Festival of Broken Lanterns

“Night, street, lantern, pharmacy” This line from A Blok’s poem is often used as an illustration of thoughts about the frailty of existence “If you die, you’ll start over again,” the poet states bitterly, speaking about the cyclical nature of life processes Broken and unrepairable lights are not only the result of poor public services They are a symbol of the hopelessness that reigns in society, “the devastation in our heads,” as Professor Preobrazhensky said The founders of the unusual celebration do not agree with this statement On their initiative, the Festival of Broken Lanterns is celebrated on November 14th As children, Soviet boys spent a lot of time outside, walking in the courtyard of their house It happened that during a game of football, a ball launched into the air did not hit the opponent’s goal, but the window of a grumpy neighbor Shooting with a homemade bow and slingshot could end sadly for street lamps Despite this, childhood evokes nostalgia and brings back pleasant memories Therefore, for many people, the Festival of Broken Lanterns is an opportunity to plunge into the past, mentally return to a carefree time full of amazing discoveries, when the sun shone brighter and the trees were large For some, a funny celebration is an excellent reason to remember and re-watch their favorite detective series, which began filming at Lenfilm in the harsh 90s “Streets of Broken Lanterns” made famous actors Mikhail Porechenkov, Alexei Nilov, Yuri Galtsev, Sergei Selin and Andrei Krasko Despite the small budget, the already famous Alexander Bashirov and Viktor Sukhorukov starred in some episodes of the series The film told about the everyday life of police officers who remained faithful to their work and professional duty, despite the difficult crime situation in the Northern capital Broken street lamps became a symbol of this era of timelessness, poverty, rampant crime and lawlessness They created a dissonance with the luxurious Baroque palaces, cathedrals, monumental monuments and embankments of the city on the Neva, in the creation of which the best foreign architects took part One of them, Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Leblon, is responsible not only for the design of the country residence of Peter I "Monplaisir", the mansions of the art critic MP Botkin and a major official of the Main Admiralty A Brockhausen The French architect is considered the creator of the first lantern in Russia In the 1720s In the capital of the Russian Empire, street lighting developed rapidly According to Leblon's drawings, tetrahedral pillars with lamps suspended on forged rods were made and installed in 1721 on the Neva embankment in front of the Winter Palace The first lanterns lit thanks to light bulbs with filament filters that were kept in burning hemp oil Peter I liked them because contrasted favorably with the dim street lamps of Paris Leblon's lanterns with glass windows burned not candles, but oil lamps In 1834, gas lamps appeared, but due to the high cost of raw materials, St Petersburg residents and city governors preferred alcohol and kerosene lamps At the end of the 19th century The installation of electric lights began in the Russian capital and other cities This became possible thanks to the invention of two types of lamps - Yablochkov and Lodygin In 1896, Tsarskoe Selo became the first city in Europe whose street lighting was entirely electric In Moscow, the last kerosene and gas lamps went out in 1932 In the country, according to the formula proclaimed by Lenin, “Communism is Soviet power plus electrification of the entire country,” the GOERLO plan began to operate Today, in Moscow and other large cities, modern lamps with special controllers and LED lamps are being installed The Festival of Broken Lanterns encourages one and all not to forget about the glorious pages of the past and the history of street warnings