrate shrines on Red Square through the construction of public toilets in their place simultaneously with the preparation and holding of the “historic” II Congress of the Union of Militant Atheists in mid-1929, where the “godless five-year plan” was proclaimed "for the coming years, the goals of which were stated by the leader of the atheists, Em. Yaroslavsky (Gubelman): “...Not only burn icons, not only knock down church heads, not only remove bells, but pull out the roots that sit deep in the consciousness, subconscious, etc.”: http:/ /expertmus.livejournal.com/53948.html

The completion of the “godless five-year plan” was marked on a grand scale by the demolition of the chapels and double-headed eagles of the Kremlin towers, which were replaced with stars by the decision of the authorities, published in the central press in August 1935: “The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided by 7 November 1935, remove 4 eagles located on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, 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.” Back on June 20, 1930, Gorbunov wrote about this to the Secretary of the Presidium of the USSR Central Executive Committee Enukidze: “... V.I. Lenin several times demanded the removal of these eagles and was angry that this work was not done - I personally confirm this. I think it would be nice to remove these eagles and replace them with flags. Why do we need to preserve these symbols of tsarism? With communist greetings Gorbunov." A year and a half later, at a meeting of the secretariat of the USSR Central Executive Committee on December 13, 1931, a decision was made: “It was decided: to propose including 95,000 rubles in the estimate for 1932. - costs of removing eagles from the Kremlin towers and replacing them with the coats of arms of the Union. Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR Enukidze." The work of removing the eagles and raising the stars was carried out by experienced climbers under the guidance and control of the NKVD operational department and the Kremlin commandant Tkalun. In the report comrade. Pauker from the operational department of the NKVD reported to Stalin and Molotov on November 4, 1935: “...I was instructed to remove the eagles from the Kremlin towers and from the Historical Museum by November 7, replacing them with stars. I report that this task of the Politburo has been completed... Due to the dilapidation of the Kremlin towers and their unsuitability for such heavy loads, the towers were repaired and all the pins were replaced. Inside the towers there are steel structures on which stars are mounted. The work of removing the eagles and raising the stars was carried out by experienced steeplejacks. The organization and management of all these works was carried out by the operational department of the NKVD.” The NKVD commissioned the examination of the double-headed eagles to the famous artist and restorer I.E. Grabar, who stated that “... none of the eagles currently existing on the Kremlin towers constitute an ancient monument and cannot be protected as such.” Convinced that the Kremlin eagles were of no historical value, the first deputy commissar of the NKVD turned to L.M. Kaganovich: “I ask for your order: Issue 67.9 kilograms of gold to the NKVD of the USSR for gilding the Kremlin stars. The gold covering of the eagles will be removed and handed over to the State Bank" (see Report on the work on gilding the stars and clocks of the Moscow Kremlin towers. 1937 Branch of RGANTD. F. R-91. Op. 2-1. D. 31). The removed eagles, together with the stars that replaced them, were exhibited on October 23, 1935 in the Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after. M. Gorky, and already on October 24, 1935, the first star was installed on the Spasskaya Tower. The film magazine “Socialist Village” No. 21 (November 1935) preserved footage of the installation of the first Kremlin stars.

The same fate befell the shrines of the Nikolskaya Tower, which were heavily damaged during the fighting in October 1917 (see illustration), when the gate image of St. St. Nicholas of Mozhaisky on the Nikolskaya Tower was riddled with bullets and shrapnel, but the face itself was not damaged, which was perceived as a miracle by believing Muscovites. In the lectures of I.E. Grabar there is a mention that after the shelling of the icon in October 1917, restoration of this image was undertaken, during which later paint layers were removed and a fresco dating back to the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century was discovered. The author of the collection “Execution of the Moscow Kremlin on October 27 – November 3, 1917” (2nd ed.: Tokyo, 1920), written in 1917 with the blessing of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Nestor (Anisimov) in his essay “The Kremlin Towers” ​​left precious documentary evidence of the collection of fragments of destroyed shrines by one of the zealots of Orthodox culture, which was subjected to ridicule of the crowd: “This artist, with pain in his heart, collects fragments and shards for the edification of posterity, who in the future will probably rightly condemn the bar¬ the barbarism of the Bolsheviks, who destroyed the holy of holies of Russia - the sacred Kremlin.” For compiling this collection, Bp. Nestor Kamchatsky was imprisoned for several months in 1918: http://expertmus.livejournal.com/51147.html

At the end of April 1918, before the first official celebration of May Day, the facade, including the icon, was completely draped in red red, but on the eve of the proletarian holiday, strong gusts of wind, twisting the panels, cleared the view of the image. On May 22, 1918, Patriarch Tikhon celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, after which he led the procession to the St. Nicholas Gate, where a solemn prayer service to St. Nicholas in front of his image above the gate...

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. Initially built from red brick, in 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. The upper part of 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 the initial stage in the construction of the eastern line of the Moscow Kremlin fortifications; before it, the Frolovskaya strelnitsa was located in this place. Since a ditch 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 in the Gothic style, decorated with nude figures, was erected over the tower - "boobs". 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 middle of the 17th century, a double-headed eagle was again installed on the top of the tower - the coat of arms of the Russian state, which was later also installed on the Nikolskaya, Trinity 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, was the icons of the Savior of Smolensk and the Savior Not Made by Hands 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 holy monks Sergius of Radonezh and Varlaam of Khutyn falling at his feet. 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, it was searched for a long time in the storerooms of 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 the inside of the gate (from the Kremlin side) 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, during the 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 clock in Russia, because it is with them that Russians celebrate the 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: at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00 the anthem of the Russian Federation is performed, at 03:00, 09:00, 15:00 and 21:00 - the melody of the choir "Glory" from the opera Glinka "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 in 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 install a new symbol on the Kremlin towers to replace the ideologically outdated double-headed eagle.

The 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.