As you may have noticed, there has been a strong underlying theme in my last group of blog posts about history. This theme is that they are virtually all about change. Now, this may be political change, cultural change, geographical change, or even societal change. This is because history is riddled with change, and to understand historic events we must understand what lead to them and what effected them. In our class, we have been studying history in regards to time eras. We began by indulging into the sixties, then the seventies, and we are currently investigating the eighties. While we have been studying these time periods, there has been one major player in the game of history that has been present. This was the USSR. In this post, we are going to investigate into their flag, and use our own original thoughts and connections. Lets dive straight into it!

 

What are your initial thoughts when you see this image? How do you feel? What emotions are brought out, and what connections are made?

This flag, in fact, is the flag of the USSR. This flag waved proudly over the USSR for many years, through 1922 until 1991. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag lowered for the last time over the Kremlin, thereafter replaced by the Russian tricolor. I am not going to give you a full history on the rise of the USSR, since that is not what this post is about. To achieve a more in depth understanding of how the USSR came to be, its relations with other powerful countries such as The United States, and it’s fall as a power, click here! (I advise you read this, as having a brief understanding will greatly aid in understanding this post).

 

I had recognized this flag when we began to study history, and more specifically the USSR, since I have seen it in some places before. I could not quite remember where I had seen this flag prior to studying, but it must have been through some form of media. This flag shows a vibrant shade of red, with a golden star, golden sickle, and golden hammer in the top left corner. It is quite a unique flag, when you compare it to the colored flags of other European countries at the time.

 

I wondered while we learned of the USSR; why is there a golden star, sickle, and hammer on the flag? This general wondering drove me to make this post, and write a short paragraph explaining the emotions the flag brings to me, why it is red, why there is a sickle and hammer, and why there is a star.

The Soviet Unions flag depicts a vibrant red solid background, accompanied with a golden star, hammer, and sickle in the top left corner. This emblem found in the top left of the flag has its origin linked to the Russian Revolution. During the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks used a red banner as a means to represent their ideological values. They stood for all authority to be in the hands of the workers and peasants, as these were the core of economies and nations. When I see the color red, I feel dynamically conflicting emotions of both love and passion, and fear and anger.  I can be sure that these emotions were felt across the world, as Western Civilizations saw the red as something to be angered at and fear. In fact, this is where the term “The Red Scare” originated from, as this color became linked with an underlying sense of fear and contempt. The Western world robustly feared the spread of Communism, as it was directly conflicting with their ideologies.  Those within the Soviet Union sympathized towards the color through a sense of love and compassion, as the base of their ideology revolved around companionship and teamwork. The color red became iconic towards Communism, as it began their universal indicator. These communists believed in the worker and the peasant, as this can be directly linked to their flag. The sickle represents the peasant, working in the fields to supply their country with grain. The hammer is linked to workers, building infrastructure and building their nation from the ground up. I believe that their flag does an elegant job of representing the positives of their ideology, as they show these tools in a golden color. This brings a sense of relevance and importance to jobs that, in the Western world, are undermined. I once asked a man named Allister, who guided our tour through the socialist country of Cuba for two weeks, what the relevance of the star on their flag is. There is no clear reasoning for the star, yet many have theorized its origins or meanings. I believe that the star represents the five social groups which contribute to communism. These social groups are the youth, the military, the industrial laborers, the field workers, and the diplomats. Through these opinions and connections, I have investigated and scrutinized the emotions and impacts of the USSR flag.