Flag of Soviet Union

The flag of the Soviet Union shows a hammer and sickle beneath a golden star on a red field. The hammer stands for the industrial workers, the sickle for the peasantry, together symbolising the alliance of the two classes; the five-pointed star is read as the leading role of the Communist Party and as the five continents on which communism was meant to prevail. Red had been the colour of insurgents since the French Revolution and was adopted by the Russian workers' movement.

Meaning

The flag's brilliant red stands for the revolution and for the blood shed by the workers' movement in its struggle – the same colour the Paris Commune had already hung over its barricades in 1871. The hammer and sickle in the upper hoist unite the two classes on which the state was founded: the hammer for the industrial workers, the sickle for the peasantry. Laid across one another, they form the alliance of town and countryside. Above them sits the five-pointed star with its golden rim; its points were read as the five continents on which the workers of the world were one day to be united. Under the statute of 1955 the reverse remained plain red – the emblem was to appear only once, so that it would never be seen mirrored.

Hymn

Until 1944 the Internationale was the anthem of the Soviet Union. The words were written by the French worker-poet Eugène Pottier in 1871, shortly after the suppression of the Paris Commune; Pierre Degeyter composed the melody in Lille in 1888. The Russian version by Arkady Kots appeared in 1902 and became the state anthem after the October Revolution. In 1944 it was replaced by the new anthem by Alexander Alexandrov, but remained the party anthem of the Communist Party. It is still the best-known song of the international labour movement and has been translated into more than a hundred languages.