History
After the Soviet invasion and occupation of Estonia in June 1940, the country was annexed to, and became an administrative subdivision of, the USSR under the name "Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic" in August 1940. After 31 October 1940, a Soviet Union flag with Latin script ENSV replacing the star above the hammer and sickle, was officially used by the Soviet authorities in the Estonian SSR. On 6 February 1953, a new version of the flag was adopted. It too followed the style of the flag of the Soviet Union, with six spiky blue and white wavy stripes added to the bottom.
During the period of foreign rule in 1940–1991, the Estonian diaspora and diplomatic service around the world continued to use the national flag of Estonia, whereas the use of the national tricolour and its blue, black and white colour combination was banned and punishable by law in the Soviet Union until 1988. [3]
On 20 October 1988, the usage of the blue-black-white flag was officially allowed again by Estonian authorities. On the evening of 23 February 1989 the Soviet flag was taken down permanently from the tower of Pikk Hermann of the Toompea Castle. It was replaced with the national blue-black-white flag on the next morning, 24 February, upon the 70th anniversary of the Estonian Declaration of Independence.
With the Act on symbols of Estonia, passed on 8 May 1990, a year before Estonia regained full independence in 1991, the use of the Estonian SSR flag and emblem as state symbols was officially discontinued. [4]
The State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or simply the Soviet flag, was a red banner with two communist symbols displayed in the canton: a gold hammer and sickle topped off by a gold five-point star. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from several sources, but emerged during the Russian Revolution. It has also come to serve as the standard symbol representing communism as a whole, recognized as such in international circles, even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The flag of Estonia is a tricolour featuring three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), black (middle), and white (bottom). In Estonian it is colloquially called the sinimustvalge.
The hammer and sickle is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between agricultural and industrial workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing workers and the sickle representing the peasants.
The national flag of Kazakhstan, also called the Kazakh flag, was adopted on 4 June 1992, replacing the flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The flag was designed by Shaken Niyazbekov.
The national flag of Ukraine consists of equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow.
The flag of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic was a plain red flag with a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton and an horizontal dark blue band on the bottom fourth, representing the Caspian Sea.
The flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted by the Kazakh government on 24 January 1953. The flag resembles the flag of the Soviet Union in defaced form with a 2/9 horizontal blue (azure) bar in the lower part of the flag and the hammer and sickle in the near centre.
The flag of the Kirghiz SSR was adopted by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Kirghiz SSR decreed by its Decree on 22 December 1952. The 1978 constitution of the Kirghiz SSR states that the ratio of the flag is 1:2 with the blue/white/blue stripes in the middle taking 1⁄3 of the flag height and the white stripes 1⁄20 of flag height. The red, blue and white colors were derived from the Pan-Slavic colours.
The flag of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic shows a yellow hammer and sickle and outlined star on a red field above rippling water at the bottom, and was adopted by the (former) Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic on January 17, 1953.
The flag of the Lithuanian SSR was first adopted by the Lithuanian SSR in 1918, which was a plain red flag. After Lithuanian SSR was established again in 1940, the flag was a red flag with the national name and a hammer and sickle in the upper canton. The flag in use from 1953 to 1989 was a red flag with the golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton with a white thin stripe and green thick band on the bottom.
The flag of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic was the red Soviet flag with white and green stripes below the gold hammer and sickle, with the measures: 1/2 red, 1/5 white, 1/10 green, 1/5 red. The flag sported the Pan-Iranian colors of red, white and green, as a nod to the republic's Persian-descended culture. The flag was adopted on March 20, 1953 by decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR:
The national flag of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic is a panel consisting of four horizontal colored stripes: the upper band of red which is half the width of the flag; white stripe, making one fifth of the width of the flag; green stripes, is one-tenth the width of the flag, and the lower band of red color, is one-fifth the width of the flag. On top of the red band at the flagpole located gold hammer and sickle and above them is a five-pointed red star framed by a gold border. The ratio of the flag's width to its length is 1: 2.The fitting of the hammer and sickle into a square whose side wound 1/4 width of the flag. The sharp end of the sickle falls in the middle of the upper side of the square, handles the sickle and hammer rest on the bottom corners of the square. hammer with a handle length is 3/4 of the diagonal of a square. The five-pointed star in a circle fits 1/8 width of the flag relating to the upper side of the square. Distance vertical axis of the star, the hammer and sickle from the grapnel is equal to 1/4 of the flag's width. The distance from the top edge of the flag of the flag to the center of the star - 1/10 of the flag's width.
The flag of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted by the Turkmen SSR on August 1, 1953. Although similar to the Flag of the Soviet Union, the layout is identical to the flag of the Kirghiz SSR with a ratio of 1:2. The two blue stripes between the red represents the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya, the red represents the "revolutionary struggle of the working masses", the hammer and sickle represents the peasants' and workers' union, and the red star is the symbol of the ruling Communist Party.
The first flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkSSR) was adopted on 10 March 1919 to serve as the symbol of state of the Ukrainian SSR. Details of the official flag changed periodically before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but all had as their basis the communist red flag. According to the decree of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of Ukrainian SSR on 21 November 1949, the blue in the bottom "symbolises the mightiness and beauty of the people, and the blue banner of Bohdan Khmelnytsky".
The flag of the Uzbek SSR was adopted by the Uzbek SSR on 29 August 1952. The red represents the "revolutionary struggle of the working masses", the hammer and sickle represents the peasants' and workers' union, and the red star is the symbol of the communist party. There is no official explanation for the symbolic meanings of other elements. However, in some material the white stripes represent cotton, the blue band represents Amu Darya and irrigation in general.
The flags of the Soviet Socialist Republics were all defaced versions of the flag of the Soviet Union, which featured a golden hammer and sickle and a gold-bordered red star on a red field.
The state emblem of Uzbekistan was formally adopted on July 2, 1992 by the newly establish Republic of Uzbekistan. It bears many similarities to the emblem of the previous Uzbek SSR, which Republic of Uzbekistan succeeded. Like other post-Soviet republics whose symbols do not predate the October Revolution, the current emblem retains some components of the Soviet one. Prior to 1992, Uzbekistan had an emblem similar to all other Soviet Republics, with standard communist emblems and insignia.
The coat of arms of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on May 20, 1921 by the government of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. The coat of arms is loosely based on the coat of arms of the Soviet Union. It shows symbols of agriculture. The red star rising above the Caucasus stands for the future of the Georgian nation, and the hammer and sickle for the victory of Communism and the "world-wide socialist community of states".
The State Emblem of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on March 1, 1937 by the government of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic. The emblem is based on the State Emblem of the Soviet Union. It shows symbols of agriculture. The red star is prominently featured with a small hammer and sickle within it. The rising sun stands for the future of the Tajik nation, and the star as well as the hammer and sickle for the victory of communism and the "world-wide socialist community of states". The emblem was replaced with the new emblem in 1992, which uses a similar design to the Soviet one. It was, however, was replacing the red banner with the current national flag, the big red star was replaced by the mountains, represents Pamir, the Samanid dynasty crown, and added the Quran book at below. It represents Islam as the official religion.
The coat of arms of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on 10 February 1941 by the government of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The coat of arms is based on the coat of arms of the Soviet Union. It shows symbols of agriculture, an outer rim featuring wheat, corn, grapes and clover. The red banner bears the Soviet Union state motto in both the Romanian language and the Russian language. In Romanian, it was initially "Пролетарь дин тоате цэриле, униць-вэ!"; then, from the 1950s "Пролетарь дин тоате цэриле, уници-вэ!". Both are written in the Latin alphabet as "Proletari din toate țările, uniți-vă!". The acronym MSSR is shown only in Romanian in Moldovan Cyrillic ("РССМ"). The emblem was replaced on 3 November 1990 by the present coat of arms of Moldova. Currently, the unrecognized breakaway state of Transnistria uses a similar state emblem.
Socialist-style emblems usually follow a unique style consisting of communist symbolism. Although commonly referred to as coats of arms, most are not actually traditional heraldic achievements. Many communist governments purposely diverged from heraldic tradition in order to distance themselves from the monarchies that they usually replaced, with coats of arms being seen as symbols of the monarchs.
