Ukraine coat of arms

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Ukraine coat of arms
Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine.svg
Details
Introduced 19th February 1992
Heraldic shield Golden trident
Previous
versions 		Coat of Arms of UNR.svg
Coat of arms of the Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1920)

The coat of arms of Ukraine is provided for by Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine adopted on June 26, 1996 in two versions:

Small national coat of arms

The golden trident (ukr. Тризуб, Trysub ) is set on a blue coat of arms as a small national coat of arms. It goes back to the emblems of the Rurikids , the princes of the Kievan Rus , which were depicted on their coins. In the present form it was the sign of Volodymyr the Great . The meaning of the symbol is unclear, but it is believed that it goes back to a stylized falcon and is possibly of Tatar origin.

The status of the Trysub as a national symbol of Ukraine goes back to the beginnings of the Ukrainian nation-building in the 19th century. It became a national symbol when, on the initiative of the historian Mychajlo Hruschewskyj - at the time President of the Central Na Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic - the Trysub was adopted as the national coat of arms based on a design by the Ukrainian artist Vasyl Krychevskyj on March 22, 1918 . With this, Hruschewskyj and the Central Na Rada attempted to establish a connection between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the medieval empire of Kiev, the Kievan Rus , in order to provide the young nation-state with time-honored traditions.

In adopting this symbol, a state continuity was constructed from the Kievan Rus through the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, the Cossack Hetmanate of the 17th century and the short-lived Ukrainian Republic.

There are a large number of legends about the "original" meaning of the symbol. Its similarity to the trident of Neptune is striking . Ukrainian schoolchildren are being taught today that the word ВОЛЯ (Ukrainian WOLJA, freedom ) can be read in Trysub .

Large national coat of arms

According to the constitution, the large national coat of arms should contain the small national coat of arms as the main element. As a further element, the constitution prescribes the coat of arms of the army of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (a Cossack with a saber and musket). The Great State Coat of Arms requires a constitutional majority in the Ukrainian Parliament , the Verkhovna Rada, to be passed . So far, a few drafts have been submitted, but none of them have received the necessary majority in parliament. Some of these designs can be found again and again, combined with the claim that this is the actual state coat of arms of Ukraine, on various websites.

See also

literature

  • Volodymyr Kubijovyč (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Volume 5: Danylo Husar Struk (ed.): St - Z. University of Toronto Press, Toronto et al. 1993, ISBN 0-8020-3995-2 .
  • Wilfried Jilge : State Symbolism and National Identity in Post-Communist Ukraine. In: Ethnos-Nation. Vol. 6, No. 1/2, 1998, ISSN  0943-7738 , pp. 85-113.

Web links

Commons : Coat of arms of Ukraine  - collection of images, videos and audio files