Impressions Of Russia: Where’s The Logo?
On of the most surprising things I encountered when I visited Russia recently was the COMPLETE absence of the visible signs of the Communist era. During my entire two week visit, I saw the “hammer and sickle logo” only ONCE. And that was in an out of the way engraving in the outside foyer of a civic building. It was so “tucked away” that it seemed to me that it may have been simply overlooked. I puzzled over this for a while, and then it dawned on me: Duh! Russia is NO LONGER COMMUNIST! While it is true that sizable portions of certain industries have been nationalized (energy among them), the economy as a whole is market driven. Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky are probably spinning in their graves, but Russia has become CAPITALIST.
Accordingly, the hammer and sickle have become déclassé. The deep red flag with symbols of the factory worker and the farmer (which always seemed to me to be a very good logo for a heavy metal band) is verboten. It’s been replaced with (are you ready for this?) stripes of RED, WHITE AND BLUE. That’s right: the tricolor of freedom! The Russian stripes are vertically oriented, however, to distinguish it from the flag of France, where they are oriented in a horizontal fashion. It’s a bit ironic, I think, that as Russia has embraced capitalism, they have chosen a tricolor so similar to that of France, which is now probably more socialistic than they are!
In addition to changing the flag, they’ve also replaced the hammer and sickle in the official State Seal. The current “logo” for the state of Russia is one that had been the traditional symbol of Russia dating back to Ivan the Third in 1497. It is a double headed eagle holding an orb in one claw and a scepter in the other. The two heads are topped off with three of what appear (to me) to be bottles of Crown Royal Whisky.
Now, while eagles are frequently used as national symbols (including, of course, the USA), the DOUBLE HEADED EAGLE is more rare. It’s said that it is supposed to represent Russia looking to both the east and west for its culture and traditions. In fact, it is sometimes claimed that Russia is the most “western” of the “eastern countries”, as well as, simultaneously, the most “eastern” of the “western counties”. Serbia, Albania and Montenegro also use a double head eagle by virtue of their historic alliances with Russia.
So, the Russian flag is now a red, white and blue tricolor, and its State Seal is a double headed eagle. The only question that remains is: What to do with that cool hammer and sickle? Might Metallica be interested? Megadeth? Black Sabbath?