Sickle and hammer

The hammer and sickle (Unicode: ☭) is a symbol that represents the worker-peasant union, it is generally used to represent communism, as well as its matches. It is composed of a sickle superimposed on a hammer. These two tools are a symbol of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry, respectively; The fact that they are one on top of the other symbolizes the unity between all the workers.

The symbol - called серп и молот, serp i molot in Russian - is known above all for having been part, along with the red star, of the red flag of the Soviet Union (USSR).

History

From the Nordic civilizations to Freemasonry, the hammer and sickle as symbols have had some degree of heraldic presence and representation. In the 19th century both were used as representation of workers by the labor movement in Europe and America. The emblem of the hammer and sickle was present in the Chilean pesos from 1894 to 1942, therefore long before its officialization in the USSR.

The representation of the union of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry, Lenin's slogan, was achieved by combining two of the representative tools of both. In 1917, after the October Revolution, the union of workers and peasants was adopted in the new political organization as the basis of the State.

Before the definitive adoption of the hammer and sickle, various variants were developed combining the hammer, which has traditionally represented workers in Europe, with tools used by peasants, such as the rake, the pitchfork, the plow... In April 1918, the Moscow native Yevgeny Kamzolkin presented a version that combined the sickle, as a symbol representing the peasantry, and the hammer, as a symbol representing the industrial proletariat. That proposal was officially approved within the framework of the Fifth Congress of Soviets in the summer of that same year.

Yevgeny Kamzolkin came from a wealthy family and was deeply religious, he was not a communist. He was part of the Leonardo Da Vinci Artistic-Mystical Society and perfectly understood the meaning of symbols.

Alekséi Losev, Russian philosopher, valued this emblem like this:

It is a sign that moves with the masses of people, it is not simply a sign, but a constructive and technical principle for human actions, as well as its volitive aspirations. [...] Here, before us, is the symbol of the union of the workers and the peasants, the symbol of the Soviet state.

Use in the Soviet Union and modern Russia

Since 1917 the hammer and sickle was one of the symbols of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Initially it appeared on the coat of arms of the RSFSR, having declared the union of proletarians and peasants as the basis of the State. It was also part of the symbols of the Red Army, created in 1918.

It later appeared on the flag of the Soviet Union, adopted in 1923 and finalized in the Soviet Constitution of 1924, and on the flags of the Soviet republics after 1924 (before this, the flags of the Soviet republics were entirely red, with the name of the respective republic written in gold letters, as stipulated in the 1918 Constitution).

The coat of arms of the Soviet Union contains the hammer and sickle, which also appeared on army uniforms, medals and elsewhere.

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  The hoz and hammer on the flag of the Soviet Union.

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  Statue of Obrero and Koljosiana. Moscow

International use

Communist parties affiliated with the Cominform (those aligned with the Soviet Union), as well as followers of the People's Republic of China, tended to use the hammer and sickle or similar designs in their symbology. However, even communist parties opposed to both the Soviet Union and China traditionally used the hammer and sickle as their symbol, sometimes with slight stylistic modifications. For this reason, the hammer and sickle became the international symbol of practically all communists, regardless of their orientation.

In 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, he gave a speech to the South African people in Cape Town from a balcony decorated with a hammer and sickle flag.

The flag of Transnistria, a State with limited recognition located in Moldova, carries the hammer and sickle on its flag, it is the only country in the Contemporary Age that officially recognizes the symbol.

In Unicode, the hammer and sickle symbol is represented by U+262D (☭^[1]).

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  Transnistria flag.

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  Transnistria shield.

The communist crucifix

During the visit that Pope Francis made to Bolivia in July 2015, the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, was presented with a carving of the image of a crucified Christ on the handle of a hammer, with the base of a sickle. The carving is a reproduction of one made by Luis Espinal Camps, a Jesuit priest of Spanish origin and nationalized Bolivian who was murdered in 1980 by a paramilitary group due to his commitment to social struggle and denunciation of the injustice and abuses that existed at that time. in Bolivia. Luis Espinal, who was also a filmmaker and journalist, advocated for spaces of justice, freedom and equality. In his honor the Legislative Assembly of Bolivia has created the Order of Merit "Father Luis Espinal Camps" whose main motif is Christ nailed to the hammer with a sickle as a base, and which recognizes those who profess religious faith and stand out for defending the sick, the marginalized and the poor.

Prohibition

The public use of the hammer and sickle is illegal in Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania (as it is considered a symbol of Soviet occupation and totalitarianism).

In Poland, those who kept, created or distributed communist symbols were detained by a prohibitory law (article 256 of the Penal Code, established on June 8, 2010). However, on July 19, 2011, the Constitutional Court of Poland issued a ruling declaring that said article is unconstitutional because "it violates the principle of freedom of expression, the acquisition and dissemination of information", thus becoming void.

Variations or similar symbols

The stylized or modified hammer and sickle appear in the logo of the Communist Party of the United States and in some versions of the logo of the Union of General and Transport Workers of the United Kingdom. The Communist Party of Guadalupe uses a stylized letter G on its flag that is reminiscent of the hammer and sickle.

Other variations on the idea of crossed tools include the symbol of the Korean Labor Party (hammer, paintbrush and sickle), the former symbol of the British Labor Party (shovel, torch and hoe) and the coat of arms of the Democratic Republic German (hammer and compass surrounded by wheat, thus representing German workers, intellectuals and peasants, respectively).

The factions of the Trotskyist Fourth International combine the hammer and sickle with a cardinal number 4, orienting the tools to the left and in black on a white background instead of the traditional gold on red. This is because the Trotskyists argued that Stalin would have appropriated the symbol, so they inverted it, making this new symbol the official symbol of Trotskyism.