How the Russian Yargu-swastika was banned in 1922

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In November 1922, the newspaper Izvestia published the (now completely forgotten) "Warning" by A. V. Lunacharsky. The People's Commissar of Education wrote:

On many ornaments and posters … by a misunderstanding, an ornament called a swastika is used (an equal-pointed cross with bent ends to the left is shown). Because The swastika is a cockade of the deeply counter-revolutionary German organization ORGESH, and has recently acquired the character of a symbolic sign of the entire fascist movement, then I warn you that artists should in no case use this ornament, which produces a deeply negative impression, especially on foreigners.

Such a recommendatory-prohibitive note, signed by the omnipotent manager of the cultural life of Russia, on the pages of a government publication, could be assessed as an official directive, which was taken into account and carried out by contemporaries.

So, Lunacharsky, in fact, explicitly prohibits the use of the swastika.… And although the punishment for the violation was not defined, everyone understood that in reality the case would not be behind him - the revolutionary time was too bloody. The swastika gradually disappeared from the visual agitation of Soviet everyday life. Although until 1924 it was still used in the sleeve insignia of the Red Army soldiers of a number of units.

After 1930, it is very rare in scientific works to find any mention of the swastika. It was the time when engaging in Russian historyor the use of the concepts "Russian history", "Russian folk culture" in research considered sabotage, and the scientists who used them were attributed to the enemies of the people with all the ensuing consequences. And in post-war studies directly related to the theme of the yargi-swastika, the ban on this sign continued to apply.

Scientists in every possible way avoided mentioning the word "swastika", using instead "a cross with bent ends", "solar symbol", etc. This approach is fully justified, given the fate of the exiled and executed specialists in Slavic studies, Russian history and ethnology.

Guseva N. R. so describes the time of oblivion and suppression of the swastikain social thought and science of the Soviet era:

In publications, especially in post-war publications, the swastika was expelled from the pages of books, and this attitude can be understood, but difficult to forgive - after all, the description of the ornament is a strict historical source, and such distortions in the transmission of information prevent scientists from coming to the proper conclusions.

The authorities' ban on the swastika can be compared to the actions of the mayor of the city, Foolov, from the well-known work of Saltykov-Shchedrin, when he burned down the gymnasium upon arrival and banned science. You can write a decree prohibiting the Sun, but you cannot prohibit its daily rise, which gives light to the Earth.

The prohibition of the drawing and writing of the swastika

1 … Image of an earthen vessel found in Samara (4000 BC). In post-war images of this monument, the middle swastika is usually absent. So, on the back cover of a scientific and educational book by A. L. Mongayt's "Archeology and Modernity", the image of the yaggi is half-washed, which creates a false impression of the poor state of preservation of the original.

* On the left is the original, on the right is the image on the cover of the book by A. L. Mongaita.

2 … In the 1980s, the publishing house "Artist of the RSFSR" was preparing the album "Russian folk art in the collection of the State Russian Museum". On one of the colored inlays, a suspension was depicted, on which, among other patterns, crosses with curved ends were encountered. In the production of test prints in the printing house of the GDR, German performers circled them on the control print and put a question mark. As a result, the album that came out of print no longer contained images of "crosses with bent ends."

3 … During the Great Patriotic War, the workers of the Kargopol Museum of Local Lore destroyed a number of the rarest embroideries containing swastikas. Such destruction of museum treasures containing a swastika was carried out everywhere, and not only in museums. These actions towards culture were natural. They grew out of the policy of Soviet Russia, which proclaimed the upbringing of a new person and the building of a new world in which Russian history and folk culture had no place. During the war years, there was also an additional pretext for strengthening the long-standing intentions to eradicate folk culture - in the formidable wartime, the swastika was shown as a sign of the enemy, it was presented as a sign of fanaticism and non-humanity.

4 … On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, an NKVD officer stopped by in a village in the Vologda region. During dinner, he noticed an ubrus towel hanging on the shrine, in the middle of which a large intricate swastika was illuminated by the light of an icon lamp, and along the edges were patterns of small rhombic crosses with curved ends. Seeing the swastika, the guest's eyes became furious with indignation, the owner barely managed to calm him down, explaining that the sign placed in the middle of the trim was not a swastika, but “Shaggy Brightly”, and the patterns on the side stripes were “jibs”. The NKVD officer walked around the whole village and made sure that there are "bright" and "jibs" in every peasant house.

There are many similar cases, starting from the 30s. XX century Komsomol members fought the swastika … During the war special detachments of the NKVD seized things with a swastika from the rural population and destroyed … Until now, the indigenous people of the North keep the memory of the 40s. of the last century, when they were forbidden to embroider a cross with curled ends on clothes that originally existed in their culture.

The case in the Demidov region is indicative, according to the founder of the Smolensk Ornaments Museum V. I. Grushenko. In the 80s. XX century he went to the local museum of local lore to see the director, whom he found doing a curious occupation. The director, a middle-aged man, cut the crosses with curved ends from the museum towels with a razor. Not at all embarrassed, he explained that he was uncomfortable in front of visitors and guests, and especially in front of the authorities, for the "fascist swastika" on local gods. An example shows how strong the Bolshevik "anti-swastika" vaccination was among the older generation almost 60 years after the ban of the yargi.

Modern public opinion, among our compatriots, is also characterized mainly by a misunderstanding of the Yargi and its historical and cultural significance not only for Russian culture, but also for the cultures of most of the peoples of Russia, where yarga-swastika is one of the main signs of clothing, rituals and customs.

The current legislative ban on fascist symbols is difficult to separate from the ban on the use of the yarga, and therefore, in fact, it continues the socio-cultural policy of the Bolshevik-Leninists of the 1920s and 1930s.

The symbol of fascism on the emblem of the bailiffs of the Russian Federation

The FSSP emblem and flag were created in 2004.

Federal bailiff service(FSSP) is a federal executive body. Carries out the compulsory execution of judicial acts. Has a flag and a heraldic emblem approved by the President of the Russian Federation.

In the left paw of the eagle there is a lictor bunch (fascia) from lat. fascis - a bunch of rods with an ax stuck into it, symbol of the power of kings during the era of the Roman republic (Ancient Rome).

From the word comes the Italian (fashio) - "union" or fascism.

The ideology of fascism and the symbol (lictor bunch) were adopted in Italy after the First World War. B. Mussolini founded the "Italian Union of Struggle", which in 1921. renamed to " National Fascist Party ”(Partito Nazionale Fascista) - the only legal party in Italy until 1943.

In the historiography of the USSR and Russia, fascism is also understood as German National Socialism (Nazism).

They called the fascists blackshirtssince they wore black shirts with yellow and red stripes on the wrist (the colors of Rome).