Emblems of the Soviet Republics

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

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

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

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

Emblems of the Soviet Republics

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

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

Derived designs

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

• 
  Emblem of the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic
• 
  Emblem of the Russian Federation (1992–1993)

References

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

See also

• Communist symbolism
• State Emblem of the Soviet Union
• Emblems of the Autonomous Soviet Republics
• Flags of the Soviet Republics
• List of coats of arms of the Russian Federation
• Emblems of the Yugoslav Socialist Republics