Paradoxically, for the first time, only after the October Revolution, was created the symbol of a union of peasants and workers - the people as such. The painter Zamoskvoretsky Theater of the Soviet of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies 30-year-old Yevgeny Kamzolkin, the great-grandson of a serf peasant, was an Orthodox believer, and he didn’t hide it. The moment of birth of the symbol - the eve of the celebration of the First Day of 1918 in Moscow - is described by Sergei Gerasimov, the author of the famous canvas “Mother of Partisan”: “Yevgeny Kamzolkin, standing next to me, said, thinking,“ What if you try this symbolism ”? - At the same time, he began to walk around the canvas. "This is how to portray the sickle - it will be the peasantry, and inside the hammer it will be the working class."
The symbol of the bond of the workers and peasants was sent from Zamoskvorechye to the Moscow Soviet on the same day - and all the other sketches were rejected: a hammer with an anvil, a plow with a sword, a scythe with a wrench ... With such a saving cross, Sickle and Hammer were transferred on the state emblem of the RSFSR artists A.N. Leo and N.A. Andreev, and then on the state emblem of the USSR - artist I.I. Dubasov.
Unfortunately, the name of the author of the character was soon forgotten. Only to the 30th anniversary of Great October Revolution in 1947, inquisitive journalists found him in the suburban town of Pushkino in a modest log cabin with birches under the window. ““ Of course, I considered this emblem only as connected with the decoration of the May Day holiday, ”explained Yevgeny Ivanovich. “I had no idea that the emblem would later enter our state emblem as a symbol of people's power ...”.
Two years later, in 1950, the second (first in 1938) personal exhibition of the artist Kamzolkin, the result of 30 years of work in art, was held in Moscow with great success. He was struck by his youthful canvases of the ancient Eastern cycle: “Feast at the king of Assyria”, “Slaves”, “In the name of Ramses”. Large-scale paintings: “Sons of the Earth”, “The Plowman”, “The Internationale” ... From the Tretyakov Gallery the canvas came To the landowner. 1905 ”- a formidable march to the baror’s estate of peasants with spears, led by a soldier on crutches - a disabled person in the disgraceful Russian-Japanese war. The "talking" landscapes of the forties-thunderstorms, anxious, tragic, touched for the soul: "Winter", "Preparation of firewood" - and triumphantly joyful "After the Thunderstorm".
... In the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, the young artist was predicted by a great future: V. Serov, A. Arkhipov, K. Korovin, P. Korin .. And then he made a decision: “subordinate everything to creativity” ... He lived alone, just wrote, wrote, wrote. Only the revolutionary years pulled him out of privacy for a while. He took the slogan "Art to the masses!" »Emile Verharn.
In the 20s, the artist patronized the homeless children of them. Lunacharsky. He himself grew up without a father (his mother raised his and two adopted children), taught orphans to draw, make furniture and toys. He was fatherly happy that the guys would have a good profession and an interesting, creative life. About that combat youth - his picture "Komsomol members of the 20s." He did not become famous, perhaps, because of his non-glorious, disinterested, independent character and desire for a solitary, quiet life. He was often forgotten to be added to the list of the Moscow Organization of the Union of Artists, which meant that this year there would be no free paints, brushes, and canvases.
He quietly died in 1957. And his “Hammer and Sickle” made a step into eternity: it burns on the stars of the victorious soldiers in the Great War against Fascism, on the military and labor awards of our fathers and grandfathers, on the official seals holding the documents of world scale, on the red banner of the Victory of a great power, who saved the world from fascist enslavement. The history of the creation of the “Sickle and the Hammer” is similar to the creation in one night in the revolutionary year of 1792 Rouget de Lille of the immortal “Marseillaise” - the anthem of the revolutionaries of the whole world. The Hammer and Sickle Emblem was approved by the 5th Congress of the Soviets on July 10, 1918. First depicted on the state press of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on July 26, 1918. Together with the red star “Hammer and Sickle” appeared on the flag of the USSR in 1923, and in 1924 the symbol was registered in the Constitution.
In connection with the particularly important significance of this emblem in Soviet symbolism, the order of its depiction was in some cases determined by legislation (for example, the Statute on the State Flag of the USSR, approved by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 19, 1955). The Hammer and Sickle were reproduced on seals, official documents, the uniform of the Red Army, on the buildings of some state enterprises, institutions, organizations, vehicles, banknotes, the tribune of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the tribunes of the Supreme Soviets of the Union and autonomous republics, on buildings of Soviets of Workers' Deputies, on the most important print media, as well as on a number of orders and medals of the USSR, breastplates, etc.
The great Hammer and Sickle symbol is one with the communist idea - the idea of justice, fraternity, equality. There are good and there are bad times. Now "Hammer and Sickle" is banned in Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Georgia, and Ukraine. In Poland, its use and demonstration entails criminal liability. But, like a hundred years ago, the “Hammer and Sickle” symbol courageously fights together with the Communists of all countries for the vital interests of the working class and peasantry, against fascism, against war. And he will win!
The material was prepared by S.V. Khristenko
