The State Emblem of the Soviet Union was the official symbol of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics adopted in 1923 and used until the dissolution of the state in 1991. Although it technically is an emblem rather than a coat of arms, since it does not follow traditional heraldic rules, in Russian it is called герб (gerb), the word used for a traditional coat of arms. The coat of arms was recorded in Article 143 of the 1936 Constitution of the USSR. The emblem contains an image of a hammer and sickle on the background of the terrestrial globe, in the rays of the sun and surrounded by ears of grain (wheat), in a red ribbon with the inscription in the languages of the union republics "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" In the upper part of the coat of arms is a five-pointed red star with a yellow border. It was the first (apart from the earlier created emblems of the constituent republics) state insignia created in the style known as socialist heraldry, a style also seen in emblems of other socialist countries such as East Germany and the People's Republic of China.
History
Creation
In the autumn of 1922, the Commission for the Development of Soviet Symbolics began its work in Goznak. In those days, compositions of the first Soviet brands and banknotes were created. On 10 January 1923, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR established a commission for the development of the state emblem and flag. At the same time, the CEC defined the main elements of the state symbols of the union: the sun, the sickle and hammer, the motto "Proletarians of all countries, unite!". In February 1923, the order for the creation of the coat of arms was handed over to Goznak. The artists of Goznak presented their variants, sketches of the projects of the coat of arms of artists Dmitry S. Golyadkin, Yakov B. Dreyer, Nikolai N. Kochura, Vladimir D. Kupriyanov, P. Rumyantsev, Alexander Georgievich Yakimchenko, Ivan Shadr. An interesting project was presented by artist K.I. Dunin-Borkovsky - he, as an adherent of classical heraldry, represented the coat of arms of the USSR as a heraldic shield with a sickle and a hammer. The Commission outlined several key principles that should form the basis of the new symbol:
the unity of workers and peasants, the reflection of the international nature of the state in the coat of arms, the readiness of the USSR for voluntary expansion, the motto "Proletarians of all countries, unite!"
Rejected proposals
All of Goznak's sketches rejected the conservative layout of European heraldry, especially shields. The designs refer to the poster tradition of the early 1920s. In February, the commission did not accept any of the sketches by Goznak's staff artists.
Successful proposals
The artist whose sketches interested the commission was Vasily Korzun. He did not work at Goznak, but it was Korzun's idea that became the basis of the emblem. On the basis of the order, the artist prepared several projects based on the idea of "a hammer and sickle hovering over the globe". The idea of placing a globe on the emblem was originally proposed by cartographer Vladimir Adrianov. The globe was to symbolize that access to the Union was open to all states of the world. These were the last drawings, which became the basis of the Soviet emblem, but it was not without modifications. The commission invited the young artist Ivan Dubasov to participate in the work. In general, the entire composition of the emblem was developed by Adrianov and Korzun. Work on the draft of the coat of arms was monitored by government authorities. For example, the Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee Avel Yenukidze on 28 June 1923 proposed to place a red star at the top of the emblem in place of the monogram "USSR" ("СССР"). His remark: "Instead of a monogram, a star" was immortalized in Korzun's archival drawing. One of the early designs by an unknown author can be seen on the Central Telegraph building in Moscow, opened in 1927.
Approval
The design of the successful proposed emblem was redrawn by Ivan Dubasov. In his first draft, slogans were placed on a red ribbon covering the lower part of the coat of arms. Then it was decided to place mottos in 6 languages on the tape interceptions.
First version (1923–1936)
The project of the first version of the state emblem was accepted on 6 July 1923 by the 2nd session of the Central Executive Committee (CIK) and the version was completed on 22 September of that year. This design was fixed in Article 70 of the 1924 Soviet Constitution: "The State Emblem of the USSR is composed of a sickle and a hammer on a globe depicted in the rays of the sun and framed by ears of wheat, with the inscription 'proletarians of the world, unite!' in six languages mentioned in Article 34. At the top of the Emblem is a five-pointed star." The six languages were Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Georgian, Armenian, and "Turko-Tatar", which originally represented Azerbaijani and later also covered Uzbek SSR and Turkmen SSR. After the constitution was amended on March 17, 1931, Article 70 simply mentioned "the languages commonly used in the union republics", and the design was updated in the same year. Tajik in the Persian alphabet was added after the formation of the Tajik SSR in 1929. From now on, the Russian inscription came to be in the center. At the same time, as a result of language reforms, the Turkic inscription began to be written in the Latin alphabet.
Second version (1936–1946)
With the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the USSR consisted of eleven republics, and the design of the state emblem was specified under Article 143 with the inscription "in the languages of the union republics". As a result, the new version had eleven ribbons bearing USSR State Motto inscriptions in eleven languages. The languages added were Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, and Uzbek. Additionally, Tajik began to be written in the Latin alphabet.
Third version (1946–1956)
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