Russian heraldry

Coat of arms of the Russian Federation (2000)

The Russian Heraldry was on the Western European heraldry aligned. This spread over Poland to the easternmost areas of the tsarist empire .

history

Coat of arms of the city of Chernigov with the eagle

The beginning in Russia coincides with the time when tournament heraldry in Central Europe was already in decline. The Russian imperial coat of arms was introduced as early as 1497. In the 18th century in particular, the Russian style of coats of arms spread. The cause was the reorganization of the nobility by Peter I. In 1722 he set up a heraldry based on the western model. Coats of arms should be checked according to the heraldic rules. The letter of nobility was introduced and promotion to the nobility was possible. Noble coats of arms should be graded, published and registered according to rank, but this was a failed attempt. Characteristic was the overload and the popular ornate coats of arms. Since heraldry did not emerge from battle shields, as in Western Europe, essentially no heraldic rules were observed. Simple shield divisions were missing, heraldic animals were predominantly in natural form, rarely stylized and mostly depicted facing the heraldic left. Many things were placed behind or next to the coat of arms at will. Examples are the coats of arms of the Russian nobility, which soldiers were given as shield holders and viewed these as special pieces of honor. The army leader Suvorov (1730-1800) had the Italian map in the coat of arms. The princes who descended from the holy Grand Duke Michael von Tschernigow were allowed to wield the so-called Chernigov eagle . The description of the coat of arms of the Principality of Chernigov , later the Chernigov Governorate , describes the eagle as follows: In the silver field a one-headed black crowned eagle holding a large golden cross lying diagonally above it in its left claw . The coat of arms was improved by new laws around 1850. The imperial coat of arms, it showed the triple gold crowned golden double-headed eagle , received a substantial improvement.

Russian city heraldry

Coat of arms of Krestzy in the Novgorod governorate

The regulations for the Russian city heraldry were already regulated by a law ( ukase ) from 1785. Every city was required to have an officially awarded coat of arms. This showed the coat of arms of the governorate in the upper part, the actual city coat of arms in the lower part. From 1859 the importance of the individual cities was regulated by a specific assigned crown above the shields. This administration is reminiscent of Napoleonic heraldry . In detail it was determined:

the imperial crown now led Moscow and Petersburg ,
the Maltese crown for Odessa ,
the Monomachos cap for the cities of Kiev , Novgorod , Smolensk , Vladimir ,
a gold crown with 5 battlements for governorate capitals and cities with over 50,000 inhabitants,
a silver wall crown with 3 battlements for district towns,
a red wall crown with 3 battlements for other cities,
fortresses led an eagle over the crown ,
Cities that had fought steadfastly in the fight against attackers were allowed to use a monogram of the ruling tsar in the coat of arms,
In Russian city heraldry, the tournament collar had the meaning that it expressed the former dependence on another city.

Soviet heraldry

Coat of arms of the USSR (1958–1991)

The fall of the tsarist empire was sealed with the October Revolution and the Soviet Union came into being a few years later . From that time on the Soviet heraldry was spoken of. It encompasses a small special period in Russian heraldry. From 1918 to the 1990s, it shaped the coat of arms and flags in the republics of the Soviet Union that extend beyond what is now Russian territory. Many of the historical city coats of arms were changed or completely renewed under political aspects during this period. Coats of arms of noble families were not used. Church coats of arms were also undesirable.

In 1918 the coat of arms of Russia was completely redesigned. Lenin confirmed the first state seal of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR).

Description of coat of arms

The coat of arms from 1918 showed within the circular inscription in Russian "Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of Russia" surrounded by ears of corn an elongated shield with hammer and sickle, underneath a field with Russian inscription "Proletarians of all countries unite". As early as December 30, 1922, after the proclamation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the coat of arms was changed again. Now there was a red star, a globe covered with a hammer and sickle , which hovered over a rising sun. She was surrounded by gold ears of wheat, wrapped with red banners. The banners showed the motto “Workers of all countries unite” in the languages of the individual Soviet republics, the motto in the lower center was in Russian. There was an official explanation for this: “Sickle and hammer embody the indestructible union of workers and peasants who destroyed the capitalist order and built the socialist society; the depiction of a sickle and hammer on the globe symbolizes that the achievements of the working people in the USSR can also be achieved by the working people in other countries ”. According to the Russian language (Great Soviet Encyclopedia), “the Soviet national coats of arms reflect a new socialist ideology that corresponds to the new type of state. They symbolize a new social situation. The depiction of sickle and hammer in the Soviet national coat of arms shows the emblems of peaceful work and that the Soviet Union, as a state of workers and peasants, puts power in the hands of the working people. The sun shining under the globe symbolizes the bright future of mankind ”. The banners in the coat of arms increased. There were already six banners in 1924, eleven in 1936 and 16 from October 1945. The latter were in Armenian, Azerbaijani, Estonian, Georgian, Karelofinn, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Moldovan, Russian, Tajik, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Uzbek and Belarusian languages. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the various versions of the motto were revised in 1946 and a transcription based on the Cyrillic script was switched to. After the incorporation of the Karello-Finnish Republic into the RSFSR in 1956, its ribbon bow was omitted, so that the coat of arms of the USSR then showed fifteen banners. The individual Soviet republics still had special coats of arms and flags that were tailored to their national characteristics.

The state coat of arms of the Soviet Union differed fundamentally in design and symbolism from that of Tsarist Russia , also in that no traditional coat of arms was used. After 1945 the Soviet heraldry served as a model for the real socialist states with the exception of the People's Republic of Poland and the Czechoslovak Republic , which followed older traditions. This is particularly evident in the design of the national coats of arms, for example those of the People's Republic of Bulgaria , the GDR or the Mongolian People's Republic .

Soviet urban herbalism

Coat of arms of Leningrad with the hero star

Many Soviet cities carried on their historical coats of arms, but symbols of monarchy or religion were removed or replaced, for example crowns with hammer and sickle . The coat of arms improvement with the Heldenstern (golden star of the Order Hero of the Soviet Union in the coat of arms) identifies and honors cities that distinguished themselves in World War II. Soviet hero cities were, for example, Brest , Kerch , Kiev , Leningrad (Petersburg), Minsk , Moscow, Murmansk , Novorossiysk , Odessa , Tula , Volgograd and Voronezh .

literature

Soviet constitutional law (Sovjetskoje gosudarstvennoje pravo). Moscow 1950.
Ottfried Neubecker: News on Soviet heraldry. In: The Herald. Quarterly magazine for heraldry, genealogy and allied sciences. Volume 4. Issue 3. Berlin 1959.
Hans-Ulrich Herzog: BI pocket dictionary of flags and coats of arms. VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1980.
Gert Oswald : Lexicon of Heraldry. VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1984.
Wolfgang Leonhard : The great book of heraldic art. Georg DW Callwey, Munich 1978/2001.
EN Kamencewa, HB Ustjugow: Russian Sphragistics and Heraldry. Moscow 1963.
Ludvík Mucha, Stanislav Valášek: Vlajky a znaky zemí světa. Prague 1974.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Milan boys : Heraldry . Albatros, Praha 1987, p. 136.
^ Genealogical-chronological history of the most noble house of Romanow and its ancestral house, Wilhelm Rein and Compagnie, Balthasar Campenhausen, Leipzig 1805.
↑ ^a ^b Milan boys: Heraldry . Albatros, Praha 1987, p. 138.
^ Milan boys: Heraldry . Albatros, Praha 1987, p. 176.

[buben136-1] Milan boys : Heraldry . Albatros, Praha 1987, p. 136.

[2] Genealogical-chronological history of the most noble house of Romanow and its ancestral house, Wilhelm Rein and Compagnie, Balthasar Campenhausen, Leipzig 1805.

[buben138-3] Milan boys: Heraldry . Albatros, Praha 1987, p. 138.

[4] Milan boys: Heraldry . Albatros, Praha 1987, p. 176.