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Hammer and sickle

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File:Hammer and sickle red on transparent.svg
The hammer and sickle symbol

The hammer and sickle (Unicode: Template:Unichar) is a communist symbol representing proletarian solidarity between industrial and agricultural 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After World War I (from which Russia withdrew in 1917) and the Russian Civil War, the hammer and sickle became more widely used as a symbol for labor within the Soviet Union (USSR) and for international proletarian unity. It was taken up by many communist movements around the world, some with local variations. The hammer and sickle remains commonplace in self-declared socialist states, such as China, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, and Vietnam, but also some former Soviet republics following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, such as Belarus and Russia. Some countries have imposed bans on communist symbols, where the display of the hammer and sickle is prohibited.

HistoryEdit

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Worker symbolismEdit

One example of use prior to its political instrumentalization by the Soviet Union is found in Chilean currency circulating since 1894.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

InceptionEdit

In 1918, Yevgeny Ivanovich Kamzolkin proposed a 'hammer and sickle' symbol as a decoration for the May Day celebrations in the Zamoskvorechye District of Moscow.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It originally featured a sword, but Lenin strongly objected, disliking the militaristic connotations.<ref name="HS Role and Symbolism">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On 6 July 1923, the 2nd session of the Central Executive Committee (CIK) adopted the emblem.<ref name="HS Role and Symbolism"/>Template:Failed verification

In 1919, the new Republic of Austria introduced a sickle and a hammer to its coat of arms, one in each talon of its supporting eagle, to represent the farming and industrial classes. They were removed in 1934 with the establishment of the Fascist Federal State of Austria and returned in 1945 after the defeat of Nazi Germany (which had absorbed Austria in 1938) in the Second World War.

In his work, Daily Life in a Crumbling Empire: The Absorption of Russia into the World Economy, sociologist David Lempert hypothesizes that the hammer and sickle was a secular replacement for the patriarchal cross.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Crangan">Template:Cite news</ref>

Use in Soviet UnionEdit

File:Hammer and Sickle and Star.svg
The hammer and sickle symbol and red star.
File:Order of the Patriotic War (Ist class).svg
A hammer and sickle on the insignia of the Order of the Patriotic War.

MeaningEdit

At the time of creation, the hammer and sickle stood for worker-peasant alliance, with the hammer a traditional symbol of the industrial proletariat (who dominated the proletariat of Russia) and the sickle a traditional symbol for the peasantry, but the meaning has since broadened to a globally recognizable symbol for Marxism, communist parties, or socialist states.<ref name="HS Role and Symbolism"/>

Current usageEdit

Post-Soviet statesEdit

Two federal subjects of the post-Soviet Russian Federation use the hammer and sickle in their symbols: the Vladimir Oblast has them on its flag and the Bryansk Oblast has them on its flag and coat of arms, which is also the central element of its flag. In addition, the Russian city of Oryol also uses the hammer and sickle on its flag.<ref name="soviettours">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The former Soviet (now Russian) national airline, Aeroflot, continues to use the hammer and sickle in its symbol.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The de facto government of Transnistria uses (with minor modifications) the flag and the emblem of the former Moldavian SSR, which includes the hammer and sickle. The flag can also appear without the hammer and sickle in some circumstances, for example on Transnistrian-issued license plates, military uniforms, and money.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Communist partiesEdit

Three out of the five currently ruling Communist parties use a hammer and sickle as the party symbol: the Chinese Communist Party, the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. In Laos and Vietnam, the hammer and sickle party flags can often be seen flying side by side with their respective national flags.Template:Citation needed

Many communist parties around the world also use it, including the Communist Party of Greece,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the Communist Party of Argentina, the Communist Party of Chile, both the Communist Party of Brazil and the Brazilian Communist Party, the Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party from Bangladesh, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the Indian Communist Marxist Party, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), the Egyptian Communist Party, the Communist Party of Pakistan, the Communist Refoundation Party in Italy, the Communist Party of Spain, the Communist Party of Denmark, the Communist Party of Norway, the Romanian Communist Party, the Lebanese Communist Party, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Shining Path. The Communist Party of Sweden, the Portuguese Communist Party<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Mexican Communist Party use the hammer and sickle imposed on the red star.

VariationsEdit

Many symbols having similar structures and messages to the original have been designed. For example, the Angolan flag shows a segment of a cog, crossed by a machete and crowned with a socialist star, while the flag of Mozambique features an AKM crossed by a hoe. In the logo of the Communist Party USA, a circle is formed by a half cog and a semicircular sickle-blade. A hammer is laid directly over the sickle's handle, with the hammer's head at the logo's center. The logo of the Communist Party of Turkey consists of half a cog wheel crossed by a hammer, with a star on the top.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Tools represented in other designs include: the brush, sickle and hammer of the Workers' Party of Korea; the spade, flaming torch and quill used prior to 1984 by the British Labour Party; the pickaxe and rifle used in communist Albania; and the hammer and compasses of the East German emblem and flag. The Far Eastern Republic of Russia used an anchor crossed over a spade or pickaxe, symbolising the union of the fishermen and miners. The Fourth International, founded by Leon Trotsky, uses a hammer and sickle symbol on which the number 4 is superimposed. The hammer and sickle in the Fourth International symbol are the opposite of other hammer and sickle symbols in that the head of the hammer is on the right side and the sickle end tip on the left. The Trotskyist League for the Fifth International merges a hammer with the number 5, using the number's lower arch to form the sickle. A sickle with a rifle is also used by the People's Mojahedin of Iran.

The Communist Party of Britain uses the hammer and dove symbol. Designed in 1988 by Michal Boncza, it is intended to highlight the party's connection to the peace movement. It is usually used in conjunction with the hammer and sickle, and it appears on all of the CPB's publications. Some members of the CPB prefer one symbol over the other, although the party's 1994 congress reaffirmed the hammer and dove's position as the official emblem of the party. Similarly, the Communist Party of Israel uses a dove over the hammer and sickle as its symbol. The flag of the Guadeloupe Communist Party uses a sickle, turned to look like a majuscule G, to represent Guadeloupe.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1938, the Dobama Asiayone, an anti-British nationalist group in the then British Burma, adopted a tricolour flag charged with a red sickle and hammer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> From 1974–2010, the flag of Burma (Myanmar) featured a bushel of rice superimposed on a cogwheel surrounded by fourteen white stars; the rice representing the peasants and the cogwheel representing the workers, the combination symbolizing that the peasants and workers be the two basic social classes for State building, while the fourteen equal-sized white stars indicate the unity and equality of fourteen member states of the Union.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The flag of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, Party of the Revolution in Swahili), currently the ruling political party of Tanzania, has a slightly different symbol with a hammer and a hoe (jembe) instead of a sickle to represent the most common farm tool in Africa.Template:Citation needed

The symbols of the liberal socialist parties of Radical Civic Union in Argentina and the Czech National Social Party in the Czech Republic feature a hammer and a quill, with the former representing workers and the latter representing clerks.Template:Citation needed

The election symbol of the Communist Party of India consists of a horizontal sickle, vertically crossed by Ears of Corn in the center.

ArtEdit

The hammer and sickle has long been a common theme in socialist realism, but it has also seen some depiction in non-Marxist popular culture. Andy Warhol who created many drawings and photographs of the hammer and sickle is the most famous example of this.

  • Lenpl 06.jpg

    The metro station, Plošča Lienina, Minsk

  • BWHammerSickle.jpg

    Sándor Pinczehelyi, Hammer and Sickle

  • Hammer and Sickle - Kerala.jpg

    A tableau in a communist rally in Kerala, India

  • Juche-Tower-2014.jpg

    "Worker, peasant and the intellectual" in front of the Juche Tower, Pyongyang

  • Flag of the Animal Farm.svg

    The Hoof and Horn flag described in the book Animal Farm is a parody of the hammer and sickle.

Legal statusEdit

Template:See also In several countries in the former Eastern Bloc, there are laws that define the hammer and sickle as the symbol of a "totalitarian and criminal ideology" and the public display of the hammer and sickle and other Communist symbols such as the red star is considered a criminal offence. Georgia,<ref name="Communist symbols to be banned in Georgia">Template:Citation</ref> Hungary,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Latvia,<ref name="Latvia Bans Soviet, Nazi Symbols">Template:Citation</ref> Lithuania,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Moldova (1 October 2012 – 4 June 2013)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Ukraine<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> have banned communist symbols including this one. A similar law was considered in Estonia,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but it eventually failed in a parliamentary committee.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Ukraine, the legislature equates communist symbols including hammer with sickle to Nazi swastika symbols.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2010, the Lithuanian, Latvian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian, and Czech governments called for the European Union to criminalize "the approval, denial or belittling of communist crimes" similar to how a number of EU member states have banned Holocaust denial. The European Commission turned down this request, finding after a study that the criteria for EU-wide criminal legislation were not met, leaving individual member states to determine the extent to which they wished to handle past totalitarian crimes.<ref>EU won't legislate on communist crimes, BBC News (22 December 2010).</ref>

In February 2013, the Constitutional Court of Hungary annulled the ban on the use of symbols of fascist and communist dictatorships, including the hammer and sickle, the red star and the swastika, saying the ban was too broad and imprecise. The court also pointed to a judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in which Hungary was found guilty of violation of article 10, the right to freedom of expression.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In June 2013, the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the Moldovan Communist Party's symbols—the hammer and sickle—are legal and can be used.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In Indonesia, the display of communist symbols is banned and the country's Communist party was also banned by decree of president Suharto, following the 1965–1966 killings of communists in which over 500,000 people were killed.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In January 2018, an activist protesting against Bumi Resources displayed the hammer and sickle, was accused of spreading communism, and later jailed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Human Rights Watch 2018">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In Poland, dissemination of items which are "media of fascist, communist or other totalitarian symbolism" was criminalized in 1997. However, the Constitutional Tribunal found this sanction to be unconstitutional in 2011.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Usage galleryEdit

FlagsEdit

Europe and Russia/Soviet UnionEdit

CurrentEdit
FormerEdit
  • Flag of the Soviet Union (1922–1923).svg

    Flag of the Soviet Union from 1922 to November 1923

  • Flag of the Soviet Union (1924).svg

    Flag of the Soviet Union from November 1923 to April 1924

  • Flag of the Soviet Union (1924–1936).svg

    Flag of the Soviet Union from April 1924 to December 1936

  • Flag of the Soviet Union (1936–1955).svg

    Flag of the Soviet Union from December 1936 to 1955

  • Flag of the Soviet Union.svg

    Flag of the Soviet Union from 19 August 1955 to 26 December 1991

  • USSR, Jack and fortress flag of naval fortresses 1964.svg

    Naval Jack of the Soviet Union and Russia from 16 November 1950 to 26 July 1992

  • Naval Ensign of the Soviet Union (1950–1991).svg

    Naval ensign of the Soviet Union and Russia from 16 November 1950 to 26 July 1992

  • Flag of the Aeroflot.svg

    Flag of Aeroflot from 1961 to 1991

  • Flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1954–1991).svg

    Flag of the Russian SFSR from 1954 to 1991

  • Flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.svg

    Flag of the Ukrainian SSR from 1950 to 1992

  • Flag of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (1951–1991).svg

    Flag of the Byelorussian SSR from 1951 to 1991

  • Flag of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (1952–1991).svg

    Flag of the Uzbek SSR from 1952 to 1991

  • Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (1953–1991); Flag of Kazakhstan (1991–1992).svg

    Flag of the Kazakh SSR from 1953 to 1992

  • Flag of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (1951–1990).svg

    Flag of the Georgian SSR from 1951 to 1990

  • Flag of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (1956–1991).svg

    Flag of the Azerbaijani SSR from 1956 to 1991

  • Flag of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (1953–1988).svg

    Flag of the Lithuanian SSR from 1953 to 1988

  • Flag of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (1952–1990).svg

    Flag of the Moldavian SSR from 1952 to 1990

  • Flag of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (1953–1990).svg

    Flag of the Latvian SSR from 1953 to 1990

  • Flag of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic.svg

    Flag of the Kirghiz SSR from 1952 to 1992

  • Flag of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic.svg

    Flag of the Tajik SSR from 1953 to 1991

  • Flag of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1952–1990).svg

    Flag of the Armenian SSR from 1952 to 1990

  • Flag of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.svg

    Flag of the Turkmen SSR from 1953 to 1992

  • Flag of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (1953–1990).svg

    Flag of the Estonian SSR from 1953 to 1990

  • Flag of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.svg

    Flag of the Karelo-Finnish SSR from 1953 to 1956

  • Flag of the Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic.svg

    Flag of the Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic

  • Flag of the Russian Communist Workers' Party of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.svg

    Flag of the Decommunization (Russia)

  • Flag of PCR.svg

    Flag of the Romanian Communist Party

  • National Bolshevik Party flag.svg

    Flag of the National Bolshevik Party

  • Flag of the KSC.svg

    Flag of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia

  • Flag of the Communist Party of Germany.svg

    Flag of the Communist Party of Germany

  • Flag of the Communist Party of Germany (reverse).svg

    Reverse side of the Communist Party of Germany flag

  • Flag of East Germany.svg

    Flag of East Germany from 1959 to 1990

  • Flag of the Italian Communist Party.svg

    Flag of the Italian Communist Party

  • Sammarinese Communist Party flag, 1950s.svg

    Flag of the Sammarinese Communist Party

  • League of Communists of Yugoslavia Flag.svg

    Flag of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia

Asia minus Russia/Soviet UnionEdit

CurrentEdit
FormerEdit

AfricaEdit

CurrentEdit
FormerEdit

AmericasEdit

CurrentEdit

State emblemsEdit

Soviet Union (in the constitutional order)Edit

OtherEdit

CurrentEdit
FormerEdit

LogosEdit

EuropeEdit

Current

FormerEdit

AsiaEdit

CurrentEdit
FormerEdit

AfricaEdit

CurrentEdit
FormerEdit

AmericasEdit

CurrentEdit
FormerEdit

UnicodeEdit

In Unicode, the "hammer and sickle" symbol is U+262D (☭). It is part of the Miscellaneous Symbols (2600–26FF) code block. It was added to Unicode 1.1 in 1993.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See alsoEdit

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NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Soviet Union topics Template:Chinese Communist Party Template:China topics

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