The symbol of this European country is the virgin star. Vergina star

94 years ago, William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin, a famous Soviet Scandinavian historian and heraldist, was born. Specialist in the history of international relations and culinary.

Why didn't we wait for the 95th anniversary and another round date? It's very simple: William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin compiled the famous "Dictionary of International Symbols and Emblems" - an important book for falerists, which provides definitions and explanations of many important terms used in the creation of awards and signs.

Now we will give a short excerpt from the dictionary, just a few terms, but these are the terms that are often used in images and we regularly have to give explanations about their meaning.

Editor-in-Chief SAMMLUNG/Collection
Sidelnikov Alexey

Dictionary of International Symbols and Emblems

STAR

STAR, STARS- one of the oldest symbols of mankind, adopted by the heraldry of all peoples, belongs to the so-called astral signs. The star in general as a concept has long served as a symbol of eternity, and later (since the 18th century) - a symbol of high aspirations, ideals (which are eternal, enduring) and from the end of the 18th century began to be used as an emblem of guiding, happiness (“he was born under a lucky star”) . The motto “Ad aspera!” (“To the stars!”) therefore means “To the sublime, to the ideal!” Stars in heraldry and emblematics differ both in the number of angles or rays that form them, and in color. The combination of both gives different national meanings of stars or nuances in their meaning.

triangular star- a biblical sign, the so-called "all-seeing eye" - a symbol of Providence, fate. It was used in Russia only in the era of Alexander I, especially during his passion for mysticism (1810-1825), and was introduced as an emblem in orders and especially medals that were awarded to participants in the Patriotic War of 1812-1814.

Three-beam star- the emblem of the tripartite unity of the republican, democratic forces (communists, socialists, democrats). The sign of this star was awarded (noted) to the soldiers of the international brigades in Spain during the civil war of 1936-1939.

four pointed star- a symbol of guiding (light in the darkness of the night), assimilated mainly by Christianity, in its form is associated with the cross. It is also used as an order emblem as a Krashan and framing of order signs in a number of countries. In our country, it is used exclusively on departmental military orders (not state ones).

In Western Europe and in the USA it is widely used as an emblematic image of military or paramilitary organizations and in such cases it is supplied with additional emblems or national colors (ribbons, motto ribbons, etc.). Thus, the four-pointed star is used by NATO, the CIA and other special services as a sign (symbol) of the correctness of their chosen path, as an emblem of a happy (or successful) fate (or career) and is introduced into the service badges of employees of these special services. By analogy with them, the quadrangular star (equilateral rhombus) was made its emblem by the agency "Alex" in our country, which is engaged in ensuring the security of organizations and individuals.

In a number of Western European countries, as well as in Japan and the USSR, since the 60s and 70s, the four-pointed star served as the emblem of martial arts (especially karate, kungfu, etc.) and was introduced into club badges and certificates. At the same time, the differences between different clubs from each other are manifested in an emblematic sense in that the color, angle of the rays, their rotation and length, as well as additional accessories (see the armament of the emblems) can vary endlessly, while the general shape of the four-pointed star is invariably preserved. .

five pointed star- pentagram - a symbol of protection, security, one of the oldest signs (symbols) of mankind. It has an ancient origin. Used as a military emblem, for its history and use, see Red five-pointed star.

six pointed star- the most common in pre-revolutionary heraldry of all European countries as an emblem with religious significance. At present, the six-pointed star, which was depicted always and everywhere in the classical heraldry of the Christian peoples, when it was necessary to depict a star in general, has taken a more definite position.

Firstly, a hexagram, that is, a six-pointed star that has only sides, but not a plane and is formed by two blue triangles of equal size intersecting each other, has a special name “Star of David” and is a symbol of the Zionist movement and the main emblem of the state flag of Israel and at the same time the main national the emblem of this country (along with the menorah). Because of this, all other countries have become from the beginning of the 50s of the XX century. avoid the use of a six-pointed star and replace it with a five-pointed or eight-pointed one.

Secondly, a six-pointed star of a planar type is called a biblical or Bethlehem star, because it was her images that were traditionally placed by artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in paintings dedicated to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem and the coming of the four magi to this baby. As a symbol devoid of a specific political or national meaning, it was the Star of Bethlehem that began to be especially revered and used in the 17th-19th centuries by various Christian movements in the West, especially in the United States, as a result of which, at the end of the 18th century, it was made the state emblem of the United States and officially included in the coat of arms of the United States to the honorary head place (above the eagle surrounded by a cloud), but in a somewhat “encoded” form, that is, in the form of 13 five-pointed stars arranged in the form of a six-pointed star, which symbolize the 13 main states that made up the first USA. These stars are arranged symmetrically so that from top to bottom they follow 1:4:3:4:1 and together form one six-pointed Star of Bethlehem.

The emblem of the Bethlehem six-pointed star is directly included in the state emblems and flags of only small states that were colonies in the past - Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Tonga, which should be attributed to the long-term influence of Christian missionaries on the local national elite.

From the 14th century to the present day, the six-pointed star has been used as an order star in all European countries.

At present, the six-pointed star, when officially used in coats of arms or in orders, is usually silver or white. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, its traditional color was often gold or yellow. But the yellow color was compromised during the Second World War by the fact that the Nazis chose a yellow six-pointed star to mark the clothes of Jews in the ghetto, and after 1945 the Bethlehem star of this color practically fell into disuse.

For the use of a six-pointed red star and its meaning in this capacity, see Etoile Rouge.

seven-pointed star- one of the ancient symbols of the East, ancient civilizations. Known in Ancient Assyria, Chaldea, Sumer and Akkad.

From ancient times, from the 1st century AD. e., such a star was the emblem of Iveria (ancient Georgia), where the astral cult was developed, and later, under the Bagratids, it became one of the main emblems of Kartalinia (until the middle of the 15th century). In 1918-1922 it was the emblem of Menshevik Georgia, and in 1923-1936 it was “dragged” into the coat of arms of the Georgian SSR in all its variants under the guise of a disguised national ornament, and, being visible, distinguishable on the coat of arms, it was not indicated in the description of Art. 180 of the Georgian SSR directly, but was called "a border with a pattern of Georgian ornaments." From the middle of 1991, it officially became the coat of arms of the Republic of Georgia with the image of George the Victorious on a horse galloping to the heraldic left side inscribed in it.

In modern foreign emblematics, the seven-pointed star is used only when they want to express the concept of a star in general and try to avoid its interpretation and how military emblem and as a religious one. The seven-pointed star (stars) has in its coat of arms and on the flag of Australia and on the flag - Jordan; both countries thus express their desire to delimit themselves primarily from neighboring countries (Australia from New Zealand and Jordan from Israel), which also use stars in their coats of arms ( New Zealand- five-pointed and Israel - six-pointed). The seven-pointed star is occasionally used as an order sign, for example, the English order of St. Michael and St. George (1818).

eight pointed stars- these are, in fact, disguised crosses (two four-pointed stars), therefore, such stars have Catholic countries in their coats of arms - Colombia, Peru, Philippines. In addition, the eight-pointed star is the most common order sign in all European and American Christian states. The eight-pointed star is especially often used for krashans.

An almost regular octagon, formed by superimposing two squares diagonally on top of each other with the preservation of their crossing lines, was used as a symbol that accompanied the images of the god Sabaoth (the god-father, more correctly, the god of forces, armies) in Russian icon painting and Christian Orthodox symbolism of the pre-Ikonian times, especially from the 14th to the 16th century. This eight-pointed symbolic sign was depicted either at the top of the icons (most often in the upper right corner), or instead of a halo, or as a background above the head of Sabaoth. Often both quadrangles were painted (the upper one was green and the underlying one was red) or bordered with stripes of this color. Images of this kind are typical for the North of Russia and are (preserved) in the museums of Rostov the Great, Vologda, Perm. They mean (symbolize) eight millennia (“seven centuries of the Creator and the future age of the Father”) and at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries were recognized as “heretical” from the point of view of the canons of official Orthodoxy.

An eight-pointed white star with a red border and the motto "Blood and Fire" is the emblem of the British and other Anglo-Saxon branches of "The Salvation Army" ("The Salvation army") - a socio-religious charitable organization founded by William and Catherine Booth in London in 1865 and became since 1880 international.

Nine-pointed stars almost never occur in practice. They are used in the rarest cases only as orders in small Islamic states (for example, in the Sultanate of Johor on the Malay Peninsula).

Ten-pointed or ten-pointed stars were used in Soviet emblems and in the emblems of other countries that had a five-pointed star as a coat of arms, because a ten-pointed star is only a five-pointed repeated twice. Such stars are mainly used to create orders, especially in the Arab states of North Africa.

Eleven pointed star- exclusively order, and, moreover, rare. In the past it was used in the orders of Portugal and Imperial Ethiopia (Abyssinia).

twelve pointed star signifies perfection. In state emblems, that is, in coats of arms, this sign is now used only by two states - Nauru and Nepal. The emblems of these states - the 12-ray Sun - are in fact stars, because in heraldry such a star image is recognized as the Sun, which has 16 rays (see Rays), and everything that has less than 16, therefore, refers to the stars. In European emblems, the 12-ray star was used in the GDR on medals for outstanding services, loyalty, that is, as a sign of the perfection of moral or professional qualities such as on police signs.

thirteen pointed star did not exist and does not exist.

fourteen pointed star only two states have as a state emblem - Malaysia (in the coat of arms and flag) and Ethiopia (in the coat of arms). In Malaysia, this number of rays was established because it reflected the number of members of the Malaysian Federation at its formation - in 1963. However, in 1965, one of its members - Singapore - without the consent of the head of state - the Sultan - unilaterally withdrew from the federation and declared itself an independent state. But Malaysia even after that left a 14-pointed star in its coat of arms, and 14 stripes on the flag, thereby emphasizing that Singapore's exit is not officially recognized. In Ethiopia, the 14-ray star became the main emblem after the 1974 revolution and appeared for the first time in the state emblem in 1975 as a completely new element (before, in Imperial Ethiopia, the six-pointed star of Bethlehem was revered). It was supposed to emphasize both the antiquity of Ethiopian culture (the seven-pointed star) and its modern revival and renewal (the doubled seven-pointed star). This emblem ceased to exist in 1991 due to the overthrow of the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

fifteen pointed star. Theoretically, such a star is possible as a heraldic emblem with the meaning of a triple five-pointed star and used in ornaments, orders, medals, etc. However, there is still no organization or state that would use this emblem and justify its use.

sixteen pointed star. The presence of 16 rays in a star means that such a star depicts the Sun, and, therefore, in emblematics it is no longer called a star, but the Sun, since according to heraldic rules 16 is the minimum number of rays that gives reason to call the image the Sun, and any number of rays, over 16 and a multiple of 4 is also sufficient for the image that possesses them to be called the Sun.

A sixteen-pointed star, like a sixteen-pointed star, can be considered an image of the Sun, especially if it occurs in isolation or as part of an ornament. At the same time, it was precisely as a sign of solar purity, clarity and spotlessness that the image of a 16-pointed star from the time of pagan Ancient Rome was considered an emblem of virginity, and from here, already in the era of early Christianity, it accompanied images of the Holy Virgin, that is, the Virgin, which was later reflected in the Byzantine icon painting. Since the virgin and maiden are called Virgo in Latin, the 16-pointed star, as the emblem of the Holy Virgin Mary, later received the name virgin star.

Until very recently, this star was not used in state heraldry, as it was considered a reserved religious emblem. However, in 1991, the newly created state of Macedonia (from the Yugoslav republic of the same name) on the ruins of the former Yugoslavia adopted the 16-pointed Virginia star as its main state emblem, referring to the fact that even before the introduction of Christianity, in the 4th century. BC e. under Philip II (359-336), this emblem was a kind of coat of arms of the Macedonian kingdom. Since Greece, as well as the Greek (and universal) Orthodox Church, opposed such use of the Virginia Star, a UN mediation commission was created to resolve the conflict that had arisen, which in May 1993 outlined its recommendations, supported in early June 1993 by the UN Secretary General Boutros Ghali. According to them, Macedonia must remove the Virginia Star from its national flag, and also change the name of the country to “New Macedonia” or “Slavomacedonia”, in order to completely eliminate any association with Ancient Macedonia and thereby remove Greece's fears about the territorial claims of the newly-born heir to the Macedonian kingdom, because Greece has the province of Macedonia, which at one time was part of ancient Macedonia. However, the Macedonian government refused to implement these UN recommendations.

Star color

As for the color of the stars, they can have any heraldic colors. In this case, the color usually indicates the national or political affiliation of the star emblem.

Most common white (silver) color of stars e. This is the classic color of the star in old heraldry, and is still followed by most states.

golden star color accepted less frequently. It usually points to the exceptionally important state significance that is attached to the emblem of the star as the main emblem of a given country. So, China, Vietnam, Angola, Indonesia, Congo (Brazzaville), Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Suriname have gold stars in the coat of arms and on the flag. Sometimes only a gold border is attached to a star, emphasizing its significance as a state sign (for example, the red stars of the USSR, SFRY, NRB, VNR, NSRA had a gold border).

Red color is only five pointed stars , which served as an emblem for the socialist states. The only exceptions are El Salvador and New Zealand, which, having introduced the image of the Southern Cross of four five-pointed stars into their flag and coat of arms, gave them a red color solely to distinguish this emblem, which is also available in other countries. southern hemisphere. Before 1991, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Benin, Bulgaria, Djibouti, PDRY, North Korea, Yugoslavia, Laos, Mozambique, Mongolia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, USSR, Zimbabwe had a red five-pointed star in their coats of arms until 1991. Of these, only the DPRK and Laos retained these emblems after 1991.

Five-pointed stars in green belong, as a rule, to the Arab states, and from African states to Senegal, where the vast majority of the population is Muslim.

black star color in classical heraldry it was used extremely rarely and symbolized the opposite of the concept of a star - not light, but darkness, night. IN contemporary practice since the 60s of the XX century. The black color of the star is used as their distinctive, national new African states - Ghana, Gmina-Bissau, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, as well as the ANC party in South Africa, whose emblem is a red five-pointed star with a red hammer and sickle. As a political party symbol, the black five-pointed star is used by anarcho-syndicalists in Western Europe.

The blue color of the stars relatively rare and found type in Cameroon and Panama. It means that the guiding for these countries is a peaceful policy.

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ETOILE ROUGE

"ETOILE ROUGE"(L'Etoile Rouge) is the emblem of the International Union of Societies for the Protection of Animals in War (UIUW). Its purpose was mainly to provide assistance to the wounded horses of the cavalry units, as well as other animals used in war or paramilitary organizations (mules of the mountain artillery units, service dogs of the border guards and field gendarmerie, chemical intelligence pigs, intelligence and communications pigeons). The UPUFA was founded in Geneva in 1914, at the very beginning of the war. There was also a second world war. The emblem of the UPUFA was adopted "etoile rouge" - six-pointed red star in a white field.

The Soviet Union has never been a member of this international organization. Veterinary Service of the Red Army and Soviet army, as well as the civil veterinary service of the USSR had their emblem blue cross.

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A RED STAR

A RED STAR(RED FIVE-POINT STAR) - one of the first Soviet emblems that arose in the spring - autumn of 1918 as the emblem of the regular Red Army. The choice of this emblem for the Red Army was explained by the following reasons. Firstly, its shape was a pentagram (i.e. ancient symbol amulet, defense, protection, security). Secondly, the red color symbolized the revolution, the revolutionary army. Thirdly, the very concept of a star as a symbol of striving for high ideals also mattered when choosing this emblem. The emblem was proposed by the Military Collegium for the Organization of the Red Army, in particular, the actual creator of this emblem for the Red Army was K. Eremeev, the first Soviet commander of the troops of the Petrograd Military District, chairman of the Commission for the formation of the Red Army.

The emblem did not immediately take shape in its final form. At first (in the spring of 1918), she simply represented a red five-pointed star different sizes(but not more than 6X6 cm), cut out of cloth and sewn on a headdress like a cockade or on a sleeve (less often). Then (in May 1918) it began to be depicted with an emblem inscribed in its center - a hammer and a plow, and from the fall of 1918 (from September 21) it was installed in the form of a red enameled five-pointed star with the "small coat of arms of the RSFSR" inscribed in its center - hammer and sickle. In this form, the red five-pointed star as the emblem (complex emblem) of the Red Army was fixed throughout the entire period of 1918-1946, and then became (in the same form) called the emblem of the Soviet Armed Forces. At the same time, in the period from 1918 to 1920, and in some places until 1922, the emblem of the red five-pointed star with a hammer and plow inscribed in its center continued to exist, and in Ukraine (in Kiev) in 1919 there was even a combined emblem - a plow, a hammer and a sickle in the center of a five-pointed star as an emblem not only of the Red Army, but also of the Soviet government as a whole (in seals). True, such an emblem lasted only a couple of months.

Since 1923, the symbol of the five-pointed star has been used in the coat of arms of the USSR as a badge - as a figurative addition to the motto "Proletarians of all countries, unite!", and therefore such a red star was considered the emblem of international solidarity of workers. From here, its five rays were explained as five continents, where there is a struggle between labor and capital. This emblem, of course, had to be different from the emblem of the Red Army, and therefore in the center of the emblem star there was no hammer and sickle as signs indicating the internal political structure of the USSR and the class composition of the Red Army. However, until 1936, the image of this badge constantly varied: either it was depicted as a rusticated star, or with a small gold edging, or simply as a “pure star”. Only in 1936, under the new constitution, a stable image of a five-pointed red star with a narrow gold edging and with sides diverging at a strong obtuse angle of 120 ° was established. This image was especially accentuated after the Second World War, in 1949 (the angle was increased to 125°), due to the fact that Yugoslavia adopted a similar emblem (but not a badge) in its coat of arms, where, however, the sides diverged at an angle of 105 °. Thus, the difference between the Yugoslav and Soviet emblems was visually noticeable, despite the fact that they coincided in color and location in the coat of arms (a red star with a gold border at the top of the coat of arms).

I must say that these subtleties of the image, as a rule, were violated throughout the country, and only in Moscow on government buildings, in the Kremlin, the emblematic images of the red star were made in accordance with all the rules.

The third type of red five-pointed star is the radiant star. It was used in the emblems of Georgia and Armenia, which existed in 1936-1991. The rays of the Georgian star are white, wide, merging around the star into radiance, and the rays of the Armenian star are golden, thin, diverging, as it were, from behind the star, from its back side. In both of these cases, the ray star combines and replaces the emblem of the Sun and, therefore, is interpreted as a symbol of happiness and prosperity, in contrast to the interpretation of the star in the emblems of other republics. In this regard, the location of the star and the motto in the emblems of Armenia and Georgia differed significantly from the location of these emblematic parts in other emblems, where the stars served as a figurative motto (badge), similar in meaning to the badge in the union emblem. But in Georgia and Armenia, the verbal motto was so sharply separated from the field of the coat of arms, placed on a special motto border, outside the shield field, that this immediately emphasized that the radiant star in the emblems of these republics should be given its own meaning, that it is not a curly addition to the verbal motto. This happened because the coats of arms of Georgia and Armenia were created even before the formation of the USSR and their symbolism did not come from the all-Union, but from local Transcaucasian principles. In addition, all-Union symbolic ideas were represented in these republics in the coat of arms and flag of the TSFSR until 1936, but after the liquidation of the federation they disappeared along with it, which no one paid attention to, because in 1937 there was no time for heraldic subtleties.

Thus, in Soviet heraldry during its existence, contrary to ideas about its unity and ideological purity, there were three emblems of a red five-pointed star that were different in meaning.

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RAYS

RAYS(see also the Sun) is a term used in heraldry and emblematics to designate several different concepts.

1. Corners or ends of stars. For example, they say: “five-pointed” or “five-pointed star”. The number of rays of a star cannot be more than 14, since starting from 16 rays, the image is already called the Sun.
2. Proper rays between the corners of the stars on badges.
3. Rays of the so-called ray stars, from which a certain number of bands-rays can diverge in the form of radiance. An example of a ray star is the five-pointed ray star on the coat of arms of Georgia (52 rays) and the ray star in the coat of arms of Armenia (40 rays), as they existed before 1991.
4. Rays sun.

In the image of the rays, certain rules are adopted regarding their number, the way they are located, the shape and color; therefore, the rays cannot be regarded as a kind of subordinate attribute, since they are a special emblematic element with their own laws.

A) Number of beams

The number of rays of the Sun or ray stars (sometimes replacing the Sun in emblems) is strictly established in heraldry and emblematics, that is, canonized. So, the number of sun rays on the emblems of the Sun is explained by the fact that the heraldic rays originated from the compass points, known to the ancient sailors (Scandinavians, Phoenicians). Until the 15th century, there were 16 of these rhumbs, and since the beginning of the 16th century there were already 32 of them. Therefore, the 16-ray image of the Sun is considered more ancient or indicating antiquity if it is used in modern emblems, and the 32-ray image refers to newer emblems.

Since the 19th century (after 1815), it has become permissible to depict any number of rays near the Sun that is a multiple of 16, that is, not only 32, but also 48, 64, 80, etc.

At present, it is also allowed that the image of the Sun has 16 rays plus any number that is a multiple of it or its half, quarter, three quarters. Thus, it is possible, to 16, you can add 4, 8, 12, 20 rays, etc. It was from this rule that they proceeded when drawing the rays of the Sun in the coats of arms of various Soviet republics: they varied in number, without going beyond the limits of the multiplicity of 16. For example, on the flag of Georgia, 24 rays departed from the Sun, that is, 16 + 8, and not on the coat of arms - 52 , that is, 16 X 3 \u003d 48 + 4 \u003d 52.

b) The location and shape of the rays

Rays can be located evenly around the image of the solar disk, at the same distance from each other, as well as in groups or beams, each of which can include several rays, starting with two. (Practically, the number of rays collected in bundles is not limited. So, for example, Madagascar has 7 bundles in its coat of arms, each of which has ... 14 rays.) Rays can be expressed by lines, as well as stripes that expand at the end and narrow at disk. Rays can be expressed not as straight lines, but wavy, as well as curved.

An example of the oldest image of the Sun with curved lines is the so-called “Sun of the Ynglings” (Sweden, VIII-IX centuries). Like every ancient image of the Sun, it contains exactly 16 ray lines.

Another canonical sign ancient image The sun is served by the alternation of straight, dagger-shaped rays with wavy, hair-like - through one. Such images of the rays of the Sun are now preserved mainly only in such countries as the Bahamas, Ecuador, Uruguay, Uganda, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad, the Central African Republic, which should be attributed to the influence on the native elite of Catholic missionaries who raised their students on samples of traditional Catholic symbols .

V) Ray color

The color of the sun's rays must match the color of the disk. This means that the golden disc should have golden rays, the silver disc should have silver rays, and the red disc should have red rays. Sometimes it is allowed to reduce the color level of the rays compared to the disk by one degree. So, the golden disk of the Sun may have red rays, but there must be some good historical, heraldic, as well as aesthetic reasons for this. So, for example, in the coat of arms of the Latvian SSR, the white disk of the Sun (white equates to silver) had purple rays, which is correct both from a heraldic point of view and from an aesthetic point of view, because only purple rays well emphasize the brightness of the whiteness of the solar disk. Reducing the color level of the disk compared to the rays is not allowed (a red disk cannot have golden rays) (see also the Sun).

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SUN

SUN- the oldest cosmic symbol, known to absolutely all peoples of the globe and for many millennia the main, main symbolic sign for the vast majority of peoples, means the deity of life, the source of life, the life force in biblical symbolism The sun is a symbol of beauty. Since in the Middle Ages the pagan symbol of the Sun was replaced by a cross, it became necessary to give the Sun a different look. This is how the emblem of the Sun appeared, that is, a sign that was an order of magnitude lower than the previous symbol. But even as an emblem, the image of the Sun was preserved in all subsequent formations, in a feudal and capitalist society, where religion, although it struggled with the spread of this pagan, in its opinion, emblem, was forced to accept and adapt it to its needs.

In medieval classical heraldry, the Sun remained a symbol of light, wealth, abundance. It began, however, to be depicted emblematically not in the form of a circle symbol with rays, but in the form of a circle with a human face surrounded by rays alternately straight and winding (the latter meaning flame). Such an image of the emblem of the Sun has survived to our time mainly in the heraldry of Catholic countries and in some of them it has become the state emblem (Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Sri Lanka). The position of the Sun in the coat of arms is determined by the rays. If they rise from the bottom up from the disk of the Sun (its half, third or three quarters), located at the base of the armorial shield, then the Sun is called ascending. This position of the Sun is most often found in state emblems, because it means, symbolizes the progressive development of the state. The emblem of the rising sun was adopted on the coat of arms of the USSR and most of its union republics, it is also found in the coats of arms of Afghanistan, Angola, Bahamas, Côte d'Ivoire, Costa Rica, Cuba, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Mongolia, Panama, Chad, Uruguay, United United Arab Emirates, Central African Republic.

If the rays of the solar disk go from top to bottom, and the solar disk itself is located in one of the upper corners of the coat of arms, then such a Sun is called setting. Such an emblem is not found in state emblems, since this is a purely heraldic conditional concept. However, in the first months of the October Revolution, when new Soviet emblems were proposed, there were attempts to place the Sun at the top of the Soviet coat of arms and endow it with rays that illuminate the earth, that is, to give them in a real, and not in a heraldic image. But since this contradicted the international rules of heraldry and, therefore, would have received an international misinterpretation, this option for placing the Sun in the Soviet coat of arms was already abandoned in the project, that is, long before the approval of the Soviet coat of arms.

The sun can also be placed as an emblem in coats of arms (and on flags) in the form of a full disk and, moreover, in the middle or in the upper half of the coat of arms. Such an arrangement of the Sun is called midday and means perfection, the flowering of the state. This emblem is on the flag of Japan and in the coats of arms of Argentina, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Djibouti, Ecuador, Honduras, Malta, Niger, Uganda. For most of these countries, a similar emblem means that they have finally achieved the independence that they have long sought.

The sun cannot practically be depicted in the coat of arms without rays, because even their number and their outline already indicate that the sun is depicted, and not another circle or semicircle. However, when the Sun is nevertheless depicted without such an indispensable feature as rays, then in heraldry it is called "The Sun in an eclipse." At the same time, the Sun can be depicted on the flag as a disk without rays, without changing its high symbolic meaning.

The choice of color for the image of the Sun as an emblem is also extremely important. As a rule, it should be displayed only in gold color. But if a different color is chosen for it, then in classical heraldry such an emblem is called the “shadow of the Sun”.

All European countries adhere to these rules both during the creation and subsequent blazonization of the emblem of the Sun. However, over the past decades, some Asian and African states have begun to deviate from this rule, giving the emblem of the Sun on their coats of arms other (usually national) colors. Thus, Malawi, Bangladesh, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Greenland, Chad have a red disk of the Sun, and Angola is even pale pink with black rays, that is, it is not at all heraldic. Cuba adopted the red disk of the Sun as a sign of its revolution, so that this special institution would make subsequent generations remember the reason for this exclusion, but the sun's rays were still golden. Therefore, the Cuban emblem of the Sun cannot be considered as a departure from heraldic rules.

But Niger introduced the orange Sun, Afghanistan - white (half-disk), India - a symbolic sign of blue - the chakra. Japan (disk), Bangladesh (disk), Greenland (half-disk) have the Red Sun on their state flags. The full white disk on the flag should not be considered as the emblem of the Sun, but as the emblem of the Moon. Such an emblem (as a national one) is present on the national flag of Laos. In the Soviet emblems (of the USSR and the Union Republics), the emblem of the Sun was considered as a source of strength for the Soviet state, personified the concept of "life-giving forces of socialism" in the coat of arms. This emblem was absent only in the coats of arms of two republics - Georgia and Armenia, which was all the more strange, because it was the emblem of the Sun that was characteristic of the national symbols of the peoples of Transcaucasia and the image of the full disk of the Sun with rays and a human face was always included in the coats of arms and banners of Georgian and Armenian principalities from the 6th to the 17th centuries.

However, the authors of the Georgian and Armenian Soviet coats of arms - E. Lansere and M. Saryan unanimously decided to abandon the national emblems of the Sun, not to introduce them into the Soviet coats of arms in order to emphasize in every possible way the specialness, isolation of the two Christian states of Transcaucasia, even within the USSR. The coat of arms of Azerbaijan, where the Sun was preserved, was especially sharply different against the background of circular, unlike other Soviet coats of arms, the coats of arms of the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR. Instead of the emblem of the Sun, the so-called ray (radiant) star was placed on them, located at the top of the coat of arms, and not at the bottom of it, like the “rising Sun”. Thus, the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR remained without the "life-giving force of socialism." This small "heraldic sabotage" was never noticed by the Soviet leadership, and the coats of arms of Armenia and Georgia revealed their "obstinacy" only before the eyes of competent heraldry specialists.

Figures prepared specifically for this publication

by SAMMLUNG / Collection

Pokhlebkin V. Dictionary of International Symbols and Emblems

64.LOCK - emblem keeping secrets, silence. It was used in medieval heraldry and extremely rarely in pre-revolutionary Russian. It was never used in Soviet emblems.

65. STAR, STARS- one of the oldest characters humanity, adopted by the heraldry of all peoples, belongs to the so-called astral signs. The star in general as a concept has long served as a symbol of eternity, and later (from the 18th century) - a symbol of high aspirations, ideals (which are eternal, enduring) and from the end of the 18th century began to be used as emblem guiding, happiness (“he was born under a lucky star”). Motto“Ad aspera!” (“To the stars!”) therefore means “To the sublime, to the ideal!” Stars in heraldry and emblems differ both in the number of angles forming them or rays, as well as in color. The combination of both gives different national meanings of stars or nuances in their meaning.

• triangular star- a biblical sign, the so-called "all-seeing eye" - a symbol of Providence, fate. It was used in Russia only in the era of Alexander I, especially during his passion for mysticism (1810-1825), and was introduced as an emblem in orders and especially medals that were awarded to participants in the Patriotic War of 1812-1814.
• three-beam star- the emblem of the tripartite unity of the republican, democratic forces (communists, socialists, democrats). The sign of this star was awarded (noted) to the soldiers of the international brigades in Spain during the civil war of 1936-1939.
• four pointed star- a symbol of guiding (light in the darkness of the night), assimilated mainly by Christianity, in its form is associated with cross. It is also used as an order emblem as Krashana and framing of order signs in a number of countries. In our country, it is used exclusively on departmental military orders (not state ones).

In Western Europe and the USA it is widely used as an emblematic image of military or paramilitary organizations and in such cases is supplied with additional emblems or national colors (ribbons, motto ribbons and so on.). Thus, the four-pointed star is used by NATO, the CIA and other special services as a sign (symbol) of the correctness of their chosen path, as an emblem of a happy (or successful) fate (or career) and is introduced into the service badges of employees of these special services. By analogy with them, the quadrangular star (equilateral rhombus) was made its emblem by the Alex agency in our country, which is engaged in ensuring the security of organizations and individuals.
In a number of Western European countries, as well as in Japan and the USSR, since the 60s and 70s, the four-pointed star served as the emblem of martial arts (especially karate, kung fu, etc.) and was introduced into club badges and certificates. At the same time, the differences between different clubs from each other are manifested in an emblematic sense in that the color, angle of the rays, their rotation and length, as well as additional accessories (see. armament emblems) can vary indefinitely, while the general shape of a four-ray star remains unchanged.

• five pointed star- pentagram - a symbol of protection, security, one of the oldest signs (symbols) of mankind. It has an ancient origin. Used as a military emblem, for its history and use, see. Red five-pointed star.
• six pointed star- the most common in pre-revolutionary heraldry of all European countries as an emblem with religious significance. Currently, a six-pointed star, which is in the classical heraldry of the Christian peoples! depicted always and everywhere, when it was necessary to depict a star in general, took a more definite position.

1. Firstly, a hexagram, that is, a six-pointed star that has only sides, but not a plane and is formed by two blue triangles of equal size intersecting each other, has a special name “Star of David” and is a symbol of the Zionist movement and the main emblem of the state flag of Israel and at the same time the main national the emblem of this country (along with the menorah). Because of this, all other countries have become from the beginning of the 50s of the XX century. avoid the use of a six-pointed star and replace it with a five-pointed or eight-pointed one.
2. Secondly, a six-pointed planar star is called a biblical or Bethlehem star, because it was her images that were traditionally placed by artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in paintings dedicated to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem and the coming of the four magi to this baby. As a symbol devoid of a specific political or national meaning, it was the Star of Bethlehem that began to be especially revered and used in the 17th-19th centuries by various Christian movements in the West, especially in the United States, as a result of which, at the end of the 18th century, it was made the state emblem of the United States and officially included in the coat of arms of the United States to a place of honor (above eagle surrounded by a cloud), but in a somewhat “coded” form, that is, in the form of 13 five-pointed stars arranged in the form of a six-pointed star, which symbolize the 13 main states that made up the first USA. These stars are arranged symmetrically so that from top to bottom they follow 1:4:3:4:1 and together form one six-pointed Star of Bethlehem. The emblem of the six-pointed star of Bethlehem is directly included in the state emblems and flags of only small states that were colonies in the past - Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Tonga, which should be attributed to the long-term influence of Christian missionaries on the local national elite. From the 14th century to the present day, the six-pointed star has been used as an order star in all European countries. At present, the six-pointed star, when officially used in coats of arms or in orders, is usually silver or white. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, its traditional color was often gold or yellow. But the color yellow was compromised during the Second World War by the fact that the Nazis chose a yellow six-pointed star to mark the clothes of Jews in the ghetto, and after 1945 the Bethlehem star of this color practically fell into disuse. On the use of a six-pointed red star and its meaning in this capacity, see. Etoile Rouge

• seven-pointed star- one of the ancient symbols of the East, ancient civilizations. Known in Ancient Assyria, Chaldea, Sumer and Akkad. From ancient times, from the 1st century AD. e., such a star was the emblem of Iveria (ancient Georgia), where the astral cult was developed, and later, under the Bagratids, it became one of the main emblems of Kartalinia (until the middle of the 15th century). In 1918-1922 it was the emblem of Menshevik Georgia, and in 1923-1936 it was “dragged” into the coat of arms of the Georgian SSR in all its variants under the guise of a disguised national ornament, and, being visible, distinguishable on the coat of arms, it was not indicated in the description of Art. 180 of the Georgian SSR directly, but was called "a border with a pattern of Georgian ornaments." From the middle of 1991, it officially became the coat of arms of the Republic of Georgia with the image of George the Victorious on a horse galloping to the heraldic left side inscribed in it. In modern foreign emblems, the seven-pointed star is used only when they want to express the concept of a star in general and try to avoid interpreting it both as a military emblem and as a religious one. The seven-pointed star (stars) has in its coat of arms and on the flag of Australia and on the flag - Jordan; both countries thereby express their desire to delimit themselves primarily from neighboring countries (Australia from New Zealand and Jordan from Israel), which also use stars in their coats of arms (New Zealand - five-pointed and Israel - six-pointed). The seven-pointed star is occasionally used as an order sign, for example, the English order of St. Michael and St. George (1818).

• eight pointed stars- these are, in fact, disguised crosses (two four-pointed stars), therefore, such stars have Catholic countries in their coats of arms - Colombia, Peru, Philippines. In addition, the eight-pointed star is the most common order sign in all European and American Christian states. Especially often used is an eight-pointed star for krashanov. An almost regular octagon, formed by superimposing two squares diagonally on top of each other with the preservation of their crossing lines, was used as a symbol that accompanied the images of the god Sabaoth (the god-father, more correctly, the god of forces, armies) in Russian icon painting and Christian Orthodox symbolism of the pre-Ikonian times, especially from the 14th to the 16th century. This eight-pointed symbolic sign was depicted either at the top of the icons (most often in the upper right corner), or instead of a halo, or as a background above the head of Sabaoth. Often both quadrangles were painted (the upper one was green and the underlying one was red) or bordered with stripes of this color. Images of this kind are typical for the North of Russia and are (preserved) in the museums of Rostov the Great, Vologda, Perm. They mean (symbolize) eight millennia (“seven centuries of the Creator and the future age of the Father” *) and at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century they were recognized as “heretical” from the point of view of the canons of official Orthodoxy. An eight-pointed white star with a red border and the motto "Blood and Fire" is the emblem of the British and other Anglo-Saxon branches of "The Salvation Army" ("The Salvation army") - a socio-religious charitable organization founded by William and Catherine Booth in London in 1865 and became since 1880 international.
• nine pointed stars almost never occur in practice. They are used in the rarest cases only as orders in small Islamic states (for example, in the Sultanate of Johor on the Malay Peninsula).
• Ten-pointed or ten-pointed stars were used in Soviet emblems and in the emblems of other countries that had a five-pointed star as a coat of arms, because a ten-pointed star is only a repeated twice five-pointed star. Such stars are mainly used to create orders, especially in the Arab states of North Africa.
• Eleven pointed star- exclusively order, and, moreover, rare. In the past it was used in the orders of Portugal and Imperial Ethiopia (Abyssinia).
• twelve pointed star signifies perfection. In state emblems, that is, in coats of arms, this sign is now used only by two states - Nauru and Nepal. The emblems of these states - the 12-ray Sun - are in fact stars, because in heraldry such a star image is recognized as the Sun, which has 16 rays (see. Rays), and everything that has less than 16 belongs, therefore, to the stars. In European emblems, the 12-ray star was used in the GDR on medals for outstanding services, loyalty, that is, as a sign of perfection of moral or professional qualities, for example, on police signs.
• thirteen pointed star did not exist and does not exist.
• fourteen pointed star only two states have as a state emblem - Malaysia (in the coat of arms and flag) and Ethiopia (in the coat of arms). In Malaysia, this number of rays was established because it reflected the number of members of the Malaysian Federation at its formation - in 1963. However, in 1965, one of its members - Singapore - without the consent of the head of state - the Sultan - unilaterally withdrew from the federation and declared itself an independent state. But Malaysia even after that left a 14-ray star in its coat of arms, and 14 stripes on the flag, thus emphasizing that Singapore's exit is not officially recognized. In Ethiopia, the 14-ray star became the main emblem after the 1974 revolution and appeared for the first time in the state emblem in 1975 as a completely new element (before, in Imperial Ethiopia, the six-pointed star of Bethlehem was revered). It was supposed to emphasize both the antiquity of Ethiopian culture (the seven-pointed star) and its modern revival and renewal (the doubled seven-pointed star). This emblem ceased to exist in 1991 due to the overthrow of the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
• fifteen pointed star. Theoretically, such a star is possible as a heraldic emblem with the meaning of a triple five-pointed star and used in ornaments, orders, medals, etc. However, there is still no organization or state that would use this emblem and justify its use.
• sixteen pointed star. The presence of 16 rays in a star means that such a star depicts the Sun, and, therefore, in emblematics it is no longer called a star, but the Sun, since according to heraldic rules 16 is the minimum number of rays that gives reason to call the image the Sun, and any number of rays, over 16 and a multiple of 4 is also sufficient for the image that possesses them to be called the Sun.
• sixteen pointed star also, like the sixteen-ray one, it can be considered an image of the Sun, especially if it occurs in isolation or as part of an ornament. At the same time, it was precisely as a sign of solar purity, clarity and spotlessness that the image of a 16-pointed star from the time of pagan Ancient Rome was considered an emblem of virginity, and from here, already in the era of early Christianity, it accompanied images of the Holy Virgin, that is, the Virgin, which was later reflected in the Byzantine icon painting. Since the virgin and maiden are called Virgo in Latin, the 16-pointed star as the emblem of the Holy Virgin Mary later received the name of the Virgin Star. Until very recently, this star was not used in state heraldry, as it was considered a reserved religious emblem. However, in 1991, the newly created state of Macedonia (from the Yugoslav republic of the same name) on the ruins of the former Yugoslavia adopted the 16-pointed Virginia star as its main state emblem, referring to the fact that even before the introduction of Christianity, in the 4th century. BC e. under Philip II (359-336), this emblem was a kind of coat of arms of the Macedonian kingdom. Since Greece, as well as the Greek (and universal) Orthodox Church, opposed such use of the Virginia Star, a UN mediation commission was created to resolve the conflict that had arisen, which in May 1993 outlined its recommendations, supported in early June 1993 by the UN Secretary General Boutros Ghali. According to them, Macedonia should remove the Virginia Star from its national flag, and also change the name of the country to “New Macedonia” or “Slavomacedonia”, in order to completely eliminate any associations with Ancient Macedonia and thereby remove Greece’s fears about the territorial claims of the newly appeared heir to the Macedonian kingdom, because Greece has the province of Macedonia, which at one time was part of ancient Macedonia. However, the Macedonian government refused to implement these UN recommendations.

As for the color of the stars, they can have any heraldic colors. In this case, the color usually indicates the national or political affiliation of the star emblem.

The most common white (silver) color of stars. This is the classic star color in old heraldry and is still followed by most states.

The golden color of the star is less commonly accepted. It usually points to the exceptionally important, state importance that is attached to the emblem of the star as the main emblem of a given country. So, China, Vietnam, Angola, Indonesia, Congo (Brazzaville), Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Suriname have gold stars in the coat of arms and on the flag. Sometimes only a gold border is attached to a star, emphasizing its significance as a state sign (for example, the red stars of the USSR, SFRY, NRB, VNR, NSRA had a gold border).

Only the five-pointed stars, which served as an emblem for the socialist states, are red.
The only exceptions are El Salvador and New Zealand, which, having introduced the image of the Southern Cross of four five-pointed stars into their flag and coat of arms, gave them a red color solely to distinguish this emblem, which is also available in other countries of the Southern Hemisphere. Before 1991, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Benin, Bulgaria, Djibouti, PDRY, North Korea, Yugoslavia, Laos, Mozambique, Mongolia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, USSR, Zimbabwe had a red five-pointed star in their coats of arms until 1991. Of these, only the DPRK and Laos retained these emblems after 1991.

• Five-pointed green stars belong, as a rule, to the Arab states, and from African states to Senegal, where the vast majority of the population is Muslim.
• The black color of a star in classical heraldry was used extremely rarely and symbolized the opposite of the concept of a star - not light, but darkness, night. In modern practice since the 60s of the XX century. black and meth stars are used as their distinctive, national new African states - Ghana, Gmina-Bissau, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, as well as the ANC party in South Africa, whose emblem is a red five-pointed star with red sickle And hammer. As a political party symbol, the black five-pointed star is used by anarcho-syndicalists in Western Europe.
• The blue color of the stars is relatively rare and the type is found. from Cameroon and Panama. It means that the guiding for these countries is a peaceful policy.

68. "GREEN" MOVEMENT AND ITS EMBLEM.

The “Green” movement (Die Grtinen, Greens) is a new social movement in Western Europe since the mid-70s (mainly in Germany, Belgium, Denmark), demanding active protection environment and by its public actions (demonstrations, picketing, petitioning, speeches in elections and in parliaments) putting pressure on the respective governments in order to obtain from them a legislative ban on monopolies from poisoning the environment by uncontrolled industrial activities. (Since the 80s, this movement has received representation in the parliaments of their countries and in the European Parliament.)

Emblems of the "green" movement

Objectively, the "green" movement, not being political, actually opposes the dominance of monopolies, for disarmament, against nuclear weapons testing, that is, from historically progressive positions. The Soviet Green movement has existed unofficially since 1988. In March 1990, the Green Party was organized in Moscow, its first congress was held in Samara in June 1990. The Moscow organization, the largest, has officially existed since May 1990. Emblem The green movement was initially green, but since it has a historically different meaning, the German Green movement soon adopted the sunflower as its emblem as an image capable of expressing the two main ideas of the green movement: the struggle for the preservation of nature (plant, green stem and leaf) and the struggle for the preservation of life on Earth (the Sun, seeds). Later, as the movement of the “greens” developed in other European countries, the birch leaf (adopted in Germany, France, England and Holland) became its emblem. Most often, he is depicted alone or with earrings (a more correct image). This emblem is due to the triangular shape of the leaf birches and birch as a plant that suffers most from any environmental pollution, gets sick and dies faster than others trees, should symbolize the three values ​​​​of nature (Sun, greenery, seeds) and its vulnerability. Proposed in June 1992 by M. S. Gorbachev and his Foundation, the new emblem of the “green movement” - the green cross, has not received recognition anywhere, because such an emblem is illiterate and offensive: christian symbol colored with the color of Islam.

69. SNAKE- one of the oldest emblems humanity, which has a variety of meanings in different countries. Most often interpreted as an emblem of wisdom; this meaning of the snake was accepted since ancient times in all countries of Asia and Africa, that is, where they not only could more closely observe the life of snakes, but also knew how to tame them, turn them not only into obedient, but also into useful animals, in particular, they extracted from them precious and healing poison. From here, from the civilizations of the Ancient East, comes the ancient idea of ​​the snake as a symbol of health. Therefore, in ancient Greek mythology, the mythical patron of medical art Aesculapius (son of Apollo) was depicted with a staff, around which a snake wrapped around, which served as an emblem of health, vitality and immortality, and eldest daughter Aesculapius Hygeia, the goddess of health, carried on her arm the snake of her father, who fed on her blood.

WHO logo snake	Medical Service of the Soviet Army	1.Plant protection quarantine service 2. A snake wrapped around a sword - a symbol of cunning and deceit	1. The combination of the mathematical symbol (symbol) of infinity and the emblem of the snake in the new emblem, meaning "eternity" for the purpose of using in a trademark that produces "eternal", waterproof raincoats (Italy 2. A snake that absorbs its tail, or a snake-ring - the emblem of eternity

With the introduction of Christianity, and especially with the spread of Christianity among the peoples of Europe, either hostile or far from ancient culture, ideas about the snake as a symbol of wisdom and health have disappeared. In the countries of the West and North of Europe, where they had vague ideas about snakes, or they knew about them by hearsay, or they meant only the forest viper and associated the snake with the legend about the devil spread by the church, they began to consider the snake a symbol of poisonousness, evil and deceit. Thus, already in the early Middle Ages, contradictory and even mutually exclusive assessments of the concept of “snake” arose, which could not but affect the diversity of the symbolic interpretation of the snake emblems. When translating the Bible into European languages translators were often baffled not only by a variety of terminology that had no equivalents in European living languages ​​(serpents, the Dragon, hydra, boa constrictor, leviathan, copper serpent), but also their different meanings.

Already these examples show that one, single idea could not be invested in the image of a snake, and this emblem to this day has different meaning in different parts of the planet, as it was originally. In the countries of Europe and throughout America, whose population was created from European settlers and where Christian and especially Catholic culture penetrated, the snake emblem means only evil, deceit. It is in this capacity that the image of a snake is present on the state emblem of Mexico, where an eagle devours a snake, that is, symbolically good defeats evil or the Mexican state defeats its enemies. Since the emblem of the snake is controversial and cannot by itself give a clear idea in what capacity it is used - in a positive or negative way, then in international modern heraldry there is a rule to use a snake with an additional attribute, which explains its specific meaning in each individual case.
So, the snake being devoured eagle, means evil, and the snake wrapped around the cup, that is, pouring its poison into it, giving it to the benefit of man, is the emblem of medicine and, therefore, in this capacity is closer to its ancient flower and ancient meaning as an emblem of wisdom and health. By analogy with the medical emblem, in recent times the emblem of the plant protection service has been compiled - a snake wrapped around ear,- here the snake almost appears as an emblem of goodness. Similarly, in the new emblem of environmentalists from atomic explosions, a snake wrapping around bowl and a green branch growing from it against the backdrop of a nuclear mushroom serves as a reminder that humanity must be wise in order to protect itself and its health from an atomic catastrophe. At the same time, a snake wrapped around a double-edged sword is an emblem of cunning, that is, the snake also has a negative meaning. From this it is clear that it is not customary to depict a snake separately in emblematics. An example of such a gag is the bookplate (see the figure), where the canonical emblem of medicine is divided into two separate emblems, each living its own life and each having its own meaning (an empty bowl is death, and a crawling snake without an attribute means nothing). The only acceptable image of a snake without additional attributes is the emblem of eternity: a snake biting its own tail is the oldest prototype of the ring, a symbol of infinity, understandable and common to all the peoples of the Earth.
In Soviet emblematics, the snake emblem, except for the designation of medical and quarantine services, was not used.

70. SIGN OF THE 1954 HAGUE CONVENTION. On May 14, 1954, in development of the principles for the protection of cultural property of world and national importance, established in the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and in the Washington Pact of April 15, 1935, a new Hague Convention was drawn up and adopted at a diplomatic conference convened by UNESCO in The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. This convention in Art. 16 established the Distinctive Sign, which is shield, pointed downwards (a square with an isosceles triangle attached to its lower side, constituting a quarter of the square). This shield is divided into a blue square (in the lower part of the shield) and a blue triangle (in the upper part of the shield), which are flanked on the sides by two white triangles. The Soviet Union ratified the convention and its protocol of May 14, 1954 two years later - December 12, 1956, and they entered into force for the USSR on April 4, 1957. The successor of the USSR in this respect is the Russian Federation.
The distinctive sign of the convention is applied three times, that is, it is applied three times on the surfaces of the following objects visible from the air and from the fronts:

• a) immovable cultural values ​​(churches, monuments, museums, architectural ensembles, etc.
• b) land and surface transport transporting cultural property;
• c) any other improvised shelters in which cultural values ​​are concentrated, evacuated, hidden or temporarily placed.

In addition, the Distinguishing Sign of the 1954 Hague Convention is applied once, that is, once, one image, if it is applied:

• to cultural properties not under the special protection of UNESCO, but regarded as significant from a purely national or local point of view.
• for identity cards, for documents and for personnel (their means of transport) who either supervise the implementation of the convention or protect or accompany cultural property.

The distinctive sign of the convention is applied to cultural property only simultaneously with the display of the printed permission of UNESCO on the application of this sign to this object. These permits are dated and signed by the public authorities of the relevant party to the convention.

Due to the fact that the Distinguishing Sign of the 1954 Convention is not recognized by all countries as sufficiently attractive in a purely pictorial sense, N. K. Roerich privately suggested the use of another sign, which was called the Roerich Sign and can also be used as an unofficial identification mark. cultural sites (cf. Roerich).

71 . RERICH'S SIGN(or CHINTAMANI) - a distinctive sign proposed by N. K. Roerich as an identification mark for application to monuments and institutions that have world and national cultural value, with the aim of guarding and protecting their facilities during the war oh destruction and death. According to N. K. Roerich, such signs should be applied to museums, libraries, theaters, art galleries, outstanding architectural monuments, park art objects, historical monuments, etc., etc.
Roerich's sign is a red ring, inside of which three red circles are inscribed, forming an equilateral triangle. Roerich's sign is simpler than Sign of the Hague Convention 1954, but it does not have official international universal recognition and can only be used informally, without the right to legal protection of a cultural object, but only as an informative, distinctive sign of moral significance.
Creating his sign initially as a project of the Banner of Peace, N. K. Roerich did not invent it a priori from his head, but relied on ancient oriental symbolism. In Indian mythology, the circle that closes three smaller circles denotes the miraculous Chantamani stone, which could fulfill the desires of only people of pure heart. This sign (symbol) thus expressed the idea that the future depends on the moral state of the present generation, that it will be revealed and saved only for worthy and pure people. Roerich wanted the Chantamani sign to become a graphic symbol of the unity of the past and the future achievements of mankind. It was an attempt to make the ancient symbolism "work" for the present.

72. INTERNATIONAL SIGNS- signs specially adopted and approved as a result of multilateral international conventions, which are signed by almost all or the vast majority of states in the world. These are the signs protecting hospitals, ambulance trains, hospitals, evacuation centers for the wounded and sick during hostilities and mandatory for both warring parties. Such are the signs that protect not only people, but also animals during wars, as well as protecting monuments of culture and art in warring countries, especially objects of major international and national importance.
For each type of the above objects, there are special international conventions concluded in different time, and special international distinctive signs of protection (see Red Cross, Red Crescent, Shamshir and Edolyat, Blue Cross, Etoile Rouge, Roerich's Sign, Sign of the Hague Convention 1954).

73. INSIGNIA extremely varied. But they can be divided into two large groups: 1) state and 2) departmental (party, professional, public organizations, industry).
The second group of insignia is generally referred to as checks, although badges (in the everyday sense of the term) may not be distinctive at all, but decorative or propaganda and informative. But such badges are practically not taken into account in emblematics, that is, they practically do not impose those strict emblematic requirements on them, as they do on the insignia of both of the above groups. It is precisely as a result of this exclusion of simple icons from the sphere of stylistics that gross violations of elementary emblematic rules often began to occur during their creation, and as a result of the huge circulation of simple icons, these distortions or. errors in emblematics became widespread and sometimes ceased to be perceived as errors. The group of state insignia includes orders, medals and insignia proper, that is, insignia that are lower in rank than the state medal. State insignia have the right (and even must necessarily) reproduce state symbols and emblems (and letters - the state emblem) along with emblems reflecting the special nature of this sign (for example, the image weapons on orders of the Patriotic War, anchors on the Order of Nakhimov, handshakes on the Order of Friendship of Peoples), as well as to have other emblematic images (for example, images buildings, allegory, portrait Pictures, Images ships etc.) associated with one or another name of the order or with the event to which it is dedicated.
After the liquidation of the Soviet Union on December 8, 1991 and the creation of a new state - Russian Federation(RF) there have been changes in the system of state insignia, because there was a change in the state system in the country. First of all, all signs with a clearly expressed ideological socialist content have lost their meaning. At the same time, a number of Soviet orders that had a wide civil and universal significance - the Star of the Hero, the Order of Motherhood, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the Order of the Badge of Honor, all military historical orders associated with the names of outstanding Russian commanders (Alexander Nevsky, Suvorov, Kutuzov, Ushakov, Nakhimov); as well as the departmental order “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces”, have retained their significance and continue to be used to reward both Russian and foreign citizens.
In addition, the Committee on State Awards under the President of the Russian Federation, created on January 27, 1992, developed a regulation on the status of a number of completely new orders, medals and honorary titles. So, on February 1, 1993, there is the Order of Merit for the Fatherland (four degrees), the Order of Honor, transformed from the former Order of the Badge of Honor, the Order of Military Merit and the title of Hero of the Russian Federation, as well as the medal “ Defender of Free Russia. The Regulations on honorary titles in the Russian Federation (which are insignia of the third degree and are mainly associated with professional achievements in various fields - art, literature, education, health, science and technology) have been revised and re-approved. Currently, there are 53 honorary titles of the Russian Federation, the list of which is officially published in the Vedomosti of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation.
In our country, along with such international insignia of state distinction as orders, medals, letters of honour, there is a historical tradition of awarding material insignia, which existed both before the appearance of orders and medals, and after their appearance along with them and were sometimes regarded accordingly with them. by rank. In the XV-XVII centuries, these were forty sables and other furs, a fur coat from the royal shoulder, a gold or silver neck chain (or hryvnia), and for clergy - a gold (or silver) pectoral cross. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, they began to favor the royal miniature enamel portrait, the royal diamond or gold monogram, gold or diamond-studded snuff boxes, silver spurs, silver and gold edged weapons, silver pipes (for awarding individual military units), and for awarding the Muslim peoples of the Russian Empire Until the 20th century, gold-woven brocade and satin robes with silver and pearl belts were used, the cost of which even in those days was 500-1000 rubles. In the 20th century, in the first years of Soviet power (1917-1 "27), when the symbolic state signs of the tsarist regime were abolished, material awards, traditional for Russia, were not only preserved in principle, but also received a new form and ideological These were honorary gold cold steel or firearms, the same weapon, but with the Order of the Red Banner attached to it (since 1975, the Golden Emblem of the USSR began to be attached to this award), honorary weapons with a silver notch, gold and silver watches from the Presidium All-Russian Central Executive Committee and, finally, an honorary photograph against the background of the unfurled banner of the unit with the letter attached.As for the symbolic awards, they were dressed in the form of honorary titles - Honorary Red Army (dzhigit, Cossack), Honorary Worker, Honorary Red Navy, which, together with documents, received both the highest award to the oldest figures of the revolutionary movement in the 20s - early 30s.
In the second half of the 1930s, in the 1940s and 1950s, material insignia as a whole receded, as it were, into the background due to the emergence of an extremely ramified system of orders and especially medals *.
From the above review, it can be seen that insignia by their nature are primarily an award (and not an honorary badge), and therefore in our country, over a long historical development, they strongly gravitated towards a material form, and not to a symbolic one, which is an award in abstract form, although in antiquity, in ancient times, they were conceived precisely as a kind of symbolic, abstract sign of honor. Moreover, even modern state insignia in our country, as a rule, are made of precious metals (platinum, gold, silver), and sometimes precious stones (diamonds, rubies) are also used in them, and thus these insignia, along with with their high political and civic significance they also have their purely material value. However, in most countries of Europe and America (but not Asia), insignia of state distinction are mainly emphasized not by their value, but by their symbolic, honorary character as their main feature. From this it is clear that, in principle, all insignia, including the highest - orders, serve only as symbols of the award, and although many of them can include various symbols and emblems in their drawing, in their image, they themselves have no emblematic meaning. and therefore cannot serve as a source of emblems. Moreover, they cannot even always give the necessary emblematic example, because they sometimes contain emblematic errors, which is almost always due to the fact that any insignia is created “on the occasion”, sometimes in an extremely hasty manner, with the involvement of not infrequently random artists(This is convincingly evidenced, for example, by the history of the creation of many Soviet military orders).
Thus, the insignia is only a field for the application of the forces of the emblematists, whose task is to give the insignia, especially the state one, such a correct emblematic form so that it not only has a high material and prestigious value, but, most importantly, is symbolically, ideologically and aesthetically artistic and exemplary work of art.
That is why in some countries since the 70s of the XX century. it in a number of cases abandoned the use of traditional precious metals in insignia, replacing them with a durable alloy of the so-called “white metal”, and at the same time revised and changed appearance some insignia in order to give them greater artistic expressiveness. A similar change in the appearance of some former orders with the preservation of their traditional name) took place over the past decades in Czechoslovakia, where, except for the south), a number of insignia had separate Czech and Slovak versions. True, not always new versions built on giving a distinction modern form, sometimes of a modernist kind, are successful if they lose their emblematic character. This once again indicates that in the state insignia in the first place should be its idea, its meaning, expressed emblematically with maximum skill. Moreover, insignia should bear a certain imprint of archaism or, rather, historical solidity and significance: they should not be confused in appearance with one or another modern decoration.
As mentioned above, in the Soviet Union there were officially no insignia that were lower in rank than medals (except for the Certificate of Honor), although there were practically insignia that were neither orders nor medals, but stood outside both of the above classes of awards, not below or above them. That is why such insignia as the Marshal's Star and the badge "Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR" cannot be confused with the insignia of the third rank available in a number of foreign countries.
So, for example, in the USA, where there are no orders, and there is only one medal for military merit, below it follows the sign “Purple Heart” (“Purple heart”), also awarded only to the military (often in our country, especially in the press, it is incorrect they call it an “order”, which is a gross mistake, because it is not only lower than any order, but also lower in value than a medal).
The Purple Heart badge was established by George Washington at the end of 1782 and until 1861 was granted to only a few military men. Initially, it was made simply from silk fabric, which was stretched over a silver heart-shaped bracket. In 1861, the US Congress decided to establish a medal (Medal of Honor), which thus became the highest distinction in the country only because there were no orders, but internationally, of course, remained at the level of simple military medals. In the USA, it has two versions: for the navy and for the army, but both options have the same rank, so the medal actually counts as one. The medal is made of gold in the form of a five-pointed star with a trefoil at the ends of its rays. “Purple Heart” was then in second place. In 1932, the “Purple Heart” began to be stamped from tin covered with purple enamel, and after the US war in Korea and especially in Vietnam, the “Purple Heart” badge began to be issued to each seriously wounded without much solemnity, simply according to the corresponding hospital lists.
Insignia in the vast majority of countries are historically associated either with an elite class organization (religious or noble orders), or with military affairs and military contingents. There are few civil orders and other insignia in comparison with the military ones, and they were mainly characteristic of the socialist countries. It is only very recently that some bourgeois countries have also begun to award state insignia to people who are not connected with the state or military activities, representatives of various civil professions (Finland, Sweden).
However, the two world wars, having sharply expanded the number of people who received military insignia, by themselves significantly changed the social composition of order bearers in all countries and actually broke the usual XX centuries, social, social and even educational boundaries, within which in former times state decorations were awarded. Obtaining an insignia by soldiers - people who are not representatives of the ruling class and capitalist states - became, especially after the Second World War, a fairly common phenomenon, which was reflected either in the actual vision of the social prestige of a particular sign (as, for example, happened in United States), or in tightening supervision and control of the state over the correct wearing of the state sign, up to the deprivation of the right to it. In a number of countries there is a ban on wearing foreign orders. In a class society, there was no need to control the correct wearing of an order or medal, although, nevertheless, he placed exact instructions on the place on the uniform, on the time (days) of wearing and on the appropriate costume (tailcoat, uniform, tuxedo) and the social environment (receptions, ceremonial meetings ), on which the order bearer should be shown, had the meaning of a number of centuries. Now everything has changed. The appearance among the order-bearers in a number of cases and declassed elements forced in some countries to introduce additional provisions in the statutes such differences, according to which the order or medal was deprived for wearing them on dirty clothes for the wrong time, and even more so for discrediting them (if the owner, for example , got to the police station even for an insignificant reason) or at least for the temporary transfer of a badge of distinction to another person, even without any mercenary or criminal purposes (for example, a child “for playing”).
To the insignia, especially after the Second World War, the so-called “ribbons”, or “temporary signs”, “temporary buckles” (interimspange), which are part of a moire ribbon assigned to one or another sign, were introduced. Ribbons were first introduced in France in 1830 as a replacement for the Legion of Honor. Since then, a simple narrow red silk ribbon has become the cherished dream of many public and political figures in the French Republic. The Order of the Legion of Honor itself was worn only in exceptional cases - either on Bastille Day, or at ceremonial receptions in the Elysee Palace. Following the example of France, other countries began to gradually introduce “temporary buckles”. In the Soviet Union, they had neither blocks with ribbons, nor “temporary buckles” - “ribbons” - at first. Until 1924, all existing republican orders were worn on a red silk or satin bow placed under them. Since 1924, allied orders were simply screwed with a pin to the lapel of a jacket or to a tunic (for the military). Only during the Second World War, on July 19, 1943, blocks and ribbons were introduced to orders and medals, and each insignia was assigned its own combination of colored stripes. Ribbons were used in all insignia, except for the "Golden Star", "Hammer and Sickle" and the orders "Mother Heroine" and "Maternal Glory" of three degrees. The following orders were worn without blocks: the Order of Victory, the Order of Suvorov, Ushakov, Nakhimov, Kutuzov, Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War, the Red Star, “For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR”.

74. INSIGNIA- these are symbolic signs that enable everyone to easily, quickly and accurately distinguish and compare the service level (rank, rank, rank) of a person to whom these signs are assigned, and correlate it with the rest. Insignia usually consist of the simplest, most elementary geometric shapes (triangle, square, rhombus) or geometric elements - lines (stripes) and dots (asterisks), which are located in certain combinations.

The insignia is always placed on visible, most noticeable from a distance parts of the uniform (epaulettes, buttonholes, sleeves) or on high bands of caps, berets.

All other signal, warning, warning and indicating signs, including road signs, belong to the number of insignia.

75. SIGNS-SYMBOLS OF COIN (MONEY). At present, only two of the many symbolic symbols that used to be coinage have remained internationally known, used, and recognized: the dollar sign and the pound sterling sign. What do these mean characters? Why does the dollar sign have the Latin letter S, and the pound sterling has the Latin letter L, which do not at all correspond to the initial letters of the names of these monetary units?
“Dollar” comes from the German word “thaler”, similar to the Swedish and Danish words “daler”, “riksdaler” - the so-called monetary units of Sweden and Denmark, which were great powers in the 17th century and the first states to establish their colonies in North America ( 1638), where the Spaniards did not penetrate, having captured the more southern, more fertile in terms of climate and vegetation and minerals, parts of Central and South America. Already in the 17th century, Sweden and Denmark lost their colonies in North America, but the Danish and Swedish colonists remained. Together with them, the word “daler” remained and took root, which turned into a dollar in the Anglo-American pronunciation. As for the symbolic designation of the dollar, when it became the American currency after the separation of the United States from England, then borrowing was not done here either.
By decree of April 2, 1792, an independent monetary unit was established in the United States, containing 24 g of silver and called the "dollar". It was equated entirely with the Spanish coin, common at that time throughout America, with the Spanish “peso”, as it was called colloquially, which meant weight, since initially these were not coins, but pieces of silver with a symbolic sign - the Latin letter S, which came from the word “solid”, as Roman gold coins, introduced in the countries of the Western Mediterranean, were also called, which meant “solid”, “massive”, as any large gold coin was respectfully called. The United States, which had not a gold, but a silver standard of its monetary unit, its currency, contrary to all international rules, appropriated a foreign (Spanish) sign and even called its silver, which was insignificant at that time in value, “gold”.
However, after the Spanish conquerors were expelled from all countries Latin America V early XIX centuries and their coin gradually disappeared from circulation in this part of the world, the United States remained the only one who had the sign-symbol S in the entire Western Hemisphere, and in the 20th century this sign, already exclusively American, became widely known in Europe, where it was almost forgotten as their own, European.
This sign is interpreted in two ways: two dashes // penetrating the letter S, - $, or the “remains” of two “pillars of Hercules”, which are still included in the Spanish coat of arms and always minted in Spanish pesos, or, as is sometimes believed, a monogram from two Latin letters S and P, which means “ship-peso” - “ship peso”, as the Spanish-American money of coarse coinage was called in the 18th century, which served in many countries, and especially in the USA, as a material for recoining their state money from them. coins - dollars. In any case, this sign was always used by the Spaniards themselves in relation to their “pesos” and, regardless of its origin and meaning, never belonged to the United States, which, therefore, borrowed the name of their monetary unit from the Danes, and its symbolic designation from Spaniards.
The origin of the sign of the pound sterling is simpler and is the result of the preservation of the oldest common European currency designation only in England, which once again emphasizes that conservatism is a characteristic feature of the historical development of this country. The Latin letters Lb denoted the first money in Europe - the ancient Roman pound, libre, which had the form of ingots. Almost all European money originated from it: Italian lira, British pounds sterling, German marks, Russian hryvnias and French livres, but only the British retained its designation. The request "Star (heraldry)" is redirected here. This topic needs a separate article. Relief, IX - XI centuries, Solin, southern Slavs

five-pointed star- a geometric figure that can be drawn with one continuous line.

Formed by joining lines of the same length at 36° angles at each vertex. The continuation of the lines inside the star until the lines converge together forms a pentagram. The five-pointed star is an important religious and ideological symbol and is therefore widely used. The five-pointed star is used in heraldic signs which are often used as state and military symbols. The five-pointed star is one of the symbols of Islam - the five pillars of Islam or the five daily prayers.

Pythagoras claimed that such a star, or, as he called it, hygiea (ύγιεια, in honor of the Greek goddess of health Hygieia), represents mathematical perfection, as it hides the golden ratio.

Symbolism

The five-pointed star - a pentacle, as a symbol of protection and safety, has been known for more than three thousand years. It was used in their totems and ritual drawings. primitive people and representatives of the earliest civilizations in the territories of modern Greece, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. The pentacle was a revered emblem in Japan and among American Indians. Among the Saami of Russian Lapland, the five-pointed star was considered a universal amulet protecting deer - the basis of the lifestyle of most northerners.

Pentagrammaton Agrippa (1486 - 1536)

In the days of Ancient Rome, the five-pointed star was among the Romans a symbol of the god of war - Mars - and denoted the lily from which he was born.

The five-pointed star resembles a man with outstretched arms and legs apart, like the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci ("Vitruvian Man") and Agrippa of Nettesheim.

Inverted, it is used as the seal of Baphomet, in the usual it was used as a symbol of Satanism by Eliphas Levi.

IN Soviet Russia the five-pointed red star according to Kibalchich was first used on a military uniform by Kronstadt sailors led by Lenka Panteleev during the storming of the Winter Palace in October 1917, subsequently borrowed by the Red Army.

Five-pointed star: meaning, symbol. How to make a three-dimensional five-pointed star out of paper?

Stars have fascinated people's minds since ancient times. The five-pointed star, or, as it is also called, a pentagram, or a pentacle with rays intersecting at one point, corresponds to the golden ratio for Leonardo da Vinci and the addition of two and three, which means difference and perfection for Pythagoras. Top up, it means the divine principle, and down - satanic symbols. This is the matrix of the cosmic man, the star of priests and alchemists. Among the Freemasons, it symbolizes the reborn person.

Light, spirituality, inspiration is personified by a five-pointed star with its apex upwards. It takes the exact opposite value at the top down. This is darkness, black magic and witchcraft.

In ancient Egypt, she meant the highest god Zorus. In the Bible, it is the key to the kingdom of heaven, and the peaks represent the five wounds of Jesus Christ and the Christmas star of Bethlehem. In Judaism, this is the Pentateuch that Moses received.

In Pythagoras, the addition of two and three, difference and perfection means a five-pointed star. The symbol in Ancient Greece meant five elements: air, fire, ether, earth and water.

And the red star of the Bolsheviks symbolized Mars - the god of war, as well as the peaceful labor of workers.

It is present among the symbols of many countries and means invincibility, strength and power. In addition to its detailed description, the article describes how to make a five-pointed star.

The stars are six-, seven-, eight-, ten-, twelve-pointed. Meaning

Stars can have a different number of angles and are endowed with different sacred meanings.

Triangular in the Bible means the Providence of God (the All-Seeing Eye).

Quadrangular - a symbol of light and guiding, a cross.

The six-pointed star of David, which is two intersecting triangles, served as a talisman for the Jews. In Hebrew, it was called the "shield of David." In Kabbalah, she protected from evil spirits. And now it is a symbol of the Zionists.

The six-pointed star of Bethlehem is a sign of the Nativity of Christ.

Seven-pointed - the star of the East.

Eight-pointed, like doubled four-pointed, symbolizes the cross. Since ancient times, such a star has been in Rus'. It meant not only the essence of being, but was also the fundamental principle of other magical signs. Later, under Christianity, such a star was not rejected, but began to bear the name of the Virgin.

A star consisting of twelve rays means perfection.

The symbol of the ancients

Even primitive people used this symbol in ritual drawings and totems.

In ancient times, these signs were also known in Sumer and Egypt. On the one hand, they meant peace and protection, and on the other, power over the whole world. The upper corner personified the ruler, and the rest - the cardinal points submitting to him.

Pythagoras imagined that the five-pointed star is perfection, and his students believed that the world consists of the elements - five elements: air, water, earth, fire and ether. These elements, in their opinion, means a five-pointed star. A symbol of strength and fortitude, she protected and defended people. For the Druids in Gaul, Ireland and Britain, it meant the same thing. Called the Druidic cross, the pentagram could be found on many window panes of Gothic buildings.

She was revered even by the Japanese and American Indians.

The Saami of Russian Lapland considered it a talisman, and in North Karelia, hunters defended themselves from forest predators with it.

The magic pentacle is a five-pointed star in a circle, which is also called the star of Solomon. It symbolizes the divine power of God or man. Magicians embroidered it on their clothes and drew it inside or outside the circle. Such amulets protected from the attack of demons.

Symbol of Leonardo da Vinci

The Italian genius associated the star with the human body, in which the top of the star was assigned to the head, and the remaining four corners meant arms and legs. He was called the Vitruvian Man.

The figure of a young man is located inside a circle with outstretched arms and legs. This drawing and explanations of da Vinci are sometimes called canonical proportions, the ideal person.

Symbol for Christians

In Christianity, this star is also revered.

The seal of the Roman emperor Constantine, who created the official Christian religion, was in the form of a pentagram because he believed that it was she who showed him the way.

The five-pointed star means not only the five wounds of Jesus. These are also Mary's five joys in serving Christ. No wonder the sign has long been used to decorate Christmas trees.

The symbol of the Masons

Another, ominous meaning was received in the Middle Ages by a five-pointed star. The meaning of the inverted two ends up is the sign of Satan. It was used in the rituals of sorcerers and witches, taking it as a symbol of Satan. In this form, it looks like a horned goat.

As a seal of Freemasonry and Kabbalah, the star became known to many not so long ago.

In the fourteenth century, it was shown to the world as a symbol of the god Allah and Mohammed.

Freemasons during their spells put on a headdress with a pentagram and a tetragram. As they themselves say, the five-pointed star is a symbol of the power of Reason, depicting Satan upside down.

Sometime in the late eighteenth century in France and Italy, Freemasons passed in public magnificent processions through the city. Pope Leo Thirteen protested against such brazen praise of Satan. However, the Freemasons calmly objected to him in the magazine they published. Thus, the cult of Satan spread throughout the world.

For example, in New York, the Club of Thirteen was formed, in which Satan was elected a life member.

The whole of Europe was embraced by the teachings of the Masons. However, it came to Russia only after Peter the Great cut a window to Europe.

Symbol in pre-revolutionary Russia and the USSR

In Russia, until 1917, such stars were used in symbolism infrequently. But after the revolution, the pentacle was chosen as such. Some believe that the military commissar Nikolai Polyansky was the first to offer the star, others say that it was Konstantin Yeremeev. But Leon Trotsky finally rooted it as a symbol of the Bolsheviks.

Having really spread first during the Great french revolution, the five-pointed star was perceived as a symbol of the god of war Mars. In the same interpretation, it was picked up by the Soviet revolutionaries in the Red Army, as, indeed, by many other armies of the world, although in our country it was introduced by Nicholas the First in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Few people know that initially the soldiers of the Red Army had an inverted red star as a distinction. It was only later changed, since such an image caused much indignation among the people, who associated it in this position with the horns of the devil.

Star in the modern world

With a different number of rays, this symbol is used by all world religions. It is also most often found in state symbols.

For example, the flag of Israel features the six-pointed Star of David of Judaism.

The coat of arms of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia depicts an eight-pointed star - a symbol of the Virgin.

The Turkish flag has a five-pointed star next to the crescent.

Azerbaijani - eight-pointed, and Malaysian - fourteen-pointed.

How to draw a five pointed star

Take a ruler, pencil, eraser and paper. The first corner is drawn. This is the pinnacle. Next, a perpendicular line is drawn under it, protruding equally on both sides, and the same angles are drawn downward from the ends, but the lines should be longer. After that, the lines coming from the top of the corners are connected, forming the bottom corners. Then, armed with an eraser, they erase the inner arrows.

Since you can draw a five-pointed star in a simple and complex way, at this stage they stop or do it further. For the second option, lines with all angles are drawn exactly from the middle of the figure. To give a three-dimensional shadow effect, every second triangle is shaded. So the complicated drawing of the star is ready!

How to make a star

A do-it-yourself five-pointed star can be made from just a square paper sheet using scissors.

To do this, you first need to fold it in half with the fold line at the bottom. The two resulting squares are again bent twice diagonally. The fold lines this time should be in the opposite direction. The lower left corner connects to the center of the diagonals. Its corner is bent back. Then the right side of the sheet is connected to the bend that has turned out, and the corner is bent, as with the left side. The resulting figure resembles an airplane.

Smaller corners are bent from the last corners that need to be cut off. As a result, after straightening, a five-pointed three-dimensional star is obtained.

Applying a Star Template

To make a five-pointed star out of paper according to a pattern, you will need: paper of any density, scissors, a printer and glue.

Cardboard, book or magazine sheets may well be suitable for this purpose. However, if it is planned to build a large five-pointed star, then the paper should be thick enough. To do this, five cardboard sheets are taken, blanks of rays of the pattern you like are printed, cut out, glued first separately, and then together. That's all. The final touch of the beams is decorated with all sorts of sparkles, beads and sequins.

How to make a three-dimensional five-pointed star

In another version of the craft, you will need colored or patterned paper, glue and scissors, a ruler, a protractor and a pencil, and a printer.

First, a five-pointed star template is made or downloaded from the Internet. Then two transverse axes are outlined - vertical and horizontal. Further, lines are drawn every thirty-six degrees. From every second line, segments are outlined, cutting them out, they get depressions future star. The resulting segments are connected at the separation points with adjacent lines at the intersection of the circle.

After the template is cut out, the five-pointed paper star is folded in half along the lines.

Turning the star up, repeat the same with the depressions.

Having made two such stars, we glue them for special paper tongues inside out.

After drying, volume is carefully added, gradually and slowly the craft is filled with air from the inside. This is how the correct five-pointed star is obtained.

star - a symbol I was looking for information for a long time

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The star is a symbol.
STARS - one of the oldest symbols of mankind, adopted by the heraldry of all peoples, belongs to the so-called astral signs. The star in general as a concept has long served as a symbol of eternity, and later (since the 18th century) - a symbol of high aspirations, ideals (which are eternal, enduring) and from the end of the 18th century began to be used as an emblem of guiding, happiness (“he was born under a lucky star”) . The motto “Ad aspera!” (“To the stars!”) therefore means “To the sublime, to the ideal!” Stars in heraldry and emblematics differ both in the number of angles or rays that form them, and in color. The combination of both gives different national meanings of stars or nuances in their meaning.

Triangular star ("All-seeing eye")
A biblical sign, otherwise called the All-Seeing Eye (an eye inscribed in a triangle), a symbol of Divine Providence and the emblem of the Trinity.
In Freemasonry, a triangular star (or pyramid) with an eye inscribed in it is the Radiant Delta. The official (Grand Lodge of Russia) description of the Radiant Delta reads: "The Radiant Delta is usually located in the eastern part of the temple, and on both sides of it are the Sun (closer to the south) and the Moon (closer to the north). The Radiant Delta is a triangle with its eye placed inside - a sign of enlightenment or the principle of consciousness, otherwise, the all-seeing eye, constantly present in all the works of the lodge, creating the energy of the presence of the Supreme Being during ritual work, constant radiation - the affirmation of being. A mathematical point, which has no dimensions, but is everywhere, fills the infinity of space. It is also a symbol of awareness and attention, and mutual attention, the attention that the Supreme Being shows to the Caddom of the brothers, the attention that each brother should show in relation to the world.The radiant Delta reminds us that each Freemason has his own Masonic star which shines for him in his work and guides him in his searches. The radiant Delta is the main Masonic symbol of the first degree, the degree of the student."
The same symbol appears on the sketch of the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. The All-Seeing Eye is inscribed in an unfinished pyramid of 13 rows of stone, surrounded by Latin inscriptions "Annui coeptis" (He (God) is favorable to our undertaking) and "Novus Ordo seclorum" ("New order for the ages", a paraphrase of Virgil's verse "Seclorum novus nascitur ordo" - "A new order of the ages is born"). The reverse side of the Great Seal was never engraved, and the symbol of the all-seeing eye "moved" to the banknote of 1 dollar.
The sign of the triangular star was used in Russia under Emperor Alexander I - it was introduced as an emblem in orders and medals that were awarded to participants in the Patriotic War of 1812-1814.

The three-pointed star is the emblem of the tripartite unity of the republican, democratic forces (communists, socialists, democrats). The sign of this star was awarded (noted) to the soldiers of the international brigades in Spain during the civil war of 1936-1939.

* A four-pointed star - a symbol of guiding (light in the darkness of the night), assimilated mainly by Christianity, in its form is associated with the cross. It is also used as an order emblem as a Krashan and framing of order signs in a number of countries. In our country, it is used exclusively on departmental military orders (not state ones).
The four-pointed star is used by NATO, the CIA and other special services as a sign (symbol) of the correctness of their chosen path, as an emblem of a happy (or successful) fate (or career) and is introduced into the service badges of employees of these special services. By analogy with them, the quadrangular star (equilateral rhombus) was made its emblem by the Alex agency in our country, which is engaged in ensuring the security of organizations and individuals.
In a number of Western European countries, as well as in Japan and the USSR, since the 60s and 70s, the four-pointed star served as the emblem of martial arts (especially karate, kung fu, etc.) and was introduced into club badges and certificates. At the same time, the differences between different clubs from each other are manifested in an emblematic sense in that the color, angle of the rays, their rotation and length, as well as additional accessories (see the armament of the emblems) can vary endlessly, while the general shape of the four-pointed star remains unchanged. .

pentagram - a symbol of protection, security, one of the oldest signs (symbols) of mankind. It has an ancient origin. Used as a military emblem, for its history and use, see Red five-pointed star.
The correct pentagram (point up) is a symbol of eternal youth and health among the Pythagoreans, in alchemy it is a symbolic representation human body(two arms, two legs and a head), in occultism - a symbol of protection, security (a sign of protection from evil spirits), the legendary key of Solomon, in Christianity, the emblem of the five wounds of the crucified Christ. The pentagram point down is the emblem of evil spirits, one of the tools of black magic. An incorrectly depicted pentagram is not able to protect the magician from the summoned demon: for example, in Goethe's Faust, it was precisely the incorrectly drawn pentagram that allowed Mephistopheles to enter the human world.
The pentagram is a truncated hexagram in which harmony is broken; in the pentagram with the top up, light verses predominate, in the pentagram with the top down, dark ones. The sum of the angles of the pentagram is 180 degrees, i.e. similar to one of the triangles that make up the hexagram - good or evil. Medieval philosophers said that the pentagram, unlike the hexagram, is one, it cannot be decomposed into two figures; which symbolizes the stability of the "unipolar" world. The pentagram with the top up is the emblem of the triumph of good and truth.
In antiquity, the pentagram was also considered a symbol of the beauty of the world, since it is based on the "golden section", which is the personification of the beauty of proportions in nature.
In the Middle Ages, both the pentagram and the hexagram were sometimes called the "star of David", then the "star of Solomon". It was believed that the image of this star, along with the secret 72-letter name of God, was engraved on a military shield and brought victory to the owner of the shield in all battles.
The red five-pointed star is the emblem of the Soviet Armed Forces (red is the "revolutionary" color; the star as a talisman and as a symbol of high aspirations) and the emblem of international solidarity of workers (as an addition to the motto "Proletarians of all countries, unite!").

Six pointed star.
Ancient oriental symbol, emblem of Egyptian occultism.
In the form of a regular (flat hexagon - a biblical, otherwise Bethlehem star; according to the interpretation of the Bible, this was the star that shone over the house in which Jesus was born. In the form of two triangles superimposed on each other (vertices in opposite directions) - the so-called Star of David, emblem of the marriage of heaven and earth.
hexagramIn Christianity, the six-pointed star symbolizes the six days of creation. It is also interpreted as a symbol of the struggle between God and the devil (God is the upper triangle, the devil is the lower one).
The occult-theosophical interpretation of this image says that the hexagram expresses the perfection of the universe, since it is the product of the female number 2 (two triangles) and the male number 3 (three corners of each figure). There is also an "eschatological" interpretation: since the hexagram is the product of 6, 6, 6, 6 angles, 6 small triangles, 6 sides of the inner hexagon), it was associated with the number of the beast and the Antichrist.
A.I. Kuprin in the "Star of Solomon" gives such a "demonic" description of the star of Solomon:
"The whole book was interspersed with the text, interspersed with many strange recipes, complex drawings, mathematical and chemical formulas, drawings, constellations and signs of the zodiac. But most often, on almost every page, there was a drawing of two equal triangles superimposed on each other so that the bases they were parallel to each other, and the vertices were one above, the other below, and the whole figure was something like a six-armed star with twelve points of intersection.This drawing was called in uncle's cipher "Star of Solomon."
And always the "Star of Solomon" was accompanied in the margins or at the bottom by a column of the same seven names written in different languages: sometimes in Latin, sometimes in Greek, sometimes in French and in Russian: Astoret (sometimes Astaroth or Ashtaret ).
Asmodeus.
Belial (sometimes Baal, Bel, Beelzebub).
Dagon.
Lucifer.
Moloch.
Hamman (sometimes Amman and Gamman).
It was evident that all three predecessors of the Color tried to make some new combination from the letters included in the names of these ancient evil demons - maybe a word, maybe a whole phrase - and arrange it one letter at a time at the intersection points of the "Star of Solomon or in the triangles it forms. Tsvet found traces of these countless, but probably futile attempts everywhere. Three people successively, one after another, for a whole century worked on the solution of some mysterious problem, one in his princely estate, the other in Moscow, the third in the wilderness of Starodubsky district. One outlandish circumstance did not escape Tsvet's attention. No matter how fantastically the previous owners of the book rebuilt and glued the letters, two syllables always and inevitably entered their work: "Satan".
In European occultism, the six-pointed star is sometimes called the star of Solomon (who commanded the spirits and in whom this star was inscribed on the famous seal and was an amulet against evil spirits) and symbolizes the triumph of the triad.
In Freemasonry, the star of Solomon is the emblem of transcendental wisdom.
In classical heraldry, the image of a star in general. The blue star of David has been a symbol of Israel since the early 1950s, the national emblem of this country (along with the menorah). The yellow biblical star was applied during the Second World War to the clothes of Jews in Nazi concentration camps. The red six-pointed star on a white field (also called Etoile Rouge) is the emblem of the International Union of Societies for the Protection of Animals.
From the 14th century the six-pointed star is used as an emblem in many European countries.

* The seven-pointed star is one of the ancient symbols of the East, ancient civilizations. Known in Ancient Assyria, Chaldea, Sumer and Akkad. From ancient times, from the 1st century AD. e., such a star was the emblem of Iveria (ancient Georgia), where the astral cult was developed, and later, under the Bagratids, it became one of the main emblems of Kartalinia (until the middle of the 15th century). In 1918-1922 it was the emblem of Menshevik Georgia, and in 1923-1936 it was “dragged” into the coat of arms of the Georgian SSR in all its variants under the guise of a disguised national ornament, and, being visible, distinguishable on the coat of arms, it was not indicated in the description of Art. 180 of the Georgian SSR directly, but was called "a border with a pattern of Georgian ornaments." From the middle of 1991, it officially became the coat of arms of the Republic of Georgia with the image of George the Victorious on a horse galloping to the heraldic left side inscribed in it. In modern foreign emblems, the seven-pointed star is used only when they want to express the concept of a star in general and try to avoid interpreting it both as a military emblem and as a religious one. The seven-pointed star (stars) has in its coat of arms and on the flag of Australia and on the flag - Jordan; both countries thereby express their desire to delimit themselves primarily from neighboring countries (Australia from New Zealand and Jordan from Israel), which also use stars in their coats of arms (New Zealand - five-pointed and Israel - six-pointed). The seven-pointed star is occasionally used as an order sign, for example, the English order of St. Michael and St. George (1818).

Eight-pointed stars are, in fact, disguised crosses (two four-pointed stars), therefore, Catholic countries such as Colombia, Peru, and the Philippines have such stars in their coats of arms. In addition, the eight-pointed star is the most common order sign in all European and American Christian states. The eight-pointed star is especially often used for krashans. An almost regular octagon, formed by superimposing two squares diagonally on top of each other with the preservation of their crossing lines, was used as a symbol that accompanied the images of the god Sabaoth (the god-father, more correctly, the god of forces, armies) in Russian icon painting and Christian Orthodox symbolism of the pre-Ikonian times, especially from the 14th to the 16th century. This eight-pointed symbolic sign was depicted either at the top of the icons (most often in the upper right corner), or instead of a halo, or as a background above the head of Sabaoth. Often both quadrangles were painted (the upper one was green and the underlying one was red) or bordered with stripes of this color. Images of this kind are typical for the North of Russia and are (preserved) in the museums of Rostov the Great, Vologda, Perm. They mean (symbolize) eight millennia (“seven centuries of the Creator and the future age of the Father” *) and at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century they were recognized as “heretical” from the point of view of the canons of official Orthodoxy. An eight-pointed white star with a red border and the motto "Blood and Fire" is the emblem of the British and other Anglo-Saxon branches of "The Salvation Army" ("The Salvation army") - a socio-religious charitable organization founded by William and Catherine Booth in London in 1865 and became since 1880 international.

Nine-ray stars are almost never found in practice. They are used in the rarest cases only as orders in small Islamic states (for example, in the Sultanate of Johor on the Malay Peninsula).
According to esoteric ideas, if the number nine symbolized a circle, then the number one is the center of the circle, and the whole circle with the center inside represents the number ten (10=9+1). H.E. Kerlot gives the trinity of the nine the following characteristic: "Nine is the triangle of the triad and the tripling of the three. Therefore, this is a complex image of the three worlds. Nine is the end - the limit of the digital series until it returns to one. For the Jews, this number was a symbol of truth, being, characterized by the fact that, multiplied, it reproduces itself (in a mystical addition).
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Ten-pointed or ten-pointed stars were used in Soviet emblems and in the emblems of other countries that had a five-pointed star as a coat of arms, because a ten-pointed star is only a five-pointed repeated twice. Such stars are mainly used to create orders, especially in the Arab states of North Africa.
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The eleven-pointed star is exclusively an order, and, moreover, rare. In the past it was used in the orders of Portugal and Imperial Ethiopia (Abyssinia).
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The twelve-pointed star means a sign of perfection. In state emblems, that is, in coats of arms, this sign is now used only by two states - Nauru and Nepal. The emblems of these states - the 12-ray Sun - are in fact stars, because the Sun in heraldry is recognized as a star image that has 16 rays (see Rays), and everything that has less than 16, therefore, refers to the stars. In European emblems, the 12-ray star was used in the GDR on medals for outstanding services, loyalty, that is, as a sign of perfection of moral or professional qualities, for example, on police signs.
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The thirteen-pointed star did not exist and does not exist.
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Only two states have a fourteen-pointed star as their state emblem - Malaysia (in the coat of arms and flag) and Ethiopia (in the coat of arms). In Malaysia, this number of rays was established because it reflected the number of members of the Malaysian Federation at its formation - in 1963. However, in 1965, one of its members - Singapore - without the consent of the head of state - the Sultan - unilaterally withdrew from the federation and declared itself an independent state. But Malaysia even after that left a 14-ray star in its coat of arms, and 14 stripes on the flag, thus emphasizing that Singapore's exit is not officially recognized. In Ethiopia, the 14-ray star became the main emblem after the 1974 revolution and appeared for the first time in the state emblem in 1975 as a completely new element (before, in Imperial Ethiopia, the six-pointed star of Bethlehem was revered). It was supposed to emphasize both the antiquity of Ethiopian culture (the seven-pointed star) and its modern revival and renewal (the doubled seven-pointed star). This emblem ceased to exist in 1991 due to the overthrow of the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
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Fifteen pointed star. Theoretically, such a star is possible as a heraldic emblem with the meaning of a triple five-pointed star and used in ornaments, orders, medals, etc. However, there is still no organization or state that would use this emblem and justify its use.
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Sixteen pointed star. The presence of 16 rays in a star means that such a star depicts the Sun, and, therefore, in emblematics it is no longer called a star, but the Sun, since according to heraldic rules 16 is the minimum number of rays that gives reason to call the image the Sun, and any number of rays, over 16 and a multiple of 4 is also sufficient for the image that possesses them to be called the Sun.
A sixteen-pointed star, like a sixteen-pointed star, can be considered an image of the Sun, especially if it occurs in isolation or as part of an ornament. At the same time, it was precisely as a sign of solar purity, clarity and spotlessness that the image of a 16-pointed star from the time of pagan Ancient Rome was considered an emblem of virginity, and from here, already in the era of early Christianity, it accompanied images of the Holy Virgin, that is, the Virgin, which was later reflected in the Byzantine icon painting. Since the virgin and maiden are called Virgo in Latin, the 16-pointed star as the emblem of the Holy Virgin Mary later received the name of the Virgin Star. Until very recently, this star was not used in state heraldry, as it was considered a reserved religious emblem. However, in 1991, the newly created state of Macedonia (from the Yugoslav republic of the same name) on the ruins of the former Yugoslavia adopted the 16-pointed Virginia star as its main state emblem, referring to the fact that even before the introduction of Christianity, in the 4th century. BC e. under Philip II (359-336), this emblem was a kind of coat of arms of the Macedonian kingdom. Since Greece, as well as the Greek (and universal) Orthodox Church, opposed such use of the Virginia Star, a UN mediation commission was created to resolve the conflict that had arisen, which in May 1993 outlined its recommendations, supported in early June 1993 by the UN Secretary General Boutros Ghali. According to them, Macedonia should remove the Virginia Star from its national flag, and also change the name of the country to “New Macedonia” or “Slavomacedonia”, in order to completely eliminate any associations with Ancient Macedonia and thereby remove Greece’s fears about the territorial claims of the newly appeared heir to the Macedonian kingdom, because Greece has the province of Macedonia, which at one time was part of ancient Macedonia. However, the Macedonian government refused to implement these UN recommendations.
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As for the color of the stars, they can have any heraldic colors. In this case, the color usually indicates the national or political affiliation of the star emblem.
The most common white (silver) color of stars. This is the classic color of the star in old heraldry, and is still followed by most states. The gold color of the star is less commonly accepted. It usually points to the exceptionally important, state importance that is attached to the emblem of the star as the main emblem of a given country. So, China, Vietnam, Angola, Indonesia, Congo (Brazzaville), Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Suriname have gold stars in the coat of arms and on the flag. Sometimes only a gold border is attached to a star, emphasizing its significance as a state sign (for example, the red stars of the USSR, SFRY, NRB, VNR, NSRA had a gold border).
Only the five-pointed stars, which served as an emblem for the socialist states, are red.
The only exceptions are El Salvador and New Zealand, which, having introduced the image of the Southern Cross of four five-pointed stars into their flag and coat of arms, gave them a red color solely to distinguish this emblem, which is also available in other countries of the Southern Hemisphere. Before 1991, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Benin, Bulgaria, Djibouti, PDRY, North Korea, Yugoslavia, Laos, Mozambique, Mongolia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, USSR, Zimbabwe had a red five-pointed star in their coats of arms until 1991. Of these, only the DPRK and Laos retained these emblems after 1991.
* Five-pointed green stars belong, as a rule, to the Arab states, and from African states to Senegal, where the vast majority of the population is Muslim.
* The black color of a star in classical heraldry was used extremely rarely and symbolized the opposite of the concept of a star - not light, but darkness, night. In modern practice since the 60s of the XX century. black and meth stars are used as their distinctive, national new African states - Ghana, Gmina-Bissau, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, as well as the ANC party in South Africa, whose emblem is a red five-pointed star with a red hammer and sickle. As a political party symbol, the black five-pointed star is used by anarcho-syndicalists in Western Europe.
* Blue color stars are relatively rare and common type. from Cameroon and Panama. It means that the guiding for these countries is a peaceful policy.
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http://www.symbolsworld.narod.ru/Zvezda.html
http://www.blogs.mail.ru/mail/russian7777/59CBACF7654568E6.html
http://psylive.ru/?mod=articles&gl=4&id=149

What does the communist star mean?

who knows its origin and why it became a communist symbol?

Igor zi

The red star is one of the key symbols Soviet era along with the hammer and sickle. It meant the unity of the world proletariat of all five continents: the five ends of the star are the five continents of the planet. Red is the color of the proletarian revolution and biblical cleansing with blood; he was supposed to unite all five continents with a single goal and a single beginning. This is the occult side of the Soviet symbol.
The red star was commonly referred to as the "Mars star" after the ancient Roman god of war, Mars. In the Soviet tradition, Mars symbolized the protection of peaceful labor. Therefore, it is no coincidence that it is the red star that flies over the planet in the coat of arms of the USSR. The red star symbolized the liberation of workers from "hunger, war, poverty and slavery".
In April 1918, the emblem of the Red Army appeared - a five-pointed red star with a gold border, in the middle a golden plow and hammer, symbolizing the union of peasants and workers. The emblem was approved by the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs on April 19, 1918. The final appearance of the star was approved by the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs in July 1918. Later, the emblem was simplified - instead of a plow, a more visual sickle began to be depicted. This was officially formalized by order of the Revolutionary Military Council on April 13, 1922.
The red star was often depicted on flags and state symbols socialist countries as a sign of solidarity in ideologies and ways of development.
In the meaning of "Mars" the star appeared in the tsarist army. By decree of Emperor Nicholas I on January 1, 1827, stars appeared on the epaulettes of Russian officers and generals, in the manner of the French. And on April 29, 1854 - already sewn stars on the newly established shoulder straps.
Subsequently, the star appeared on the band of the cap. This happened for the first time on April 21, 1917, when by order of the Minister of Military and Naval Affairs of the Provisional Government A. I. Guchkov for the Navy and the Maritime Department No. 150, shoulder straps were replaced with sleeve insignia and a new cockade was introduced. A five-pointed star was placed above the anchor rosette.
The Great October Socialist Revolution, like almost all others, sweeping away the old state system, destroyed its attributes, including almost the entire symbolic system of the old armed forces. However, with the creation of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, the question arose about the iconic function of military clothing. Such an objective factor as identification, acting on the principle of "friend or foe", urgently demanded the introduction of any signs of belonging to the Red Army. Moreover, in the conditions of the civil war, the opposing sides used the same cut of clothing left over from the old army.
At first, the red five-pointed star became such a difference. It was first mentioned in the newspaper Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Peasants', Workers', Soldiers' and Cossacks' Deputies on April 19, 1918. A small note in the "Chronicle" section said that the Commissariat for Military Affairs approved a drawing of a badge for the soldiers of the Red Army in the form of a red star with a golden image of a plow and a hammer in the center. The configuration of the sign embodied the most ancient symbol of protection. The plow and hammer were read as an alliance of workers and peasants. The red color represented the revolution and the god of war, Mars. It is not surprising that when it was officially approved by order of the People's Commissariat of the Republic of the Republic No. 321 dated May 7, 1918, it received the name "Mars star with a plow and a hammer", it was announced that this sign "is the property of persons serving in the Red Army", and it was also strictly forbidden, up to giving the court a revolutionary tribunal, its use by those who were not in the ranks of the army.

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