COMMUNIST SYMBOLISM

'Communist symbolism' usually incorporates symbols representing the industrial workers and/or the peasants of a country.
Usually these symbols, along with a pentangle representing either the five inhabited continents or the five components of communist society (the peasants, the workers, the army, the intellectuals, and the youth), appear in yellow on a red background representing revolution. The Flag of the Soviet Union incorporated a yellow-outlined red star and a yellow hammer and sickle on red. The flags of Vietnam, China, Angola, and Mozambique would all incorporate similar symbolism under communist rule. The hammer and sickle have become the pan-communist symbol, appearing on the flags of most communist parties around the world. However, the flag of the Korean Workers' Party includes a hammer representing industrial workers, a hoe representing agricultural workers, and a brush (traditional writing-implement) representing the intelligentsia.

Contents

Red flag

Description

History

Hammer and sickle

Description

History

Communist heraldry

See also

Red flag

Description

The red flag of the communist movement symbolizes the blood of martyred working-class leaders. Red flags are often seen in combination with other communist symbols and party names. The flag is used at various communist and socialist rallies like May Day. The flag is also commonly associated with socialism.

History

The red flag has had multiple meanings in history but it was first used as a flag of defiance. The red flag gained its modern political meaning in the 1848 French Revolution. After the October Revolution, the soviet government adopted the red flag with a superimposed hammer and sickle as its national flag. Since the October Revolution, various socialist states and movements have used the red flag.

Hammer and sickle

Description

The hammer and sickle is another symbol of the communist movement. The hammer stands for the industrial working class while the sickle represents the agricultural workers; together the hammer and sickle represents the unity of these two groups.

History

The hammer and sickle was first used during the Russian Revolution but it did not become the official symbol of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic until 1924. Since the Russian Revolution, the hammer and sickle has come to represent various communist parties and socialist states.

Communist heraldry

Communist heraldry, as seen in the official state emblems and provincial emblems of Communist-led countries, tends to use motifs of red stars, rising suns, cogwheels, and electricity transmission towers — and above all semi-circular sheafs of grain enclosing the whole emblem. The state emblem of the Pol Pot regime, Democratic Kampuchea, showed a rigid rectangular grid of rice paddies, with a factory belching smoke from its smokestacks in the background.

See also

★ Hammer and dove

★ Red flag

★ Red star

★ Raised fist

★ Flags of the Soviet Republics

★ Flag of East Germany

★ Coats of Arms of the Soviet Republics

★ Coat of Arms of the German Democratic Republic

★ Coat of Arms of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

★ Coats of arms of the Yugoslav Socialist Republics

★ Emblem of the People's Republic of China

★ USSR State motto

★ The Internationale