Moscow Lights

Imagine a city plunged into darkness for 15 hours a day — from 5 in the afternoon until 8 the next morning. With a weak sun that hardly bothers to get out of bed, the rest of the day is not much brighter. Not a single streetlamp shines and people hurry home nervously through the streets. Until the 1730s, this is exactly what Moscow was like in the winter. For the city’s 850th anniversary, Natalya Potapova takes a look at how Moscow stepped out of the dark ages. Illustrations courtesy of Byloye newspaper.

The first streetlamps appeared in Moscow in 1730, in honor of a visit from members of the imperial court, which was then located in St. Petersburg. At that time, ten Petersburg policemen were invited to Moscow in order to educate the local population in dealing with streetlamps. While the lamps were being installed in the specified places, all residents whose windows overlooked the street were told to set burning candles on the windowsill as it got dark. Others were to light their glass or mica lamps and hang them from signposts.

For the entire eighteenth century, Moscow’s streetlamps were lit only on special occasions. On ordinary days, city dwellers had to resort to old methods. Although a 1763 order forbade people to walk around the city at night with torches because of the fire hazard, homemade lamps were completely legal. Such lamps were probably used for a long time, as streetlights stood only on the main streets. Each streetlamp, which emitted light equivalent to one or two candles, was allocated about four grams of oil — only enough for a few hours. As a result, the lamps went out long before midnight.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the number of lamps had noticeably increased, although most did not burn regularly. Then, in 1805, several innovations imported from Europe shed a little more light on the situation — so to speak. The number of wicks in the streetlights was increased to three, and, in the upper parts of the lamps, three-sided, mirrored reflectors were installed.

In 1806, the responsibility for lighting the streets passed from the residents to the city. The separate lamplighting service was abolished, and responsibility for lighting and upkeep of the streetlights passed to the fire department. One fireman generally took care of 20 to 30 lamps.

All “police” lamps of the capital came under the responsibility of the Moscow brandmaior (fire chief). It was his direct responsibility to ensure that the lamplighters did their work on time. For this purpose, a number of firemen were chosen for lamp-patrol duty. On average, one “lamp walker” was responsible for 150 lamps. Of course, it was impossible to check up on them all and, thanks to the city’s less than generous expenditures on lighting and the plundering of lamp oil, Moscow at night was dark indeed.

Then, in 1812, disaster struck. As Napoleon’s army invaded Moscow, a great fire mysteriously broke out (see Russian Life, July 1997) which burned 80% of the city to the ground. Needless to say, all the streetlights were destroyed. After the war, Moscow began the long and painful rebuilding process. Only at the beginning of the 1830s did the number of streetlamps reach their pre-1812 level.

Moscow’s streets were especially alive during big, nighttime festivals. Besides the customary oil lamps, the city was full of decorative lights, including billboards with allegorical images inscribed with burning cables or with figure-lamps covered with oiled canvas. On many buildings, multicolored bottles shone, fastened to wooden frames. On sidewalk posts, Muscovites set up saucers full of burning pig’s fat. Such displays required big money and plenty of manpower. In 1856, for example, to set up 27,000 burning bottles on the Sukharevo Tower, the city hired 549 workers and shelled out about R5,000 from the coffers. The illumination of ordinary homes took place at the expense of the homeowners. And, of course, all city dwellers set candles in their windows on holidays.

In ordinary times, though, Moscow at night was plunged into pitch darkness. Wanting, on the one hand, to improve city lighting and, on the other, to ensure additional sales of spirit and turpentine products, in August 1848, the Minister of Internal Affairs gave the go-ahead for the production of experimental alcohol-burning street lamps in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The first such lamps appeared on Moscow’s Tverskaya Street. By 1862, there were already 2,282 alcohol lamps in Moscow. However, as it turned out, this was also the last year that these lamps existed. Alcohol and hempseed oil were quickly replaced by kerosene.

Appearing on the world market in the middle of the 19th century, kerosene (mineral oil) came into wide use because of its low cost. Experiments in the use of kerosine for lighting — including street lighting — began in the 1860s in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Beginning in May 1865, Moscow was lighted exclusively with kerosene. An observer during that era, N.V. Davydov, said that, in those years, “Moscow was unrecognizable to me, so much had her general appearance changed, taking on an almost European flavor ... The new kerosene lamps seemed magnificent after the oil ones; without a doubt, the streets had become more animated and the crowd itself bloomed and preened a little.”

As early as 1861, two foreign firms approached the Moscow governor with a proposal to set up gas lighting in Moscow. To decide this question, the Duma formed a Commission on Streetlighting. Three years later they announced bidding, in which the foreign entrepeneurs Bukier and Goldsmith offered the lowest price – 14 rubles, 50 kopeks for the lighting of each lamp for one year. A 30-year contract was signed with them in January of 1865. Bukier and Goldsmith were required to build a factory over the course of three years, install a gas transmission network, and set up and light 3,000 streetlamps.

But the agreement was not without risk. First of all, the time period posed some danger. After all, in 30 years the whole basis of streetlighting technology could change. Second, it was not profitable to buy building materials abroad for a factory located in Russia. Finally, because of high gas prices, there turned out to be few private customers in Moscow, and this doomed gas enterprises to unprofitability. In spite of all this, however, up to 1882, new gas lights continued to be installed in Moscow. And in spite of all dire predictions, in the subsequent 13 years, practically no changes occurred in lighting technology.

At that time, Moscow was lit by burners cut into sections, in which the gas burned as an open flame. But in May 1896 an experiment was carried out on lighting with a new burner — with the use of the so-called “Auerovsky grids” (light-emitting, fireproof bodies). The experiment was extremely successful — so much so that in 1904, all cut burners were replaced by Auerovsky grids. The lighting power of such a lamp was 5 times greater than an ordinary one, while using 20% less gas. What is more, thanks to the incandescent mantles, the light gained a white hue which resembled natural light.

The first electric lights appeared on Moscow streets at the end of the nineteenth century, although the idea of using electricity for lighting purposes appeared as early as 1802, when the Russian physicist Petrov proposed the use of the electric arc for illuminating “dark chambers.” In 1876, Yablochkov’s electric ‘candle’ appeared. It consisted of two vertical carbon bars divided by a layer of insulation. This invention immediately spread across the whole world. In 1880, the question of electric lighting arose in Moscow. It was decided to light the square near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in this way — but this project was not realized until 1883, to coincide with Alexander III’s coronation.

On May 15, 1883 at 10 pm, the bell tower of Ivan the Great was suddenly lit up by thousands of flames. Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich, who witnessed the event, wrote: “The electric illumination of Ivan the Great created a simply magical effect which has never before been seen – anywhere. 3,500 small Edison lamps traced all the architectural lines, both the domes and the crosses.”

The electric lights thrilled Muscovites so much that many of them petitioned for the installation of such lights in their own homes. In 1895, the city council signed an agreement with the Society of Electric Lighting allowing the society to lay down underground wires under the streets and squares of Moscow over the course of 50 years.

Up until 1910, arc lamps illuminated Moscow’s streets. Then, filament lamps began to appear abroad, and Moscow hopped on the bandwagon. By the beginning of 1913, 440 arc lamps and 1,297 filament lamps illuminated the city, and most of the central streets and squares had electric lighting. Beginning in the late 1920s, all other lights were phased out in favor of electricity. The year 1932, when the last gas streetlamp was removed, marked the end of an era in Moscow.