Emblems of the Soviet Republics

USSR republics coat of arms display on USSR State Television, c. 1950s.

The emblems of the constituent republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics all featured predominantly the hammer and sickle and the red star that symbolized communism, as well as a rising sun (although in the case of the Latvian SSR, since the Baltic Sea is west of Latvia, it could be interpreted as a setting sun), surrounded by a wreath of wheat (except the Karelo-Finnish SSR with a wreath of rye). The USSR State motto, Workers of the world, unite!, in both the republic's language and Russian was also placed on each one of them. In addition to those repetitive motifs, emblems of many Soviet republics also included features that were characteristic of their local landscapes, economies or cultures.

The emblems are often called coats of arms, but since they (deliberately) did not follow the rules of heraldry, most of them cannot be considered coats of arms. However, they all did follow the same basic pattern, a pattern which sometimes has led to the use of the term "socialist heraldry".

By the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991, only Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Moldova had adopted new official arms, while the other ones retained the Soviet emblems until new ones were adopted in the years following.

## Emblems of the Soviet Republics

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The table below presents final versions of the renderings of the Soviet republics' emblems prior to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, as well as the arms of two republics that ceased to exist before that time. For comparison, national arms of present-day successor states of the Soviet republics are also shown. As can be seen, most Central Asian post-Soviet republics use arms based on or reminiscent of the Soviet-era emblems, with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have present-day arms nearly identical to the Soviet one. Most European republics, on the other hand, reverted to their traditional pre-Soviet heraldic arms. Belarus used the traditional Pahonia as its coat of arms from 1991 to 1995 when it was replaced by a new emblem closely resembling the Soviet-era design.

Republic  | Emblem  | Main article  | Republic-specific features  | Present-day national
coat of arms

|
|
|
|

Russian SFSR |  | Emblem of the Russian SFSR | Plants  | wheat  |
Coat of arms of Russia
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  | Baroque cartouche
Ukraine |  | Emblem of the Ukrainian SSR[1] | Plants  | wheat  |
Coat of arms of Ukraine
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  | Baroque cartouche
Byelorussia |  | Emblem of the Byelorussian SSR | Plants  | wheat, clover, flax |
Emblem of Belarus
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Uzbekistan |  | Emblem of the Uzbek SSR[1] | Plants  | wheat, cotton |
Emblem of Uzbekistan
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Kazakhstan |  | Emblem of the Kazakh SSR[2] | Plant  | wheat  |
Emblem of Kazakhstan
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Georgia |  | Emblem of the Georgian SSR | Plants  | wheat, grapes |
Coat of arms of Georgia
Landscapes,
geographic features  | Caucasus Mountains
Industry  |
Ornaments  | Georgian ornament with a seven-pointed star from the pre-1921 Georgian coat of arms
Azerbaijan |  | Emblem of the Azerbaijan SSR[3] | Plants  | wheat, cotton |
Emblem of Azerbaijan
Landscapes,
geographic features  | Sun rising on Caspian Sea
Industry  | oil drilling rig
Ornaments  |
Lithuania |  | Emblem of the Lithuanian SSR[1] | Plants  | wheat, oak |
Coat of arms of Lithuania
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Moldavia |  | Emblem of the Moldavian SSR[1] | Plants  | wheat, maize, pears, grapes |
Coat of arms of Moldova
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Latvia |  | Emblem of the Latvian SSR | Plants  | wheat  |
Coat of arms of Latvia
Landscapes,
geographic features  | Baltic Sea
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Kirghizia |  | Emblem of the Kirghiz SSR | Plants  | wheat, cotton |
Emblem of Kyrgyzstan
Landscapes,
geographic features  | Tian Shan Mountains
Industry  |
Ornaments  | Kyrgyz embroidery
Tajikistan |  | Emblem of the Tajik SSR[1] | Plants  | wheat, cotton |
Emblem of Tajikistan
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Armenia |  | Emblem of the Armenian SSR | Plants  | wheat, grapes |
Coat of arms of Armenia
Landscapes,
geographic features  | Mount Ararat[4]
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Turkmenia |  | Emblem of the Turkmen SSR | Plants  | wheat, cotton, grapes |
Emblem of Turkmenistan
Landscapes,
geographic features  | Turkmen landscape
Industry  | oil drilling rig
Ornaments  | gillam detail from a Turkmen rug
Estonia |  | Emblem of the Estonian SSR[5] | Plants  | rye, pine, spruce |
Coat of arms of Estonia
Landscapes,
geographic features  |
Industry  |
Ornaments  |
Republics that dissolved before 1991
Karelo-Finnish SSR
(1940–1956)  |  | Coat of arms of the Karelo-Finnish SSR | Plants  | rye, pine |
Coat of arms of Karelia
(constituent entity of Russia)
Landscapes,
geographic features  | Karelian landscape
Industry  |
Ornaments  | Karelian embroidery
Transcaucasian SFSR
(1922–1936)  |  | Emblem of the Transcaucasian SFSR | Plants  | Wheat, cotton, maize, rice, grapes  |
Landscapes,
geographic features  | Caucasus mountains
Industry  | Factory, oil drilling rigs
Ornaments  |

## Derived designs

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The secessionist Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria), internationally recognised as part of Moldova, uses an emblem based on the emblem of the Moldavian SSR.

* Emblem of the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic

* Emblem of the Russian Federation (1992–1993)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e "Государственные гербы и флаги республик СССР". sovietthings.webuda.com. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
2. ^ "Kazakhstan in the Soviet Union". crwflags.com. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
3. ^ "Coats of arms". azerbaijans.com. Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
4. ^ "Armenia in the Soviet Union". crwflags.com. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
5. ^ "Estonia in the Soviet Union". flags-of-the-world.net. Retrieved 5 December 2012.

## See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:Coats of arms of the Soviet Republics.

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