During all periods of historical development, symbols played an important role for any state or community, they could indicate the most important processes taking place in society.
Signs and colors
What is a symbol in the conventional sense of the word? First of all, it is a sign declared in a wide variety of forms of expression. It can be textual, figurative, or a combination of both textual and figurative. It is on this principle that the visual feature of any phenomenon of public life or state formation is built. Their history goes back thousands of years, it has changed according to the demands of time. Already in antiquity, primitive distinctive signs can be found. The most common are national-confessional and state-administrative characteristics, expressed in the form of special images.
What is a symbol and symbols for the state? These are historically established traditions that are reflected in them. In particular, for our country, they can be used to trace all the inconsistency of Russia's development and the numerous collisions that it faced.
Religion and its symbols
Already in ancient times, powerful tribal unions formed on the territory of the Eastern Slavs, they were quite disunited, conflicts were common. The fact was that they adhered to paganism, like all peoples in antiquity, however, it would seem that the external unity of religion was actually far from the truth.
The first rulers of Kievan Rus understood this, especially the question of peace was asked by the Grand Duke Vladimir I, so it was he who decided to introduce a new monotheistic religion in the country that met the needs of the development of Russia and contributed to the consolidation of ancient Russian society. This is how Orthodoxy appears within our country. Like any other religion, short and clear foundations of Orthodoxy were formulated, expressed in twelve postulates. That's what a creed is. And it is of the utmost importance for every believer, and faith in the one God was transformed by the Kyiv rulers into the formula "One God - one prince."
Prestigious Symbols
It so happened from ancient times that the public structure is a kind of ladder, on the steps of which there are various social groups and individuals. This phenomenon is called social differentiation. This was a common fact of social development in any historical period, just at one time these differences were quite tangible and developed in a hereditary way, while at another they were more blurred andexpressed by a person's personal achievements.
In different periods of time, the transition of an individual from one social group was either very difficult or completely impossible. With social progress, these restrictions have practically disappeared, but the social stratification of society has remained.
Noble coats of arms, royal mottos - that's what status symbols are. They reflected the position of a group or individual in society. Expensive cars, rich mansions, private jets - these are the symbols of social status in the modern world.
Russian heraldry
States disappear and appear, but they all had and will have their iconic feature. For example, let's take the Russian Federation. It has undergone numerous transformations both in terms of the form of the administrative-territorial structure and the type of government. And all these metamorphoses were reflected in symbolism. Russia arose after a long period of feudal fragmentation and struggle against the Mongol-Tatar yoke. The victory of statehood over these two opponents had to be expressed in the form of iconic features.
Ivan III, having married the niece of the last emperor of Byzantium, received, among other things, the symbol of this state. So, the two-headed eagle becomes the coat of arms of the new Russia. It also depicted a horseman slaying a serpent with a spear, symbolizing the victory of good over evil. This is what state symbols are for the nascent Russian state.
The colors of ourcountries
The Russian flag appeared thanks to the efforts of Peter the Great. The story is quite well-known: the king was very fond of traveling, he was especially attracted to maritime countries. Having visited Holland, the young monarch saw the flag, which was located on the courts. He really liked the combination of colors. Arriving in Russia, he decided to change the arrangement of colors on the flag and declare it the Russian tricolor. And so it happened, but in fact this combination has already been used in Russian symbols before. It is known that it was first used in 1667. Just in the reign of Peter the flag became a striped white-blue-red flag. Initially, it was considered not state, but national.
In the 19th century, the black-yellow-white flag became the state flag. However, it was unpopular, so Alexander III returned the former flag as the state symbol of the Russian Empire.
Modern symbols of Russia
The last century brought many changes, including those concerning the symbols of the state. The revolution that thundered in 1917 and the collapse of the monarchy led to the emergence of the world's first socialist state - the RSFSR, and then the USSR. All these transformations have significantly changed the visual images of the country. What is a symbol for the Bolsheviks? It was supposed to reflect the ideological foundations of the new state. And he appeared, the hammer and sickle became the coat of arms (as signs of the class affiliation of the new government). Then the globe appeared in the rays of the sun, framed by ears of corn. The red flag becomes the flag of the USSR as a symbol of the revolutionary power of the masses, and the five-pointed starway of international solidarity of workers.
The collapse of the USSR led to a change in symbolism. The well-known double-headed eagle has become the new coat of arms of the Russian Federation, and the flag is white-blue-red. This is what a symbol is and its meaning for society, state, individual.
