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  Article Id: WHEBN0001160021
  Title: Coat of arms of Russia
  Subject: Russia, Yevgeny Ukhnalyov, Tsardom of Russia, Outline of Russia, List of cultural icons of Russia
  Collection: Coats of Arms with Crosses, Coats of Arms with Crowns, Coats of Arms with Dragons, Coats of Arms with Eagles, Coats of Arms with Horses, Coats of Arms with Orbs, Coats of Arms with Saints, Coats of Arms with Sceptres, National Coats of Arms, National Symbols of Russia, Russian Coats of Arms
  The coat of arms of the Russian Federation derives from the earlier coat of arms of the Russian Empire which was abolished with the Russian Revolution in 1917 and restored in 1993 after the constitutional crisis. Though modified more than once since the reign of Ivan III (1462–1505), the current coat of arms is directly derived from its mediaeval original, with the double-headed eagle having Byzantine and earlier antecedents from long before the emergence of any Russian state. The general chromatic layout corresponds to the early fifteenth-century standard . The shape of the eagle can be traced back to the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725), although the eagle charge on the present coat of arms is golden rather than the traditional, imperial black.
  Description and usage 1
  Historical versions 2
  1721–1917: Russian Empire 2.1
  1721–1917: Russian Empire 2.2
  Evolution 2.2.1
  1918–1992: Russian SFSR 2.3
  The two main elements of Russian state symbols (the two-headed eagle and the mounted figure slaying the dragon) predate Peter the Great. Today, however, the official description does not refer to the rider on the central shield as representing Saint George, mainly in order to maintain the secular character of the modern Russian state.
  The current coat of arms was designed by artist Yevgeny Ukhnalyov; it was adopted officially on November 30, 1993 [1]. Today, the imperial crowns on each head stand for the unity and sovereignty of Russia, both as a whole and in its constituent republics and regions. The orb and scepter grasped in the eagle's toes are traditional heraldic symbols of sovereign power and authority. They have been retained in the modern Russian arms despite the fact that the Russian Federation is not a monarchy, which led to objections by the Communists even though both the blue ribbon and the collar of the Order of St. Andrew (which in the imperial arms supported the three crowns and surrounded the central shield) have been removed from the current coat of arms.
  The heraldic device of Russia has gone through three major periods in its history, undergoing major changes in the transitions between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and depicted communist symbols such as the hammer and sickle and red star. The current coat of arms, in use since 1993, once again uses the double-headed eagle with the image of St. George.
  1721–1917: Russian Empire
  Its Saint George, mounted and defeating the dragon.
  Around the central composition are placed fifteen coats of arms of the various territories of the Russian Empire. Nine of these are crowned and placed on a laurel and oak wreath. Proceeding from the left in a counter-clockwise direction, these represent, as they are included in the Siberia and Astrakhan.
  The six upper escutcheons are joint depictions of various smaller principalities and oblasts. From the left in a clockwise fashion, these are: the combined arms of the northeastern regions (Perm, Volga Bulgaria, Vyatka, Kondinsky, Obdorsk), of Belorussia and Lithuania (Lithuania, Białystok, Samogitia, Polatsk, Vitebsk, Mstislavl), the provinces of Great Russia proper (Pskov, Smolensk, Tver, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Ryazan, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Belozersk, Udorsky), the arms of the southwestern regions (Volhyn, Podolsk, Chernigov), the Baltic provinces (Esthonia, Courland and Semigalia, Karelia, Livonia) and Turkestan.
  Lesser coat of arms of the Russian Empire
  The use of the double-headed eagle as a Russian coat of arms goes back to the 15th century. With the fall of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Grand Dukes of Muscovy came to see themselves as the successors of the Byzantine heritage, a notion reinforced by the marriage of Ivan III to Sophia Paleologue (hence the expression "Third Rome" for Moscow and, by extension, for the whole of Imperial Russia). Ivan adopted the golden Byzantine double-headed eagle in his seal, first documented in 1472, marking his direct claim to the Roman imperial heritage and posing as a sovereign equal and rival to the Holy Roman Empire. In 1497 it was stamped on a charter of share and allotment of independent princes' possessions. At about the same time, the image of a gilt, double-headed eagle on a red background appeared on the walls of the Palace of Facets in the Moscow Kremlin.
  After the assumption of the title of Moscow Patriarchate in 1589, a patriarchal cross was added for a time between the heads of the eagle.
  1825: First variant
  1830: Second variant
  1918–1992: Russian SFSR
  State Emblem of the Russian SSR
  The acronym "PCФCP" as well as the hammer and sickle upon a rising sun
  The Soviet Union state motto ("Workers of the world, unite!") in Russian (Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! — Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes!) is also a part of the coat of arms.
  The acronym of the RSFSR is shown above the hammer and sickle, and reads PCФCP, for Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика (Russian: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic).
  In 1992 the inscription was changed from RSFSR (РСФСР) to the Russian Federation (Российская Федерация) in connection with the change of the name of the state.[1] In 1993, the Communist design was replaced by the present coat of arms (see the top of this article).
  State Emblem of the Russian SFSR
  Between 17 May 1992 and 30 November the following year, the arms of the Russian Federation was a slightly modified version ("Russian Federation" replaced "RSFSR") of the Russian arms from the Soviet era.
  Sobranie, cigarette brand using the 1883 lesser version as its logotype
  (Russian) Heraldry of the Russian Empire
  (Russian) The Code of Principal Laws of the Russian Empire (Свод Основных Государственных Законов, 1906)