Hammer and sickle

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Hammer and sickle (disambiguation).

The hammer and sickle symbol

The hammer and sickle (

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.[1]

After

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.

History

Louis-Oscar Roty
.

Worker symbolism

One example of use prior to its political instrumentalization by the Soviet Union is found in Chilean currency circulating since 1894.[2][3]

Inception

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.[4][5] It originally featured a sword, but Lenin strongly objected, disliking the militaristic connotations.[6][7] On 6 July 1923, the 2nd session of the Central Executive Committee (CIK) adopted the emblem.[6][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.[8][9]

Use in Soviet Union

The hammer and sickle symbol and red star.
A hammer and sickle on the insignia of the Order of the Patriotic War.

Meaning

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.[6]

Current usage

Post-Soviet states

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.[10]

The former Soviet (now Russian) national airline, Aeroflot, continues to use the hammer and sickle in its symbol.[11]

Flag of Transnistria

The de facto government of

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.[12]

Communist parties

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.[citation needed]

Many communist parties around the world also use it, including 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[14] and the Mexican Communist Party
use the hammer and sickle imposed on the red star.

Variations

Flag of Angola
Flag of Mozambique

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.[15]

Tools represented in other designs include: the

People's Mojahedin of Iran
.

The

majuscule G, to represent Guadeloupe.[16]

In 1938, the

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.[18]

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.[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.[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.

Art

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.

See also: Red star § Legal status, and Bans on communist symbols

In several countries in the former

Nazi swastika symbols.[29][30]

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.[31]

In February 2013, the

Moldovan Communist Party's symbols—the hammer and sickle—are legal and can be used.[33]

In

1965–1966 killings of communists in which over 500,000 people were killed.[34][35] In January 2018, an activist protesting against Bumi Resources displayed the hammer and sickle, was accused of spreading communism, and later jailed.[36][37]

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.[38]

Flags

Europe and Russia/Soviet Union

Current
Former

Asia minus Russia/Soviet Union

Current
Former

Africa

Current
Former

Americas

Current

State emblems

Soviet Union (in the constitutional order)

Other

Current
Former

Logos

Europe

Current

Former

Asia

Current
Former

Africa

Current
Former

Americas

Current
Former

Unicode

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.[39]

See also

Notes

References

  1. Encyclopedia Britannica
    . Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  2. ^ "20 Centavos 1895". Numista. Archived from the original on 22 January 2025.
  3. ^ "Chilean peso example, 1927". Retrieved 22 January 2025.
  4. ^ "АртРу.инфо - Художники - Камзолкин Евгений Иванович". Artru.info. 18 March 1957. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  5. ^ "International Gallery of Contemporary Artists". Archived from the original on 16 August 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  6. ^ a b c Wharton, Christopher. "The Hammer and Sickle: The Role of Symbolism and Rituals in the Russian Revolution". The Myriad: Westminster's Interactive Academic Journal. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
  7. ISBN 978-0-253-33333-9
    .
  8. ISBN 0-880-33341-3
    .
  9. ^ Crangan, Costel (1 September 2018). "De unde vine simbolul "secera şi ciocanul". Ce ţară l-a folosit prima şi în ce state este interzis" [Where does the symbol "sickle and hammer" come from? Which country used it first and in which states it is forbidden] (in Romanian). Adevarul Holding.
  10. ^ "Hammer and Sickle on Flags and State Emblems". Soviet Tours. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  11. ^ "Aeroflot Logo To Keep Hammer And Sickle". aviationweek.com. 18 April 2003. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  12. Marine Corps University Press
    : 175. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  13. ^ "KKE - Αρχική". kke.gr.
  14. ^ "Estatutos do PCP, art. 72". pcp.pt/estatutos-do-pcp. 17 March 2010.
  15. ^ TM (17 June 2019). "Turkey's communist party to boycott İstanbul election". Turkish Minute. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  16. ^ "Parti Communiste Guadeloupéen". flagspot.net.
  17. ^ Khin Yi (1988). The Dobama Movement in Burma (1930-1938). Cornell University Press. p. 39.
  18. ^ မြန်မာဖတ်စာ ဒုတိယတန်း (Grade-3) [Myanmar Textbook for Second Standard (Grade-3)] (in Burmese). Ministry of Education, Government of the Union of Myanmar. 2006. p. 1.
  19. ^ Communist symbols to be banned in Georgia, BBC News, 4 May 2014, retrieved 13 May 2014
  20. ^ "Act C of 2012 on the Criminal Code, Section 335: Use of Symbols of Totalitarianism" (PDF). Ministry of Interior of Hungary. p. 97. Retrieved 21 February 2017. Any person who: a) distributes, b) uses before the public at large, or c) publicly exhibits, the swastika, the insignia of the SS, the arrow cross, the sickle and hammer, the five-pointed red star or any symbol depicting the above so as to breach public peace – specifically in a way to offend the dignity of victims of totalitarian regimes and their right to sanctity – is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by custodial arrest, insofar as they did not result in a more serious criminal offense.
  21. ^ Latvia Bans Soviet, Nazi Symbols, RIA Novosti, 21 June 2013, retrieved 14 September 2014
  22. ^ "Lithuanian ban on Soviet symbols". BBC News. 17 June 2008.
  23. Radio Free Europe
    . 12 July 2012.
  24. ^ "Ukraine Bans Soviet-Era Symbols". The Wall Street Journal.
  25. ^ LAW OF UKRAINE. On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist (Nazi) regimes, and prohibition of propaganda of their symbols
  26. ^ "Про засудження комуністичного та націонал-соціалістичного ... - від 09.04.2015 № 317-VIII". rada.gov.ua.
  27. ^ "Free speech questioned as Estonia prepares to ban Soviet, Nazi symbols".
  28. ^ "Ants Erm: Erinevalt venelaste ajaloost on Venemaa ajalugu Eestis vaid vägivald, küüditamine ja kommunistlik diktatuur".
  29. ^ "У поліції нагадали, що за серп і молот можна сісти на 5 років". Українська правда (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  30. ^ Bobkov, Denys (7 May 2021). "Заборона символіки тоталітарних режимів: що мають знати миколаївці".
  31. ^ EU won't legislate on communist crimes, BBC News (22 December 2010).
  32. ^ "Hungary, hammer and sickle ban declared illegal". ANSA. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  33. ^ "Constitutional Court rules that 'hammer and sickle' can be used". allmoldova.com. 5 June 2013. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  34. ^ "Declassified files outline US support for 1965 Indonesia massacre". archive.is. 29 October 2017. Archived from the original on 29 October 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  35. ^ Dickie Christanto (20 October 2008). "Artists summoned over communist symbol exhibition". The Jakarta Post. Archived from the original on 26 October 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  36. ^ "Indonesian activist jailed for advocating communism". ucanews.com. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  37. ^ "Indonesia's 'Anti-Communism' Law Used Against Environmental Activist". Human Rights Watch. 12 January 2018. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  38. ^ "Nowelizacja kodeksu karnego" (in Polish). 19 July 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  39. ^ "☭ Hammer and Sickle Emoji". emojipedia.org. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
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