The symbol as it appeared on the Soviet flag.

The hammer and sickle as it appears on the Communist Party of China flag

The hammer and sickle is a symbol used to represent communism and communist political parties. It features a sickle superimposed on a hammer. The two tools are symbols of the peasantry and the industrial proletariat; placing them together symbolises the unity between agricultural and industrial workers. Hammer and sickle may also refer to: Hammer & Sickle, a computer game Hammer and Sickle plant, Moscow Category: ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle. ... Image File history File links Danghui. ... Image File history File links Danghui. ... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (official name, though almost universally known in English as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng) is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... Using a sickle A Adam is a curved, hand-held agricultural tool typically used for harvesting grain crops before the advent of modern harvesting machinery. ... A claw hammer For other uses, see Hammer (disambiguation). ... In a detail of Brueghels Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ...

It is best known from having been incorporated into the red flag of the Soviet Union, along with the Red Star. It has also been used in other flags and emblems. Historically, and most generally, the red flag is an international symbol for the blood of angry workers. ... Red star on the Soviet flag The five-pointed red star (a pentagram without the inner pentagon) is a symbol of Communism and Socialism and represents the five fingers of the workers hand, as well as five of six inhabited continents. ...

Soviet and Russian usage

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman over the northern entrance to the All-Soviet Exhibition Centre.

The hammer and sickle was originally a hammer crossed over a plough, with the same meaning (unity of peasants and workers) as the more well known hammer and sickle. The hammer and sickle, though in use since 1917/18, was not the official symbol until 1922, before which the original hammer and plough insignia was used by the Red Army and the Red Guard on uniforms, medals, caps, etc. Image File history File links Kolkhoznitsa. ... Image File history File links Kolkhoznitsa. ... Worker and Kolkhoz Woman (Russian: ) is a 24 meter (78 feet) high sculpture made from stainless steel by Vera Mukhina in 1937. ... A gigantic statue over the northern entrance to the VDNKH. The All-Russia Exhibition Centre or All-Russian Exhibition Centre is a permanent general-purpose trade show in Moscow, Russia, initiated in the times of the Soviet Union and known under the name VDNKh. ...

Later, the symbol was featured on the flag of the Soviet Union, adopted in 1923 and finalized in the 1924 Soviet Constitution, and flags of the republics of the Soviet Union after 1924. Before this, the flags of Soviet republics tended to be a plain red field, with the golden text of the name of the respective republic superimposed on it, as stipulated in Article 90 of the 1918 Soviet Constitution. Soviet Flag: 1:4 ratio July 1923-November 13, 1923 The first official flag of the Soviet Union was adopted in December of 1922 at the First Congress of Soviets of the USSR. It was agreed that the red banner was transformed from the symbol of the Party to the... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The 1924 Soviet Constitution legitimated the December 1922 union of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Ukrainian SSR, the Belarusian SSR, and the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. ... Evolution of the Soviet Republics from 1922 to 1958. ... The first Soviet Constitution, which governed the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, described the regime that assumed power in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. ...

• The Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union and the Coats of Arms of the Soviet Republics showed the hammer and sickle, which also appeared on the Red Star badge on the uniform cap of the Red Army uniform and in many other places.
• Serp i Molot (Russian language for 'hammer and sickle' [in fact, the Russian reads 'sickle ['serp'] and hammer ['molot']']) is the name of the Moscow Metallurgical Plant.
• Serp i Molot is also the name of a stop on the electric railway line from Kurski railway station in Moscow to Gorki, featured in Venedikt Erofeev's novel, Moscow-Petushki.

Some anthropologists have argued that the symbol, like others used in the Soviet Union, was actually a Russian Orthodox symbol that was used by the Communist Party to fill the religious needs that Communism was replacing as a new state "religion." The symbol can be seen as a permutation of the Russian Orthodox two-barred cross.¹ The state coat of arms of the Soviet Union, from 1958-1991 The state coat of arms of the Soviet Union (Russian: ) was adopted in 1924 and was used until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. ... Coats of arms of the Soviet Socialist Republics all featured predominantly the hammer and sickle and the red star that symbolised communism, a rising sun (although, since the Baltic Sea is west of Latvia, it could be interpreted as a setting sun), surrounded by agricultural products of the republic (e. ... Red star on the Soviet flag The five-pointed red star (a pentagram without the inner pentagon) is a symbol of Communism and Socialism and represents the five fingers of the workers hand, as well as five of six inhabited continents. ... The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ... Russian (Russian: ,  ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavonic languages. ... Categories: Russia-related stubs | Moscow ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Passengers bustle around the typical grand edifice of Londons Broad Street Station in 1865. ... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2005)    - Density 10,415,400   8537. ... The name Gorki or Gorky (Горький) can refer to any of the following things: Leninskie Gorki (Горки) - a village near Moscow where Lenin died in 1924 Nizhny Novgorod (from 1932-1990 called Gorki) Maxim Gorky Arshile Gorky Gorky Park (Novel... Venedikt Erofeev (Венедикт Ерофеев), (October 24, 1938—May 11, 1990), was a Russian writer. ... Moscow-Petushki, or Moscow to the End of the Line, is a semi-autobiographical postmodernist prose poem by Russian writer and satirist Venedikt Erofeev (Венедикт Ерофеев). Written between 1969 and 1970 and passed around in samizdat, it was first published in 1973 in Israel and later, in 1977, in Paris. ...

Current usage

Bryansk Oblast

Unusual among administrative units of post-1990 Russia, the Bryansk Oblast flag includes the hammer and sickle. Bryansk Oblast (Russian: ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1575x1050, 50 KB) This image was composed from the Bryansk Oblast coat of arms found at [its administration website] using the specifications on the same page. ... ... Bryansk Oblast (Russian: ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). ...

Aeroflot

The hammer and sickle on the Aeroflot logo.

The former Soviet airline (now Russian), Aeroflot, continues to use the hammer and sickle in its symbol. Aeroflot Airbus A319 at Berlin Aeroflot — Russian Airlines (Russian:Аэрофлот — Российские авиалинии), or Aeroflot (Аэрофло́т; literally air fleet), is the Russian national airline and the biggest carrier in Russia. ... Image File history File links Aeroflot_logo. ... Image File history File links Aeroflot_logo. ... Aeroflot Airbus A319 at Berlin Aeroflot — Russian Airlines (Russian:Аэрофлот — Российские авиалинии), or Aeroflot (Аэрофло́т; literally air fleet), is the Russian national airline and the biggest carrier in Russia. ... Aeroflot Airbus A319 at Berlin Aeroflot — Russian Airlines (Russian:Аэрофлот — Российские авиалинии), or Aeroflot (Аэрофло́т; literally air fleet), is the Russian national airline and the biggest carrier in Russia. ...

Variations of the symbol

Flag of Angola as of 1975.

The emblem of the GDR.

Flag of the Workers' Party of Korea.

A number of symbols show some stylistical similarity to the hammer and sickle without necessarily featuring an actual hammer or a sickle. For example, such symbols appear on the flag of Angola, Communist Party of the USA, and on some renditions of Britain's Transport and General Workers Union logo. Image File history File links Flag_of_Angola. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Angola. ... Image File history File links Coat_of_arms_of_East_Germany. ... Image File history File links Coat_of_arms_of_East_Germany. ... The coat of arms The Coat of Arms of the German Democratic Republic featured a hammer, a pair of compasses, surrounded by a ring of rye. ... http://www. ... http://www. ... The Workers Party of Korea (WPK; Korean chosŏngŭl: 조선로동당; hanja: 朝鮮勞動黨; McCune-Reischauer: Chosŏn Rodong-dang; revised: Joseon Rodong-dang ) is the ruling party of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. ... The national flag of Angola came into use at independence on November 11, 1975. ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States. ... The Transport and General Workers Union, also known as the TGWU and the T&G, is one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland - where it is known as the Amalgamated TGWU - with 900,000 members (and was once the largest trade union in the...

Further variations on the theme of crossed tools include the symbol of the Workers' Party of Korea (hammer, writing brush and hoe), the old symbol of the British Labour Party (spade, torch and hoe), the crossed monkey wrench and tomohawk of the Earth First! movement, the pickaxe and rifle symbol of communist Albania, and the hammer and compasses of the emblem of the German Democratic Republic. The Workers Party of Korea (WPK; Korean chosŏngŭl: 조선로동당; hanja: 朝鮮勞動黨; McCune-Reischauer: Chosŏn Rodong-dang; revised: Joseon Rodong-dang ) is the ruling party of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in the United Kingdom. ... Monkey wrench and stone hammer, group symbol Earth First! is a radical environmentalist movement, pioneered in the early 1980s by Arizona desert activists Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and others. ... Pickaxe on the ground Pickhandle redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Break action be merged into this article or section. ... GDR redirects here. ...

The Far Eastern Republic of Russia used an anchor crossed over a spade or pickaxe, symbolising the union of fishermen and miners. Flag of the Far Eastern Republic The Far Eastern Republic (Russian: Дальневосто́чная Респу́блика (ДВР); English transliteration: Dalnevostochnaya Respublika (DVR)) was a nominally independent state established in the former Russian Far East and Siberia east of Lake Baikal on April 6, 1920. ...

1976 Albanian banknote with pickaxe and rifle.

The Communist Party of Guadeloupe uses a letter "G" in the style of a hammer and sickle on its flag [1]. Image File history File links Albanian_50_lek_banknote_1976. ... Image File history File links Albanian_50_lek_banknote_1976. ... The Guadeloupe Communist Party (Parti Communiste Guadeloupéen) is a political party in the French Overseas Department of Guadeloupe. ...

hammer and dove symbol of the CPB

The Communist Party of Britain uses the hammer and dove symbol. Designed in 1988 by Mikhal 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 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. Image File history File links Hammer_and_dove. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_dove. ... The Communist Party of Britain, which claims to have around 900 members, is the largest Communist party in the United Kingdom. ... The Communist Party of Britain, which claims to have around 900 members, is the largest Communist party in the United Kingdom. ...

Emblem of the Fourth International.

The Fourth International, founded by Trotsky, uses a hammer and sickle symbol on which the number "4" is superimposed. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (919x1134, 8 KB) Logo Vierte Internationale (Fourth International) Vectorized and exported version in PNG format of Image:Logo of the Fourth International. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (919x1134, 8 KB) Logo Vierte Internationale (Fourth International) Vectorized and exported version in PNG format of Image:Logo of the Fourth International. ... The Fourth International (FI) is Trotskyisms international organization. ... 1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Trotskii, Trotski, Trotzky) (October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (&#1051...

The Austrian coat of arms depicts an eagle holding an (uncrossed) hammer and sickle in each claw. Though unrelated to communism, the design was meant to represent the two main classes in Austrian society at the time of its conception, the workers and peasants. The Coat of Arms of Austria has been used since the end of World War I to symbolize Austria. ...

Unicode

In Unicode, the "hammer and sickle" symbol is U+262D (☭). Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

See also

• Communist symbolism
• Red star

Communist symbolism usually incorporates symbols representing the industrial workers and/or the peasants of a country. ... Red star on the Soviet flag The five-pointed red star (a pentagram without the inner pentagon) is a symbol of Communism and Socialism and represents the five fingers of the workers hand, as well as five of six inhabited continents. ...

Sources

¹ David Lempert, Daily Life in a Crumbling Empire: The Absorption of Russia into the World Economy, Columbia University Press/ Eastern European Monographs, 1996.

External links

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• Flag of North Korea's Korean Workers' Party (which uses the hammer, pen and sickle)
• Old symbol of the British Labour Party (spade, torch and hoe).
• Serp i Molot Plant website (in Russian)