The Kremlin's carillon has long been a major Moscow's sight, advertised in all Moscow guidebooks.
The first record of a carillon in Moskovia dates back to 1404. That tower clock was made by a monk, Lazar Serbin, for Moscow Prince Vasily I, son of the Prince Dmitry Donskoy renowned for the 1380 Kulikovo victory over the Tatars that paved the way to the liberation of the Russian land from the longtime occupation.
In 1585 the new white-stone Kremlin built during the reign of Dmitry Donskoi had three clocks - on the Troistkaya and Tainitskaya as well as Spasskaya Towers, so that the clock could be seen from anywhere in the city. In the early 17th century Moscow sold the old clock to the city of Yaroslavl and invited English clockmaker Christopher Galloway to make a new one. Under his direction Russian blacksmiths Zhdan, his son Shumilo Zhdanov, and grandson Alexei Shumilov made it in 1624-25. Russian Kirill Samoilov cast the bells for the carillon.
The hourplate, blue as a blackbird's egg, was divided into 17 sectors and weighed over 400 kg. It was plated with stars made of tin; in the upper part, the Sun and the Moon were painted in gold, the Sun's ray acting as the immobile hour hand. The hours were designated by Slavic letters (not figures!). Over the clock was the carillon.
At dawn, the bells tolled for the first time as the clockman went up to the tower to begin the daytime service. At dusk, he came there again to turn the clock to nighttime service. Each 16 days the clock had to be adjusted because the day/night hours changed.
The Galloway clock served for about a century but suffered several fires, which rendered it inoperable in 1704. In 1706-1709 Peter the Great enforced a common time-measuring system across the country and ordered a new Dutch clock with a 12-sector hourplate for the Spasskaya Tower. The carillon whose clock had a minute hand tolled each quarter of an hour and played a tune several times a day. However, several years later this clock stopped for good.
In 1763, an English-made "grand carillon clock" was found in a room under the Granovitaya Chamber. This clock installed, a German mechanic (some sources identify him by the last name as Faz) tuned it to play Ah, Mein Lieber Augustin.
In 1851-52, during a capital repair, Butenop Brothers modified the musical mechanism for the last time to date and tuned it for the Preobrazhensky Regimental March and 'How Glorious is Our Lord in Sion.'
In the 20th century, after the Bolshevik revolution, artillery shells damaged the clock, and after another repair in 1919 N.V. Berens tuned it for The International, a proletarian anthem (words by Ejen Pottier, music by Pierre Degeyter), and You Fell the Victims of Evil Fight..., a Socialists' prison song. In 1932-38 only The International was played at noon and midnight, in 1938 all tunes were discarded, and the carillon only marked quarters and hours.
In 1974 the nation's main clock was in repairs for 100 days. Over a thousand unique parts were replaced and an automatic adjustment system was installed.
In 1996, at President Boris Yeltsin's inauguration ceremony, the carillon played the Patriotic Song, then the Russian national anthem, and The Glory by Russian pioneer classical composer Mikhail Glinka.
TheButenop Brothers' Kremlin Carillon weighs 25 tons and is driven by three poises weighing 160 kg to 224 kg. There are four hourplates 6.12 meters in diameter. The figures are 72 cm in height; the hour hand is 2.97 meters long, while the minute hand is 3.28 meters long. The Kremlin clock is wound up twice a day.
