What does the coat of arms of St. George the Victorious mean? St. George the Victorious: saint with coat of arms and coins. What does the coat of arms of the Russian Federation mean: scepter and orb

This is a special emblem made in accordance with heraldic canons.

It represents an interconnected system of images and colors, which carries the idea of ​​the integrity of the state and is inextricably linked with its history, traditions and mentality.

The appearance of this official sign is enshrined in the Constitution.

Brief description and meaning of the symbols of the coat of arms of Russia

This state insignia is a red heraldic shield, in the middle of which there is a golden double-headed eagle. The bird holds an orb in its left clawed paw, and a scepter in its right.

On each of the heads there is a crown, and on top there is another, larger one. All three royal decorations are connected by a gold ribbon.

In the center of the shield, on the eagle’s chest, there is another red cloth. It depicts a plot familiar to every Russian: St. George the Victorious kills a snake.

There are many icons and paintings illustrating this legend. This is the most recognizable image of the saint. On the emblem he is represented as a silver rider on a silver horse, wearing a blue cloak. A monster under the hooves of a black horse.

How were the symbols on the coat of arms of the Russian Federation formed and what do they mean?

Today, heraldry is an auxiliary branch of historical science. The emblems of countries, along with annals and chronicles, represent the most important historical evidence.

In Western Europe, during the times of chivalry, every noble family had a symbol that was inherited from generation to generation. It was present on the banners and was a sign of distinction by which a representative of the clan was recognized both on the battlefield and at the feast. In our country, this tradition has not been developed. Russian soldiers carried embroidered images of the great martyrs, Christ or the Virgin Mary into battle. The Russian heraldic sign originates from princely seals.

What do the main elements of the Russian coat of arms mean: St. George the Victorious

On the princely seals there were the patron saints of the rulers and an inscription indicating who owned the symbol of power. Later, a symbolic image of the head began to appear on them and on coins. Usually it was a horseman holding some kind of weapon in his hand. It could be a bow, sword or spear.

Initially, the “rider” (as this image was called) was not a sign only of the Moscow principality, but after the unification of lands around the new capital in the 15th century, it became an official attribute of the Moscow sovereigns. He replaced the lion who defeats the snake.

What is depicted on the state emblem of Russia: a double-headed eagle

It should be noted that this is a popular symbol, which is used as the main one not only by the Russian Federation, but also by Albania, Serbia, and Montenegro. The history of the appearance of one of the main elements of our emblem goes back to the times of the Sumerians. There in this ancient kingdom he personified God.

Since antiquity, the eagle has been considered a solar symbol associated with the spiritual principle and liberation from bonds. This element of the Russian coat of arms means courage, pride, desire for victory, royal origin and the greatness of the country. In the Middle Ages it was a symbol of baptism and rebirth, as well as of Christ in his ascension.

In Ancient Rome, the image of a black eagle was used, which had one head. Such a bird was brought as a family image by Sophia Paleologus, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine, whom Ivan the Terrible’s grandfather, Ivan III, known as Kalita, married. In Russia, the history of the famous double-headed eagle begins during his reign. Together with his marriage, he received the right to this symbol as a state emblem. It confirmed that our country had become the heir of Byzantium and began to claim the right to be a world Orthodox power. Ivan III received the title of Tsar of All Rus', ruler of the entire Orthodox East.

But during the time of Ivan III, the official emblem in the traditional sense still did not exist. The bird was featured on the royal seal. It was very different from the modern one and looked more like a chick. This is symbolic, since Rus' at that time was a young, fledgling country. The eagle's wings and beak were closed, the feathers smoothed.

After the victory over the Tatar-Mongol yoke and the liberation of the country from centuries-old oppression, the wings flutter open, emphasizing the power and might of the Russian state. Under Vasily Ioanovich, the beak also opens, emphasizing the strengthening of the country’s position. At the same time, the eagle developed tongues, which became a sign that the country could stand up for itself. It was at this moment that the monk Philotheus puts forward a theory about Moscow as the third Rome. Spreading wings appeared much later, in the early years of the Romanov dynasty. They showed neighboring hostile states that Russia had perked up and rose from sleep.

The double-headed eagle also appeared on the state seal of Ivan the Terrible. There were two of them, small and large. The first was attached to the decree. There was a rider on one side and a bird on the other. The king replaced the abstract horseman with a specific saint. St. George the Victorious was considered the patron saint of Moscow. This interpretation would finally be consolidated under Peter I. The second seal was applied and made it necessary to combine two state symbols into one.

This is how a double-headed eagle appeared with a warrior on a horse depicted on its chest. Sometimes the rider was replaced by a unicorn, as a personal sign of the king. It was also an Orthodox symbol taken from the Psalter, like any heraldic sign. Like the hero defeating the snake, the unicorn signified the victory of good over evil, the military valor of the ruler and the righteous strength of the state. In addition, this is an image of monastic life, the desire for monasticism and solitude. This is probably why Ivan the Terrible highly valued this symbol and used it along with the traditional “rider”.

What do the elements of the images on the coat of arms of Russia mean: three crowns

One of them also appears under Ivan IV. It was on top and was decorated with an eight-pointed cross as a symbol of faith. The cross has appeared before, between the heads of birds.

During the time of Fyodor Ioanovich, the son of Ivan the Terrible, who was a very religious ruler, it was a symbol of the passion of Christ. Traditionally, the image of a cross on the coat of arms of Russia symbolizes the country's acquisition of ecclesiastical independence, which coincided with the reign of this tsar and the establishment of the patriarchate in Rus' in 1589. The number of crowns varied at different times.

Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich there were three of them, the ruler explained this by the fact that then the state absorbed three kingdoms: Siberian, Kazan and Astrakhan. The appearance of three crowns was also associated with the Orthodox tradition, and was interpreted as a sign of the Holy Trinity.

It is currently known that this symbolism on the coat of arms of the Russian Federation means the unity of three levels of government (state, municipal and regional), or its three branches (legislative, executive and judicial).

Another version suggests that the three crowns mean the brotherhood of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The crowns were secured with ribbon already in 2000.

What does the coat of arms of the Russian Federation mean: scepter and orb

They were added at the same time as the crown. In earlier versions, the bird could hold a torch, a laurel wreath, and even a lightning bolt.

Currently, an eagle holding a sword and a wreath is on the banner. The attributes that appeared in the image personified autocracy, absolute monarchy, but also indicated the independence of the state. After the 1917 revolution, these elements, like the crowns, were removed. The Provisional Government considered them a relic of the past.

Seventeen years ago they were returned and now adorn the modern state insignia. Scientists agree that in modern conditions this symbolism of the coat of arms of Russia means state power and the unity of the state.

What did the coat of arms of the Russian Empire mean under Peter I?

After coming to power, the first Russian emperor decided that the double-headed eagle should not just decorate certain official papers, but also become a full-fledged symbol of the country. He decided that the bird should become black, like the one that was on the banners of the Holy Roman Empire, of which Byzantium was the heir.

On the wings were painted the signs of large local principalities and kingdoms that were part of the country. For example, Kyiv, Novgorod, Kazan. One head looked to the West, the other to the East. The headdress was a large imperial crown, which replaced the royal one and hinted at the specifics of the established power. Russia asserted its independence and freedom of rights. Peter I chose this type of crown several years before he proclaimed the country an Empire and himself emperor.

The Order of St. Andrew the First-Called appeared on the bird's chest.

Until Nicholas I, the official emblem of the country retained the form established by Peter I, undergoing only minor changes.

The meaning of the colors on the coat of arms of Russia

Color, as the brightest and simplest sign, is an important part of any symbolism, including state symbols.

In 2000, it was decided to return the eagle to its golden color. It is a symbol of power, justice, the wealth of the country, as well as the Orthodox faith and Christian virtues such as humility and mercy. The return to the golden color emphasizes the continuity of traditions and the state’s preservation of historical memory.

The abundance of silver (cloak, spear, horse of St. George the Victorious) indicates purity and nobility, the desire to fight for a righteous cause and truth at any cost.

The red color of the shield speaks of the blood that was shed by the people in defense of their land. It is a sign of courage and love not only for the Motherland, but also for each other, and emphasizes that many fraternal peoples coexist peacefully in Russia.

The snake that the rider kills is painted black. Heraldry experts agree that this symbol on the coat of arms of the Russian Federation means the country’s constancy in trials, as well as memory and grief for the dead.

The meaning of the coat of arms of the Russian Federation

The drawing of the modern state symbol was made by St. Petersburg artist Evgeny Ukhnalev. He left the traditional elements but created a new image. The fact that signs from different eras were included in the final version emphasizes the country's long history. The type of this personification of state power is strictly regulated and described in the relevant laws.

The shield is a symbol of the protection of the earth. At the moment, the meaning of the coat of arms of the Russian Federation is interpreted as a fusion of conservatism and progress. The three rows of feathers on the bird's wings refer to the unity of Kindness, Beauty and Truth. The scepter became a sign of state sovereignty. It is interesting that it is decorated with the same double-headed eagle, clutching the same scepter and so on ad infinitum.

Briefly, we can say that the coat of arms of Russia symbolizes eternity and means the unity of all peoples of the Russian Federation. The power acts as an emblem of power and integrity.

We hope our article helped you penetrate the secrets of state symbols. If you are interested in the history of not only your country, but your family, then it’s worth learning about it.

Our specialists have access to rare archival documents, which allows:

• Check the authenticity of the data.
• Systematize the information received.
• Make a family tree.
• Help trace your family tree.

If you want to find out who your ancestors were, what they did and how they lived, contact the Russian House of Genealogy.

May 6 is the day of St. George the Victorious. Saint, who is depicted on the current coat of arms of Moscow

The Holy Great Martyr George is considered the patron and protector of warriors. Since the time of Grand Duke John III, the image of St. St. George the Victorious - a horseman slaying a serpent with a spear - became the coat of arms of Moscow and the emblem of the Russian state. According to legend, Saint George was born at the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 3rd century in the Asia Minor province of Cappadocia of the Roman Empire and grew up in a noble Christian family. Thanks to his military skills, he became the ruler of Cappadocia, then entered military service and became famous for his courage, becoming a Roman military leader. By professing the Christian faith, the valiant warrior incurred the hatred and wrath of Emperor Diocletian. The emperor tried to convince the martyr not to destroy his youth and honor, but George did not renounce his faith. In the dungeon, he was subjected to severe torture - he was beaten with clubs and whips, tied to a wheel with sharp knives, red-hot iron boots were placed on his feet, and much more, as evidenced by numerous icons. Since then St. George is considered the most perfect example of valor and courage. Having withstood all the torture, St. George remained faithful to the idea of ​​Christianity, and by order of the emperor, on April 23, 303 (May 6, new style) he was executed in the city of Nicodemus.

From the history of the coat of arms of Moscow

The custom of placing a portrait of the prince on seals and coins, as well as an image of the saint whom the prince considered his patron, was adopted in Rus' from Byzantium at the end of the 10th century. On the zlatniks (gold coins) of the Kyiv prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who baptized Rus', on the obverse of the coin there is a portrait of the prince and the inscription: “Vladimir is on the table and behold his gold,” and on the reverse is an image of Jesus Christ. At the beginning of the 11th century, on the coins and seals of Vladimir Svyatoslavich's son Yaroslav the Wise (reigned from 1016 to 1054), who took the name Yuri (George), the image of St. George first appears. Yaroslav the Wise contributed greatly to the spread and establishment of the cult of St. George in Rus'. In honor of his patron saint, he founded the city of Yuryev (now Tartu) in 1030 and founded the Yuryev Monastery in Novgorod in the same year; later St. George’s Cathedral was built there. In 1037, Yaroslav began the construction of the St. George Monastery in Kyiv and erected the Church of St. George in it, and established the day of the consecration of the temple as an annual holiday - “St. George’s Day”. The founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgoruky, continued this tradition by founding the city of Yuryev-Polsky in 1152, where the famous St. George Cathedral was built in 1230-34. In the same 1152, he built the Church of St. George at the new princely court in Vladimir. On his seal there is also a saint, standing at full height and drawing a sword from its sheath.

On the front side of the seal of Yuri Dolgoruky’s elder brother, Mstislav Vladimirovich, in 1130 the image of the holy warrior-snake fighter first appears. The next most recent image of the holy warrior-snake fighter is on numerous seals of Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky (1252-1263). On some of them, on one side, there is Saint Alexander on a horse with a raised sword in his hand, and on the other side, Saint Theodore in the form of a foot warrior, with one hand leading a horse on the reins, and with the other, slaying a serpent-dragon. Fedor is the baptismal name of Alexander Nevsky’s father, Yaroslav.

Academician V.L. Yanin in his work “Act Seals of Ancient Rus'” describes a large group of princely seals, on the front side of which the patron saint of the prince is depicted, and on the reverse side - the patron saint of his father. Thus, on the seal you can read the name and patronymic of the prince. The seal of Alexander Nevsky belongs to this type. On most of these seals, the rider has a crown on his head instead of a halo. This gave reason to assume that they depict a prince, and not a saint, which does not contradict the ancient tradition.

In the Principality of Moscow, the image of a pedestrian snake fighter is first found on the coin of Prince Ivan II the Red (Beautiful) (1353-59). The seal of Dmitry Donskoy's son, Vasily Dmitrievich, depicts a horseman with a spear pointing down at the place where the snake should be. And finally, on the coins of the same Vasily Dmitrievich and especially his son Vasily Vasilyevich the Dark, the emblem takes on a form close to what was later established as the Moscow coat of arms.

The final approval of the serpent fighter rider as the coat of arms of the Moscow principality occurred under Ivan III (reigned from 1462 to 1505) and coincided with the completion of the unification of the main part of the Russian lands around Moscow. A seal from 1479 has been preserved, on which a horseman slaying a dragon serpent with a spear is surrounded by the inscription: “Seal of Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich,” and on the back of the seal, which does not have a design, the inscription is repeated, but with the addition of “all Rus'.” From this moment on, we can assume that the coat of arms of the Moscow Principality for some time becomes the coat of arms of all Rus'. In 1497, another type of state seal of Ivan III appeared. On the front side there is still a horseman slaying a dragon with a spear, and the inscription: “John, by the grace of God, the ruler of all Rus' and the Grand Duke,” and on the back for the first time there is a double-headed eagle, surrounded by an inscription that is a continuation of the front side: “and the great prince Vlad and Mos and Psk and TV and Vyat and Per and Bol." Judging by the location of the inscription (around the eagle is the end of the prince's title), the main symbol here is the horseman.

Under Ivan III's son Vasily III, this seal was completely preserved, only the prince's name was replaced. Only under Ivan the Terrible, the first Russian prince who accepted the royal title in 1547, on the golden bull of 1562 the double-headed eagle occupies the main position, and the rider, like the coat of arms of the Moscow principality, moves to the eagle’s chest. This composition is preserved on the Great State Seal of 1583 and on all subsequent Great State Seals of Rus' and Russia. At the same time, the type of seal of 1497 was preserved and continued to be used until the 17th century in the form of a helmsman’s seal. This was the name of the seal that was attached to the royal charters for lands, lands granted to subjects for their service, “for feeding.” About how contemporaries explained the meaning of the figure of a horseman-serpent fighter on seals and coins of the 15th-17th centuries, written evidence was published that allows us to draw an unambiguous conclusion - Russian sources considered the horseman to be an image of a prince or king, and only foreigners called the Moscow horseman Saint George. The ambassadors of Ivan the Terrible, when asked by the Patriarch of Alexandria: “Is the blessed king on horseback on this seal?”, they answered: “The sovereign is on horseback.” There is a well-known quotation from the chronicle: “Under the Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, there was a banner on money: the Great Prince was on horseback, and having a sword in his hand and at his side, he produced penny money.” In the old inventory of the Armory about the coat of arms of 1666-1667 it is said: “In a circle there is a double-headed eagle, crowned with two crowns, and on his chest “a king on a horse stabs a serpent with a spear.” Diplomat and writer of the mid-17th century Grigory Kotoshikhin in his work “About Russia during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich” testifies: “in the true Moscow reign, the seal is cut out - the king on a horse defeated the serpent.” On the state coat of arms, placed on the title page of the Bible published in Moscow in 1663, the snake fighter on the chest of an eagle is given a portrait resemblance to the eagle. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

Peter I was the first of the Russians to name the horseman on the Moscow coat of arms Saint George. His handwritten note, presumably dating back to the 1710s, has been preserved: “This coat of arms (crossed out) This has its origins from there, when Vladimir the Russian monarch divided his empire among his 12 sons, from which the Vladimir princes took for themselves the coat of arms of the village of Yegor, but then Ts. Ivan Vas., when the monarchy collected from his grandfather, was again established and crowned, when he accepted the eagle as the coat of arms of the Russian empire, and placed the princely coat of arms in its chest.” However, during the entire reign of Peter I, the Moscow coat of arms continued to depict a secular horseman in a caftan with a crown or hat on his head. In many cases, the rider bore a portrait resemblance to Peter I. This is confirmed by the 1704 decree on the issue of the first copper kopecks, which stated that they would have “the imagination of the great sovereign on horseback.” During the short reign of Catherine I, a Senate decree on the production of a new state seal calls the snake fighter a “rider.” The coat of arms remained unchanged under Peter II.

In 1728, the need arose to draw up coats of arms for the banners of regiments stationed in different cities of Russia. In May 1729, they were presented to the military board and received the highest approval. The Senate decree on this followed on March 8, 1730. The first on the list of approved ones was the state emblem. Part of his description is dedicated to the Moscow coat of arms: “...in the middle of that eagle is George on a white horse, defeating the serpent, the cape and spear are yellow, the crown is yellow, the serpent is black, the field all around is white, and in the middle is red.”

Coat of arms of Moscow 1730

From that moment until the beginning of the 20th century, the rider on the Moscow coat of arms was officially called Saint George. Why did such a change occur at this time? On the one hand, under the influence of foreigners, Peter I in 1722 invited Count Santi to serve as herald of arms. But, perhaps, the accession to the Russian throne of a galaxy of empresses contributed no less to this. The test copy of the kopeck from 1730 still shows the old Peter the Great type of rider, but it was not approved. Let us remember that 1730 is the year of Anna Ioannovna’s accession to the throne.

Coat of arms of Moscow 1781

In the decree of 1781 on the approval of the emblems of the Moscow province, the description of the Moscow coat of arms almost completely repeats the description of 1730: “Moscow. St. George on a horse against the same as in the middle of the State Emblem, in a red field, striking a black serpent with a spear.” The coat of arms of Moscow existed in this form until 1856, when, as a result of the reform in Russian heraldry carried out at the direction of Tsar Nicholas I, the coat of arms of the Moscow province was significantly changed by King of Arms Kene. The new coat of arms of the capital city of Moscow was approved only on March 16, 1883 and differed from the provincial one in its framing: instead of oak leaves there were scepters. "In a scarlet shield, the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, in silver armor and an azure robe (mantle) on a silver horse covered with crimson cloth, with gold fringe, striking a golden dragon with green wings with a golden spear with an eight-pointed cross at the top. The shield is crowned with an imperial crown. Behind two golden scepters placed crosswise on a shield, connected by St. Andrew's ribbon."

The main change in the coat of arms is that the rider was turned in the other direction. According to the rules of Western European heraldry, living creatures (horseman, beast) should be turned only to the right heraldic (left for the viewer) side. This ancient rule was established so that the horseman or, for example, the lion depicted on the knight’s shield, which he held at his left side, did not appear to be running away from the enemy. The rider's cloak became azure (blue) instead of yellow, the dragon changed from black to gold with green wings, and the white horse was called silver.

Coat of arms of Moscow 1883

In the decree of 1781, only the colors of the shield, horse and serpent were named, respectively - red, white and black. To find out what the original, primordial colors of the Moscow coat of arms were, its detailed description given in the statute of the Order of St. George, approved by Catherine II on November 26, 1769, helps. This is the closest officially approved description prior to the decree of 1781. In the middle of the order's cross was placed the Moscow coat of arms: "... in a red field, Saint George, armed with silver armor, with a gold cap hanging on top of them, having a gold diadem on his head, sitting on a silver horse, on which the saddle and all the harness are gold, black a serpent poured out in the sole, piercing with a golden spear." The compilers of the lists of coats of arms for the banners of 1730 probably had only color drawings of coats of arms without a detailed description of them, in which the gold was rendered with yellow ocher, so they called the color of the crown and epancha yellow. Silver in heraldry is represented by the color white.

The change from the yellow (golden) color of the rider's cloak to azure (blue) was perhaps a consequence of the heraldry's desire to bring the colors of the Moscow coat of arms into line with the colors of the national flag of Russia - white, blue and red (white horse, blue cloak, red shield). It is worth noting that the canonical, that is, approved by the church, color of St. George’s cloak is red, therefore on almost all Russian icons it is red, very rarely green, but not blue.

Order of St. George the Victorious - the highest military award of the Russian Empire

After the 1917 revolution, the coat of arms of Moscow was abolished. The new coat of arms of the city with Soviet symbols was drawn up by the architect D. Osipov and approved by the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet on September 22, 1924. This coat of arms consisted of the following elements:

Coat of arms of Moscow 1924

a) In the central part, a five-pointed star is inscribed in the oval shield. This is the victorious symbol of the Red Army.

b) The obelisk against the backdrop of a star, which is the first revolutionary monument of the RSFSR in memory of the October Revolution (placed in front of the Mossovet building). This is a symbol of the strength of Soviet power.

c) The Hammer and Sickle is the emblem of the workers' and peasants' government.

d) The gear wheel and the associated rye ears, depicted along the oval of the shield, are a symbol of the connection between the city and the countryside, where the wheel with the inscription “RSFSR” defines industry, and the rye ears indicate agriculture.

e) Below on both sides are emblems that characterize the most developed industry in the Moscow province: on the left is an anvil - this emblem of metalworking production, on the right is a shuttle - textile production.

f) Below, under the inscription “Moscow Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies” depicted on the ribbon, there is a “dyna” - the emblem of electrification. Thus, in general, the coat of arms was a synthesis of the activities of the Moscow Soviet. By order of the mayor of Moscow "On the restoration of the historical coat of arms of Moscow" on November 23, 1993, its ancient coat of arms was returned to the capital. The regulation on the coat of arms says: “On a dark red shield (width to height ratio 8:9) turned to the right, St. George the Victorious in silver armor and an azure robe (mantle) on a silver horse, striking a black serpent with a golden spear.” So, again, St. George is on the coat of arms.

Coat of arms of Moscow 1993

The Christian legend of St. George has many variants that differ significantly from each other. In one of the variants, which received literary treatment in the Greek east (historians consider it the earliest and most authentic), the Roman emperor Diocletian (in 303) begins the persecution of Christians. Soon, a young military tribune, George, originally from Cappadocia (a region in Asia Minor, then part of the Roman Empire, now the territory of Turkey), appears to him; in a meeting of the highest ranks of the empire in the city of Nicomedia, he declares himself a Christian. The emperor tries to persuade him to renounce his faith, but to no avail. Then George is placed in prison and subjected to numerous cruel tortures - thrown into a ditch with quicklime, scourged with ox sinews, put on red-hot iron boots studded with spikes, poisoned, wheeled, etc., but he remains alive. In the intervals between tortures, George performs miracles (heals the sick, resurrects the dead, etc.), under the influence of which the empress, some of the emperor’s associates, and even one of his executioners believed in Christ. On the eighth day of torture, George agrees to make a sacrifice to the pagan gods, but when he is solemnly brought to the temple, “with the word of God he casts them into dust, after which, by order of the emperor, his head is cut off.” George was about 30 years old on the day of his execution.

In this life, as in all its other early versions, there is no “Miracle of the Serpent,” since at first there were two independent legends - his “Life” and “George’s Miracle of the Serpent.” They were united only in later retellings. The legend "George's Miracle about the Dragon" has many variants. Here's one of them. Near the city of Lasya in Palestine, a dragon settled in a lake, which devastated the surrounding area and devoured the inhabitants of the city. To avoid death, they were forced to sacrifice their children to him. When it was the turn of the royal daughter, a beautiful young man appeared on a white horse - George. Having learned from the princess that she was a Christian, George, with the word of God, made the serpent fall at his feet. The princess tied her belt around the dragon's neck and led him into the city. The residents of the city, amazed by the miracle, believed in Christ and were baptized, and George moved on.

Attempts to find a specific historical figure who could be the prototype of St. George were unsuccessful, but several interesting hypotheses were put forward about the connection of these legends with pre-Christian mythology.

For thousands of years, in the religions and mythologies of European and Middle Eastern civilizations, the dragon and snake were the embodiment of darkness and evil, and the gods, heroes and saints fighting them personified the bright beginning, good. In ancient Greek myths, Zeus defeats the hundred-headed fire-breathing monster Typhon. The sun god Apollo fights the monstrous serpent Python, and the legendary Hercules kills the Lernaean Hydra. The similarity of the Christian myth “The Miracle of the Serpent” with the ancient myth of Perseus and Andromeda, in which Perseus kills the sea monster and frees the king’s daughter Andromeda, who was given to the monster to be devoured, in order to save the kingdom from devastation, is especially noticeable. There are many more legends of this type, for example, the myth of Bellerophon on the winged horse Pegasus, who entered into battle with the offspring of Typhon - the Chimera. There are many beautiful images on ancient Greek vases, gems, and coins that illustrate these myths. With the advent of Christianity, the image of the serpent-dragon was strongly associated with paganism and the devil. There is a well-known episode of the Fall, when the devil took the form of a tempting serpent.

The Roman writer and historian (260-339), author of the Life of Constantine, Eusebius, reports that Emperor Costantine the Great, who did a lot to make Christianity the state religion, ordered himself to be depicted in a painting that decorated the imperial palace, as a conqueror over a dragon. The dragon here also symbolized paganism.

The cult of St. George, which probably arose locally in the territory of Cappadocia in the 5th-6th centuries, by the 9th-11th centuries had spread to almost all states of Europe and the Middle East. He was especially revered in England, where King Richard the Lionheart made him his patron, and Edward III established the Order of the Garter under the patronage of St. George, on which the saint is depicted as a snake fighter. The battle cry of the British, similar to our "hurray", becomes the name of the saint.

In Rus', as already mentioned, the cult of St. George began to spread immediately after the adoption of Christianity, and not through Western Europe, but directly from Byzantium. His images in the form of a horseman-snake fighter are found already at the beginning of the 12th century. It is interesting to see its placement on a coil, on an amulet, on one side of which there is a tangle of snakes, and on the other - George, on the 12th century fresco “The Miracle of George on the Serpent” in the church named after him in Staraya Ladoga, on the icons of the 14th-15th centuries of the Novgorod school.

Under Ivan III in 1464, a sculptural image of St. George was placed above the entrance gate of the main Kremlin tower - Frolovskaya (later Spasskaya). This event is reported in the Ermolin Chronicle, compiled by order of the merchant and contractor Vasily Ermolin, through whose “representation” this image was installed. It would be very tempting to consider this sculpture as the coat of arms of Moscow, but here, most likely, this icon had protective functions, since two years later the same Ermolin placed an image of St. Dmitry above the gate of the tower on the inside. It is known that after the tower was rebuilt, the image of St. George was placed in the temple named after him, built near the tower, as a temple icon. In place of George, the image of the Savior Almighty was placed, from which the tower received its second name.

The plot of the “Miracle of the Serpent” in the form of a saint (warrior or hero-prince) continued to live in folk art for centuries, developing and acquiring new incarnations. In the oldest Russian epics of the 11th century, it corresponds to the feat of one of the most important Russian heroes, Dobrynya Nikitich, who served under Prince Vladimir. In the battle with the Serpent Gorynych on the Puchaya River, Dobrynya frees the prince's niece Zapeva Putyatichna (or his daughter Marfida). Some researchers draw an analogy between this episode of the epic and the activities of a historical figure - Dobrynya, the governor of Prince Vladimir the Saint (and brother of Prince Malusha's mother), in spreading Christianity in Rus'. In particular, the forced baptism of Novgorodians in the Pochayna River (in the epic - Puchai). A popular print illustrating the folk tale about Eruslan Lazarevich has been preserved. Below the picture is a brief summary of the tale: “Eruslan Lazarevich was traveling along the road, and Eruslan was attacked by King Zmeinski or the sea monster, who was devouring the people in the city of Debra... he defeated the dragon, and he went on his way.” In folk epic poems about Yegor the Brave, George is endowed with the features of an epic hero.

Many authors tried to explain the extraordinary popularity of St. George both among the people and among the princely warriors by transferring the features of Russian pagan gods to this saint. On the one hand, the very name of George, meaning “cultivator of the land,” made him the patron of agriculture and cattle breeding, the successor of Veles, Semargl, Dazhbog. This was also facilitated by the saint’s memorial days. Spring - April 23 - coincided with the beginning of field work, with which many ancient pagan rituals were associated in Rus', and autumn - November 24 - the famous "St. George's Day", when peasants had the right to move from one feudal landowner to another. On the other hand, as a warrior and victorious, he was the patron of the prince and his squad, since the cult of Perun, the main god of the pagan pantheon of Prince Vladimir, was transferred to George. In addition, the very image of George in the form of a beautiful young man - a warrior, liberator and defender, attracted the sympathy of the entire people.

So who is depicted on the coat of arms of Moscow? Judging by official documents, this issue has not yet been finally resolved. In the “Regulations on the Emblem of Moscow” he is called “George the Victorious”, and in the provision “On the State Emblem of the Russian Federation”, approved by the President on November 30, 1993, it is said: “on the chest of an eagle there is a horseman slaying a dragon with a spear.”

We believe that no matter what the emblem on the coat of arms of Moscow is called, it remains a collective image that embodies our entire past - this is a saint, the patron saint of our princes and tsars, and the prince or tsar himself in the form of a snake fighter, and simply a warrior - the defender of the Fatherland, and most importantly, it is an ancient symbol of the victory of Light over Darkness and Good over Evil.

Where did the coat of arms of Moscow come from? Peter I explained it this way: “This began from there, when Vladimir, the Russian monarch, divided his empire among his 12 sons, from whom the Vladimir princes took this coat of arms of St. Yegoriy.”

It would seem that everything is plausible. Saint George, or, as the people called him, Yegor the Brave, was one of the most revered saints in Rus', the personification of a warrior-defender. Everyone knew the story of how in ancient times he delivered the inhabitants of one city from the “great serpent.” The son of Vladimir Monomakh, Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal Yuri Dolgoruky, chose the image of St. George the Victorious as his coat of arms, especially since the prince and the saint bore the same name (George, Gyurgiy, Yuri meant the same thing in the old days). Well, then St. George switched to the coat of arms of Vladimir’s heiress - Moscow, founded by the same Yuri Dolgoruky.

However, all this is just a beautiful legend. In ancient times, the Russian principalities simply did not have coats of arms; they were a feature exclusively of the Western Middle Ages. Neither Kievan Rus nor Byzantium knew heraldry in its classical sense. The word “coat of arms” itself is based on a German root meaning “inheritance.” This is a symbol that has been passed down from generation to generation without change.

Russian princes, like European kings and barons, also used symbolic images, for example, on seals. But unlike the West, these emblems were not inherited; each subsequent prince chose a new symbol for himself. Usually the prince himself or his patron saint was depicted on the seal. For a long time, Russians followed the Byzantine tradition, according to which a crowned ruler or a saint with a halo around his head was depicted sitting on a throne or standing. In the West, the image on horseback was more common.

Seal of Yuri Dolgoruky

In Rus', a horseman on a seal first appeared with Mstislav the Udal, who at the beginning of the 13th century. invited Veliky Novgorod, which was closely connected by trade with Western Europe, to reign. During his reign in Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky, the ancestor of the Moscow princes, had a similar seal. On one side of the seal the prince is depicted “himself on horseback.” On the other side, Saint Theodore Stratilates strikes a snake with a spear. He is on foot, but holds his horse by the bridle.

When the grandson of Alexander Nevsky, Moscow prince Yuri Danilovich, was invited to Novgorod in 1318, he also made himself a seal in the “European fashion.” He was the first of the rulers of Moscow to use St. George the Victorious as an emblem of his heavenly patron. But the figure of the holy horseman-serpent fighter did not serve for long as a symbol of the Moscow principality.

The next Moscow prince, Ivan I Kalita (1325-1340), sealed the letters with a seal with the image of his own patron saint, John the Baptist. Kalita's heirs, Semyon the Proud (1340-1353) - St. Simon, and Ivan II the Red (1353-1359) - John the Baptist, also had emblems made in the traditional Byzantine style. True, Ivan the Red also used another seal - a foot warrior fighting a dragon. The motif of fighting a snake - the personification of evil - is characteristic of Old Russian and Slavic symbolism in general.

The emblem of Ivan II's son Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389) was St. Dmitry of Thessaloniki, standing in full military armor. Under Dmitry Ivanovich, coins began to be minted in Moscow for the first time; on some, the figure of a warrior with an ax was stamped, on others, an eagle turned sideways. The eagle - the king of birds, like the lion - the king of beasts, were the traditional emblems of the great princes of Vladimir, whose title then finally passed to the Moscow princes.

The heir of Dmitry Donskoy, Vasily I (1389-1425), had a seal with the traditional image of the patron saint - Basil of Caesarea, but on another princely seal an emblem with the figure of a horseman appears. There is a version that Vasily I received this symbol, similar to the Lithuanian coat of arms “Pahonia”, from his wife, the daughter of the Lithuanian prince Vytautas Sophia.

Since Vasily I, the horseman's emblem became hereditary, that is, it acquired the characteristics of a coat of arms. The Moscow horseman, who was often called simply “Izdets” (rider), was depicted on a horse, he held in his hand either a spear, or a sword, or a hunting falcon. It should be noted that the “Rider” was not at all similar to the image of St. George on the icons of that time - riding a rearing horse, striking a dragon with a spear. Most importantly, the saint’s head was surrounded by a halo.

George the Victorious briefly became a symbol of Moscow during the internecine war under Vasily II the Dark (1425-1462). The image of the saint was the emblem of the main enemy of Vasily II - his uncle, the appanage prince of Zvenigorod Yuri Dmitrievich. Prince Yuri captured Moscow twice and was proclaimed Grand Duke. Yuri began his second reign by minting a coin with the image of his heavenly patron, St. George the Victorious, slaying a serpent with a spear. But Yuri died after being on the throne for only two months.

On the seals of Vasily II, in addition to the “Rider,” there were other emblems - images of religious scenes and hunting episodes. At the end of his reign, Vasily the Dark began to increasingly use the grand-ducal symbol - a single-headed eagle sitting sideways.

The problem of developing a unified state symbolism arose under the son of Vasily II, Ivan III (1462-1505), who subjugated the rest of the Russian lands to Moscow. A new coat of arms of Russia appears - a double-headed eagle. This royal eagle, on the one hand, continued the tradition of grand-ducal single-headed eagles on the emblems of the Vladimir princes, on the other hand, it symbolized the claims of the ruler of Moscow to the imperial title.

Usually the appearance of a double-headed eagle on the coat of arms of Russia is associated with the marriage of Ivan III to the Byzantine princess Sophia Paleologus. However, another version is that Ivan III adopted this coat of arms, almost identical to the coat of arms of the Emperor of Germany (the “Holy Roman Empire”), to designate the equal status of his power with the most powerful state of the West.

But Ivan III did not forget about the emblem of the Moscow princes that had existed for a century. For the first time this symbolism adorned Moscow - on July 15, 1464, an image of St. George the Victorious slaying a dragon, carved from white stone by master Vasily Ermolin, was installed above the gates of the Frolovskaya tower of the Kremlin. In 1491, in connection with the restructuring of the Kremlin, the white stone horseman was placed in a specially built temple in the Kremlin opposite the Spasskaya Tower in the name of St. George.

Ivan III combined two symbols - the “Rider” and the double-headed eagle on the state seal that appeared in 1497. On one side there was an eagle depicted, on the other - an equestrian warrior. The rider was now hitting the dragon with a spear, which brought him closer to the image of St. George the Victorious. However, the absence of a halo indicated that this was a secular horseman-ruler. The seal seemed to personify his “double” title - “Grand Duke of Moscow” and “Sovereign of All Rus'”.

Under the son of Ivan III, Vasily III (1505-1533), the double-headed eagle disappears for a while, and one Moscow horseman serves as the coat of arms of Russia. The double-headed eagle was returned to the state emblem by Ivan IV the Terrible. Having accepted the royal title in 1547, he, of course, could not be content with the modest Moscow emblem. On the new state seal, the rider found a place in the middle of the eagle. True, in 1561 another seal appeared, where there was no rider. Instead, on the chest of the double-headed eagle was the personal emblem of Ivan IV - a unicorn.

The mounted serpent warrior in the center of the Russian eagle still did not contact St. George. The interpretation of the rider as a ruler was carried over from ancient emblems: “In the true Moscow reign, the seal is cut out - the king on horseback defeated the serpent.” In Western Europe, they usually saw the figure on the coat of arms as a heavenly patron. Therefore, when the Russian embassy arrived in Italy in 1659, the Tuscan Duke directly asked whether St. George was depicted on the chest of the double-headed eagle. To this the Russian ambassador replied that no, “this is our Great Sovereign on Argamak.”

The consolidation of the understanding of the snake-wrestler rider as a Moscow emblem was hindered by the use of his image as a national rather than a city symbol. In particular, it was carried on Russian coins. It is interesting that in addition to silver money with the image of a horse spearman (“kopeck”), which circulated throughout the country, small copper coins were minted in some cities - pulas with local symbols. In Moscow, on the pools they depicted not a rider, but a single-headed eagle sitting sideways - a grand ducal symbol. Documents relating to internal Moscow affairs were sealed by the Zemsky Prikaz, an administrative institution that managed the economy of the capital. This seal depicted the building of the order itself.

The final design of the emblem of a horseman defeating a dragon as the official coat of arms of Moscow occurred after Peter the Great's reforms. In 1722, by decree of Peter I, the Office of Heraldry was created in Russia, which the Governing Senate instructed in 1724 to present the coats of arms of all Russian cities. “For the administration of heraldic art” they invited a native of Piedmont (Italy) Francis Santi, and the Russian “painting master” Ivan Chernavsky was assigned to help him.

The colossal task of drawing up more than a hundred city coats of arms was delayed. In addition, Santi fell into disgrace. The drawing of the coat of arms of Moscow was made by Santi based on the ancient seals he studied. The rider was depicted without a halo, as a warrior, not a saint; facing the audience to the right. Only in 1728, after the death of Peter I, a description of the coat of arms of Moscow appeared: “George on a white horse, defeating the serpent, yellow cap and spear. The crown is yellow, the serpent is black, the field all around is white, and in the middle is red.” This description is non-terminological. The compilers of the lists of coats of arms for the banners probably had only color drawings of the coats of arms without a detailed description of them, in which the gold was rendered with yellow ocher, so they called the color of the crown and epancha yellow. The white color in heraldry is silver. This coat of arms, along with other city coats of arms, was finally approved by the Senate in 1730.

Coat of arms of Moscow 1730

The direction in which the Moscow rider is turned is a fundamental detail. On all ancient state seals the rider is turned towards the viewer. Russian masters approached the image on the seal realistically, turning the figure towards the viewer so that the weapon in the right hand was visible.

At the same time, in Western Europe, according to the strict rules of heraldry, the figures on the coats of arms must be turned to the left (looking to the right). This rule was established so that the horseman or, for example, the lion depicted on the knight’s shield, which he held at his left side, did not appear to be running away from the enemy. For the Moscow horseman, this resulted in a problem - either the right hand was not visible to the viewer, or the rider must hold the spear with his left hand. False Dmitry was the first to try to “turn around” the Moscow horseman in a European way at the beginning of the 17th century, but after his overthrow the horseman was again turned to the right in the old way.

The coat of arms of Moscow, designed by Santi in ancient Russian traditions, served the city for almost one hundred and fifty years, almost without changes. In the decree of 1781 on the approval of the coats of arms of the Moscow province, the description of the Moscow coat of arms almost completely repeats the description of 1730: “Moscow. Saint George on horseback against the same as in the middle of the State Emblem, in a red field, striking a black serpent with a spear.”

Coat of arms of Moscow 1781

But in the middle of the 19th century. it was decided to bring the coats of arms of Russian cities into compliance with the rules of Western heraldic science. The correction of the coats of arms was supervised by the “scientific heraldist” Baron Bernhard Köhne. On the coat of arms of Moscow approved in 1856, the rider was turned away from the viewer to the left, in accordance with the laws of heraldry, and “changed” from medieval armor into the vestments of a Roman warrior in order to better match the image of St. George. The rider's cloak instead of yellow became azure (blue), the dragon from black turned into gold with green wings, and the white horse was called silver: “In a scarlet shield, the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, in silver weapons and an azure robe (mantle) on a silver covered with crimson cloth , with a golden fringe, on horseback, striking a golden dragon with green wings with a golden spear with an eight-pointed cross at the top.” To stab the dragon on the left side, the rider in Koehne's drawing arched unnaturally in the saddle. In addition to the imperial crown, two crosswise golden scepters were added behind the shield, connected by St. Andrew's ribbon - a sign of the capital city. The coats of arms of other provincial cities were framed with oak leaves.

Coat of arms of Moscow 1883

In addition to the turn of the rider, the question of the color of the rider’s cloak (epancha) is also interesting. In the decree of 1781, only the colors of the shield, horse and serpent were named, respectively - red, white and black. To find out what the original, primordial colors of the Moscow coat of arms were, its detailed description given in the statute of the Order of St. George, approved by Catherine II on November 26, 1769, helps. This is the closest officially approved description prior to the decree of 1781. In the middle of the order cross the Moscow coat of arms was placed: “... in a red field, Saint George, armed with silver armor, with a gold cap hanging on top of them, having a gold diadem on his head, sitting on a silver horse, on which the saddle and all the harness are gold, a black serpent, poured out in the sole, piercing with a golden spear.” The change in 1883 from the yellow (golden) color of the rider's cloak to azure (blue) was perhaps a consequence of the heraldry's desire to bring the colors of the Moscow coat of arms into line with the colors of the national flag of Russia - white, blue and red (white horse, blue cloak, red shield ). It is worth noting that the canonical, that is, approved by the church, color of St. George’s cloak is red, therefore on almost all Russian icons it is red, very rarely green, but not blue.

Muscovites have always loved their coat of arms and were proud of it. In the old days, the day of honoring the Great Martyr George by the church - “Yegoryev Day” - April 26 (May 6 according to the new style) was celebrated by the people as a kind of city day. Writer Ivan Shmelev described in his memoirs a conversation between Moscow apprentices on one of the “Yegoryev days” of the 19th century:
- Moscow celebrates this day. Saint Yegory guards our Moscow with a shield and a spear, which is why it is written in Moscow.
- How is it written in Moscow?
- And look at the nickel, what’s in our eagle’s heart? Moscow is written on the coat of arms: Saint Yegor himself, ours, therefore, Moscow. It went from Moscow to all of Russia, and that’s where Yegoryev’s day came from.

In addition to the spring “Yegory”, “Autumn St. George” was also celebrated. On this day - November 26 (December 9 according to the current style) 1051, Metropolitan Hilarion consecrated the first church of St. George the Victorious in Kyiv, built at the behest of Yaroslav the Wise, whose name received at baptism was George.

After the 1917 revolution, the coat of arms of Moscow was abolished. The new coat of arms of the city with Soviet symbols was drawn up by the architect D. Osipov and approved by the Presidium of the Moscow City Council on September 22, 1924. The new coat of arms had Soviet and “industrial” symbols. This coat of arms never took root in the minds of Muscovites.

Coat of arms of Moscow 1924

By order of the mayor of Moscow “On the restoration of the historical coat of arms of Moscow” on November 23, 1993, its ancient coat of arms was returned to the capital. The regulation on the coat of arms says: “On a dark red shield (width to height ratio 8:9) turned to the right, St. George the Victorious in silver armor and an azure robe (mantle) on a silver horse, striking a black serpent with a golden spear.”

Coat of arms of Moscow 1993

So, we merged into one turn to the right from Santi and a blue raincoat from Koene. In addition, the modern execution of the coat of arms of Moscow suffers from other oddities: - in the image of the coat of arms of Moscow, the rider, like the dragon, is black, which does not correspond to the blazon (description of the coat of arms). – a golden spear, predominantly passing over a “silver” horse and rider, does not comply with the rule of tinctures. In heraldry, it is prohibited to put gold on silver and vice versa. The only accepted exception is the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Unlike the pre-revolutionary period, at present the images of St. George on the coats of arms of Moscow, the Moscow region (former province) and on the central shield of the Russian coat of arms differ from each other. The Moscow region placed in its coat of arms an image of St. George made by Koehne - an ancient horseman turned to the left; that is, on the two Moscow coats of arms, the riders look in different directions.

Coat of arms of the Moscow region

In Tsarist Russia, the coat of arms on the chest of the state double-headed eagle always coincided with the Moscow coat of arms. This is not the case in the Russian Federation. The serpent fighter rider from the coat of arms of the Russian Federation is turned to the right and is very similar to George from the city coat of arms. However, the images are not identical. The Moscow horseman is armed with a golden spear, and the Russian horseman is armed with a silver one; the horse gallops under a Moscow rider, and walks at a pace under a Russian one; the dragon on the Moscow coat of arms is spread out on its paws, on the Russian one the snake is overturned and trampled under horse hooves.

Acceptance date: 20.12.1781, 16.05.1883, 23.11.1993, 01.02.1995, 11.06.2003

The coat of arms of the city of Moscow is an image on a dark red heraldic shield with a width to height ratio of 8:9, deployed to the right of the viewer, a horseman - St. George the Victorious in silver armor and a blue mantle (cloak), on a silver horse, striking the black Serpent with a golden spear.

The author of the sketch of the coat of arms of Moscow is the artist K. K. Ivanov. In general, the compositional design of the coat of arms of 1780 was preserved, but St. George acquired the traditional armor and pointed helmet for Russian warriors. Compared to the 1781 coat of arms, the colors of the armor and mantle of the rider, as well as the spear, were also refined. The color of the dragon, in contrast to the 1883 coat of arms, was left black (as in the 1780 coat of arms).

Approved November 23, 1993, by order of the Mayor of Moscow No. 674-RM “On the restoration of the historical Coat of Arms of the City of Moscow”; re-approved by Moscow City Law No. 4-12 “On the coat of arms and flag of the city of Moscow” (approved on February 1, 1995 by Resolution No. 12 of the Moscow City Duma) and by Moscow City Law No. 39 “On the coat of arms of the city of Moscow” dated June 11, 2003.

Sketch of the coat of arms of Moscow 1991, artist K. K. Ivanov

In fact, the historical coat of arms was restored in 1991, when the artist K.K. Ivanov proposed his sketch (where the rider looked like a Greek), but the coat of arms was not approved then, although it was used unofficially. The coat of arms was officially restored only in 1993.

The heraldic image and description of the horseman - as St. George the Victorious - do not correspond to the norms of Orthodox iconography, in which saints are usually depicted with a halo.
In addition, being turned to the right side for the viewer, the image of the horseman on the modern official coat of arms of Moscow contradicts the rule of Western European heraldry, according to which living creatures on the coat of arms should be turned only to the left side for the viewer (right heraldic) side. This rule was established so that the figure depicted on the knight's shield, which was traditionally held at the left side, did not appear to be running away from the enemy. In the coat of arms of Moscow in 1883, the rider was turned to the viewer’s left (heraldic right) side, but in 1993, with the restoration of the historical coat of arms, the rider was again turned as in the coat of arms of 1780.

The dragon rider as a symbol of the Moscow principality has been known since at least the 16th century and was the central element of the coat of arms first of the Moscow kingdom and then of the Russian Empire. The image of a horseman is also present in the central part of the coat of arms of the Russian Federation, however, according to the official description of the coat of arms, this element is not described as St. George and is not mentioned as the coat of arms of the city of Moscow.

Project of the Soviet coat of arms of the city of Moscow 1924:
a) In the central part, a five-pointed star is inscribed in the oval shield. This is the victorious symbol of the Red Army.
b) The obelisk against the backdrop of a star, which is the first revolutionary monument of the RSFSR in memory of the October Revolution (placed in front of the Mossovet building). This is a symbol of the strength of Soviet power.
c) The Hammer and Sickle is the emblem of the workers' and peasants' government.
d) The gear wheel and the associated rye ears, depicted along the oval of the shield, are a symbol of the connection between the city and the countryside, where the wheel with the inscription “RSFSR” defines industry, and the rye ears - agriculture.
e) Below on both sides are emblems that characterize the most developed industry in the Moscow province: on the left is an anvil - this is the emblem of metalworking production, on the right is a shuttle - textile production.
f) Below, under the inscription “Moscow Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies” depicted on the ribbon, there is a “dyna” - the emblem of electrification.(description given according to the site)

The coat of arms was drawn up by the architect D. Osipov.

Approved By the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet on September 22, 1924. But this coat of arms was not widely used and was simply forgotten quite quickly.

Historical coat of arms of the city of Moscow

Coat of arms 1780: The modern coat of arms of the city is based on the historical coat of arms granted by Catherine II on December 20, 1781 (PSZ, collection 1, vol. 21, No. 15304) along with other coats of arms of the cities of the Moscow province: " in the scarlet field, the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George on a white horse, slaying a black dragon with a spear".

Coat of arms 1883: In 1883, the coat of arms acquired external decorations in accordance with the Quesne reform: " In a scarlet shield, the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George, in silver armor and an azure robe (mantle) on a silver horse covered with crimson cloth, with gold fringe, striking a golden dragon with green wings with a golden spear with an eight-pointed cross on top. The shield is crowned with an imperial crown. Behind the shield are two gold scepters placed crosswise, connected by St. Andrew's ribbon". The figure of St. George the Victorious was turned to the heraldic right side. The dragon turned from black to yellow-green, and the Saint's cap became azure. Approved on March 16, 1883 (PSZ, vol. XXXIII, No. 32037)

Coat of arms 1730:
The description of the Moscow coat of arms was contained in the “Znamenny Armorial” approved by the Senate order on March 8, 1730 for descriptions of the coats of arms of regimental banners. In the description of the Russian state eagle in the Znamenny armorial of 1730, the Moscow coat of arms is described as follows: " George on a white horse, defeating the serpent, the cap and spear are yellow, the crown is yellow, the serpent is black, the field around is white, and in the middle is red".

April 30th, 2016

It would seem that this is an indisputable truth: St. George the Victorious has been considered the patron saint of the Russian capital since ancient times, and his image is depicted on the Moscow coat of arms, which later became part of the state coat of arms. But why is the saint depicted without a halo? And is St. George really depicted on the coat of arms, which has undergone many symbolic changes throughout its history? Discussions about this are still ongoing.

I offer you an interesting study on this subject from which, I am sure, you will learn a lot of new things for yourself. In my opinion, there is quite a bit of a religious component in it (and where would we be without it in this matter?) and quite a lot of interesting historical facts.

So, how it all began...

Moscow coat of arms 1730

How did Moscow rise?

Saint George came to Rus' from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity. The son of St. Vladimir the Great, Prince Yaroslav the Wise was the first to be baptized with the name George, establishing the tradition of venerating St. George the Victorious at the state level. According to the Byzantine custom of depicting both the ruler himself and his patron saint on coins and seals, the image of St. George on foot appears for the first time on the coins of Yaroslav. Yaroslav also founded the first St. George churches in Rus': the Yuryev Monastery near Novgorod, for which the oldest surviving icon of St. George was painted in 1170 - by order of the son of the blessed Andrei Bogolyubsky, Prince George, who reigned in Novgorod and became the first husband of the Georgian Queen Tamara. Ivan the Terrible brought this image to Moscow, and now it is kept in the northern choir of the Assumption Cathedral. In Kyiv, Yaroslav the Wise founded the St. George Monastery, similar to the St. George Churches of Constantinople. The day of the consecration of his cathedral, November 26, became the second, “winter” feast of St. George the Victorious. (According to legend, it was on this day that St. George defeated the serpent.) The name “George” translated from ancient Greek means “farmer,” and his two holidays marked the cycle of rural work in Rus': “They begin with Yury, and end with Yury.” In Rus' he was called Yegor and Yuri - from the abbreviated Gyurgia.

A fateful event for Moscow occurred at the end of the 11th century, when the Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh named his newborn son Yuri - this is how Saint George the Victorious became the heavenly patron of the founder of Moscow, Prince Yuri Dolgoruky. Its seal depicted Saint George on foot and drawing a sword - still without the serpent. Legend has it that one day, on the way from Kyiv to Vladimir, Yuri Dolgoruky stopped to visit the boyar Kuchka; Angry at the disrespectful reception, he ordered his execution, but, having loved his beautiful possessions, he ordered the city of Moscow to be built there. And as if he gave her coat of arms the image of his heavenly patron - a horseman trampling a serpent with a spear.

This, of course, is a legend, but this is where all mysteries begin. It is indisputable that the Moscow coat of arms, created in the 18th century, depicts St. George the Victorious. But when exactly it appeared in state symbols, historians have not yet come to a common opinion. It is believed that the emblem of St. George as a Moscow grand-ducal sign first appeared under Ivan Kalita’s elder brother, Prince Yuri Danilovich, as his heavenly patron. The image of a walking serpent fighter (a warrior swinging a sword at a serpent) in the Principality of Moscow is found on the coin of Grand Duke Ivan II the Red, son of Ivan Kalita. The first image of a horseman with a spear appeared on the seal of Dmitry Donskoy. The seal of his son Vasily I also depicts a horseman with a spear pointing downward, and since then this symbol has established itself as the Moscow emblem, becoming hereditary. On the coins of Vasily II, the grandson of Dmitry Donskoy, a clear image of a horseman appears, striking a serpent in the open mouth with a spear, reminiscent of the iconography of the “Miracle of St. George about the serpent.” Historian V.B. Muravyov, who studied the dramatic history of the Moscow coat of arms in his recent book “Legends of Ancient Moscow,” believes that St. George is definitely recognizable here and that from that time - the middle of the 15th century - the image of St. George the Victorious becomes a stable symbol of the Moscow prince and the Moscow principality . And under Ivan III, the image of the horseman takes on its final, classic form.

However, since until the beginning of the 18th century this horseman was called a “rider,” researchers have developed two polar points of view. The “Orthodox” version says that this is St. George as the patron saint of Moscow and the Moscow princes. Supporters of the “secular” version consider the “rider” to be a purely Russian symbol of the warrior prince, the sovereign, who only during the time of Peter the Great began to be associated with St. George the Victorious. These disagreements arose, firstly, because of the Russian tradition of depicting both the patron saints of the princes and themselves on seals and coins, often without a halo and wearing a crown, which gave rise to seeing the image of rulers in the “rider”. The absence of a halo is the main fact that allows us to consider the “rider” a secular person. Secondly, judging by the surviving historical evidence, the Russians themselves often called this horseman a prince or tsar, while St. George in the “rider” on the Moscow emblem was mainly recognized by foreigners, due to the similarity of the horseman with the iconographic image of St. George the Victorious, and in Europe he was also very popular and was revered as the patron of chivalry. There are conciliatory versions that this is both the image of St. George and the Moscow prince, likened to a holy warrior. Or that initially it was the image of St. George, then from the time of Ivan the Terrible, who was crowned king, it became the image of the sovereign until the era of Peter the Great. There are many versions. But today the “St. George’s” are strengthening their position, citing arguments in defense of the fact that the Moscow horseman is an image of St. George the Victorious.

His veneration in Rus' has always increased in difficult but fateful times for the country. When Dmitry Donskoy gathered the forces of the Russian lands to repel the enemy, Rus' was languishing under the foreign yoke, and the image of the Holy Victorious was especially close to the Russian people as the Christian patron of the army, warriors for the Fatherland. This is evidenced by the thanksgiving Church of St. George in Kolomenskoye, which was founded by Dmitry Donskoy, returning from the Battle of Kulikovo, where St. George was seen on the battlefield fighting on the side of the Russians. (There was a legend that Saint George killed the serpent in the Kolomenskoye ravine.) George’s miracle about the serpent was an image of the victory of Christianity over the Gentiles. And probably, since the time of Dmitry Donskoy, Saint George has been revered as the patron saint of Moscow.

The use of the image of a horseman slaying a serpent was not a pure innovation of John III. So, this image was used by the Prince of Moscow Vasily the Dark, John’s father, in the first half of the 15th century. True, the prince minted a spearman on Moscow coins, and on the princely seal a horseman with a falcon on his shoulder appeared. The image of a spearman on coins also does not indicate that he is a saint. Moreover, if on one side of the coin the plot corresponds to the story of St. George the Victorious, killing a serpent with a spear, then on the reverse side we see a horseman swinging a sword at the serpent, which does not correspond to the iconographic canon. Who then is this horseman, if not Saint George and not the Archangel Michael? A number of historians insist that this is the prince himself. Both in the case of the coins of Vasily the Dark, and in the case of the seal of John III.

Grand Duke Ivan III began a new era in the history of Russia, when Moscow, which built the Russian lands around itself into a single cohesive state, became the successor to the Second Rome after the fall of Constantinople. Perhaps this was also related to the strengthening of state veneration in Moscow of St. George the Victorious, who was the patron saint of the Byzantine emperors. In 1464, a white stone high relief icon of St. George appeared on the Kremlin Frolov Tower. The image was placed above the main gate of the city on the outside, and two years later the image of another patron of Moscow, St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, was placed on the inside, entrusting the saints with the protection of the Kremlin from enemies. When the Italian masters built the Spasskaya Tower on the site of the Frolovskaya Tower, an image of the Savior was later placed above its gate, and the sculpture of St. George was moved to the St. George Church near the Spasskaya Tower, and then to the Ascension Monastery. (In the 17th century, Saint George was again entrusted with the protection of the city, placing his image above the Resurrection Gate of Kitay-Gorod, leading to Red Square. It was to this icon that Marina Tsvetaeva appealed in 1918 in her famous poem: “Guardian of fatal Moscow, come down from the gates! ".) The image of St. George was on the grand ducal banners of Ivan III, with which he went to the Great Stand on the Ugra, and the victory was attributed to the patronage of St. George.

During the formation of the national state, the personal emblem of the Moscow prince becomes the emblem of the state. And under Ivan III the prototype of the Moscow coat of arms finally appeared. The famous state seal of 1497, which N.M. Karamzin considered the source of the symbolism of the Russian state emblem, on the front side there was an image of a horseman striking a serpent with a spear, and on its reverse side a double-headed eagle first appeared. The horseman is easily recognizable as the iconographic image of the “Miracle of St. George about the Serpent.” According to O.V. Yakhonta, the horseman on this seal accurately reproduces the image of the sculptural icon of St. George from the Frolov Tower. There is another version that the image of the horseman was borrowed from the tombstone of Metropolitan Theognostus in the Assumption Cathedral, where the “Miracle of George on the Serpent” was minted. Researchers, those who see Saint George in this horseman, believe that his image on the state seal and in Moscow symbols of the time of Ivan III was also a sign of the succession of the Moscow princes to the Vladimir and Kyiv princes. In addition, the role of the Moscow prince as a stronghold of Orthodoxy was symbolically emphasized.

Moscow coat of arms 1883

However, this rider does not have a halo.

The authors of the book “Symbols, Shrines and Awards of the Russian State” give a very interesting explanation. In their opinion, this image of the horseman does not correspond to the ancient Orthodox canons in some other elements, for example, he stabs the serpent in the neck, and not in the throat, but this image of St. George “most of all resembles its embodiment in works of Western European art of the Renaissance, before everything Italian." In other words, the Italian craftsmen, who arrived at the call of Ivan III to build the cathedrals and fortresses of the Third Rome, could, at his own order, complete the state seal, where they depicted St. George in the traditions more familiar to them, as was customary in Europe - without a halo.

Under Ivan the Terrible, a snake-wrestler rider was installed on the chest of a double-headed eagle as a symbol of the unity of the Russian principalities around Moscow. A crown appears on the horseman's head, apparently as a sign of Ivan the Terrible's acceptance of the royal title. Adherents of the “secular” version, who consider the horseman to be an image of the Tsar as a defender of Russia, support it with such evidence. Ambassadors of Ivan the Terrible stated that the seal depicted “the sovereign on horseback.” When, in the middle of the 17th century, the Duke of Tuscany asked the Russian ambassador whether the horseman depicted St. George the Victorious, he replied: “Our great sovereign on an argamak” (a thoroughbred horse). In the Armory Chamber's inventory of the coat of arms of 1666-1667 it is said that on the chest of a double-headed eagle “a king on horseback is stabbing a serpent with a spear.” The clerk of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, Grigory Kotoshikhin, claimed that the seal of the Moscow principality was carved: “The king on horseback defeated the serpent.” (There is also a very simple explanation: “A man on a horse stabs a serpent”). If the horseman is the sovereign, then what about the serpent? There is no disagreement about the symbol of the serpent: it is a biblical image of evil and the personification of the enemies of the Russian land.

Supporters of the “St. George” version give their interpretations of the listed facts. Firstly, the very absence of a halo in the image of St. George the Victorious (and other deviations from the canons) on the seal of Ivan III and under his successors made the horseman in the Russian imagination a “tsar” or “man on a horse,” that is, a secular symbol. Hence the vague name “rider”. V.B. Muravyov proposed a more complex explanation: the rider on the Moscow coat of arms was called “sovereign” by Russian officials. Such identification of an image on a state sign (coin, seal, emblem) with the sovereign himself (or his heavenly patron, which also symbolized the sovereign) “has been traditional for Russia since ancient times, and the Russian bureaucracy did not dare to abandon this tradition.” Thus, this is the official interpretation of state officials, which emerged from the ancient rule of minting the image of the ruler or his heavenly patron on state signs. Foreigners not associated with the Russian bureaucracy openly called the rider on the eagle's chest Saint George, including Samuel Collins, the personal physician of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. But, according to G.V. Vilinbakhova and T.B. Vilinbakhova, Europeans easily recognized Saint George in the horseman because he was depicted without a halo, as was customary in Europe.

Supporters of the “secular” version also point to the fact that on the state emblem, placed on the title page of the Bible published in Moscow in 1663, the serpent fighter rider on the chest of a double-headed eagle is given a portrait resemblance to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. However, the largest researchers of Orthodox medieval Moscow M.P. Kudryavtsev and G.Ya. Mokeev argue that the image of the king on a horse, killing a serpent with a spear, is given here instead of the traditional coat of arms of Moscow - St. George the Victorious. And they point to the inscriptions above the coat of arms from the book of the prophet Isaiah: “I have appointed a king with righteousness and ruled all his ways”; “This will build My City” (Is. 45: 13).

Alexey Mikhailovich considered himself a defender of Ecumenical Orthodoxy. The Moscow kingdom became the main patron of the Eastern Patriarchates, which vegetated under the Ottoman yoke. The idea arose of the liberation of Constantinople and the creation of an Orthodox empire on the territory of the former Byzantium and the Balkans under the rule of the Moscow Tsar. Moscow, built in the image of the Heavenly Jerusalem - the City of God, was also called the New Jerusalem on earth, according to the prophecies of the book of Isaiah about the election of a new people and city, to which the glory of the people of God will pass: “Leave your name for the saturation of My chosen ones, but you will be beaten Lord; But those who work will call Me a new name” (Isaiah 65:15). The depiction of Alexei Mikhailovich as a warrior killing a serpent here symbolizes the idea of ​​Rus' as the last world stronghold of Orthodoxy, and such a variation could well have taken place in the book.

Scientists have not come to a common conclusion about the identification of the Moscow horseman, but it was he who became the prototype of the coat of arms of Moscow. The word “coat of arms,” literally meaning “inheritance,” began to enter Russian usage under Alexei Mikhailovich. In 1672, the “Titular Book” appeared, which collected images of 33 coats of arms of regions and cities that were part of the full royal title. Even earlier, in 1669, the tsar ordered the craftsmen to depict 14 seals “in coats of arms” in the paintings on the walls of the Kolomna Palace, that is, to place state emblems on shields, by analogy with European coats of arms. Young Peter I drew attention to them.

Saint Yegory on horseback

It is believed that Peter the Great, without further ado, was the first Russian to call the Moscow horseman Saint George the Victorious. His note, presumably dating back to 1710, has been preserved: “This has its origins from there, when Vladimir, the Russian monarch, divided his empire among his twelve sons, of whom the Vladimir princes took the coat of arms of St. Yegor, but then Tsar Ivan Vas [Ilyevich], when he again approved the monarchy, collected from his grandfather, and was crowned, when he accepted the eagle as the coat of arms of the Russian Empire, and placed the princely coat of arms in its chest.” During the reign of Peter I, the creation of the Moscow coat of arms began, on which Saint George was depicted in the Russian tradition, which has its origins in Orthodox iconography.
In 1722, the emperor established the Heraldry, which was supposed, among other things, to draw up city coats of arms - according to Peter's plan, these coats of arms were supposed to be placed on the banners of the troops stationed in a particular city. On the recommendation of Jacob Bruce, the Piedmontese Count Francis Santi, who knew European heraldic rules well, was appointed to the position “for creating coats of arms” - according to them they were going to create Russian coats of arms and correct traditional Russian emblems. However, Santi wisely assessed that success would come only if he did not copy European heraldry for Russia, but created Russian one according to Russian traditions. In addition, having thoroughly studied the “Titular Book”, Russian seals and portraits of sovereigns, he saw that coats of arms actually exist in Rus', in some way corresponding to the provisions of Western European heraldry, and this caused him to respect the ancient Russian and Moscow emblems. That is why he retained the right of Russian heraldry to have its own laws. Thus, Saint George on the Moscow coat of arms was depicted facing the viewer with his right side (as on most icons of the “Miracle of Saint George on the Serpent”), that is, on the left heraldic side. Whereas, according to the rules of heraldry, it was necessary to do the opposite and turn the rider to the right heraldic side, with his left side towards the viewer. In Western Europe, this rule arose for natural reasons: living creatures, such as a horseman or a lion, were always depicted with their left side facing the viewer, so that in battle or in a tournament these figures on the knight’s shield, which he held in his left hand, would not appear to be running away from the enemy.

The sketch of the Moscow coat of arms looked like this: in a red field, Saint George with a golden crown, in Greek half-armor covering his chest and back, thrusts a spear crowned with a cross into the mouth of a black serpent. And here he is depicted without a halo, but his holiness was indicated by the cross at the top of the spear. In the subsequent history of the Moscow coat of arms, it was increasingly brought closer to the requirements of European heraldry.

After the death of Peter the Great, Santi was falsely accused of plotting against Peter II, and he spent 15 years in Siberian exile. His design, although it never became the official coat of arms of Moscow, was approved by the Senate in 1730 as a coat of arms for the banner of Moscow regiments. At the same time, the state emblem was approved with the Moscow coat of arms on the chest of an eagle: “George on a white horse, defeating the serpent, the epancha (cloak - E.L.) and the spear are yellow, the crown is yellow, the serpent is black.” So, the saint’s cloak on the coat of arms is not red, as on the icon - a symbol of the shed blood of the great martyr, but gold. Heraldic canons are becoming more and more established.

A new era of the Moscow coat of arms began under Catherine the Great. On winter St. George's Day, November 26, 1769, she established the Order of the Holy Great Martyr and Victorious George in Russia. Since then, on November 26, an annual reception was held in the Winter Palace in honor of the order's celebration. For ceremonial dinners, the Empress ordered a porcelain St. George service: all its items bore images of order insignia and the St. George ribbon. And the throne room in the Winter Palace was St. George's Hall, created by Giacomo Quarenghi by order of the Empress.

Under Catherine II, Moscow returned to the creation of its official coat of arms after the reform of local government, when each Russian city was required to have its own, the highest approved coat of arms, by analogy with the free cities of Western Europe. Comrade of the King of Arms, Lieutenant Colonel I.I. von Enden unsuccessfully corrected the already existing Moscow coat of arms, namely: he changed the rider from ancient half-armor into the full armor of a medieval knight. This tradition was accepted in Europe, since St. George was revered as the patron saint of chivalry, but for Orthodox Russia such an interpretation of St. George the Victorious was alien. In addition, the spear on the coat of arms has lost the cross. However, the Russian tradition of depiction on the left heraldic side was preserved. The colors have also been preserved: a red field, a white horse and a black serpent. The color of the cloak is unknown, but it is believed that it was gold, as described in the statute of the Order of St. George. On December 20, 1781, the Empress approved this particular coat of arms of Moscow as the official one.

Only in the middle of the 19th century was it created according to the rules of European heraldry. This change is connected with the wishes of Nicholas I and with the activities of the German baron B.V. Kene, manager of the Arms Department of the Department of Heraldry, who was also involved in the creation of the Great State Emblem. “In accordance with the requirements of heraldry,” he turned the figure of the horseman to the right heraldic side - with his left side towards the viewer. Even False Dmitry I, on his seal, tried to “unfold” the Moscow horseman in a European way, and the encroachment on the Moscow coat of arms seemed to be the “destiny” of foreigners. In order to hit the serpent on the left of the horse with a spear, the rider had to drop the bridle and take the spear with both hands. However, the spear that crowned it was returned to the spear. The horseman was still depicted in full knight's armor, but under Alexander III in 1883 the half-armor was returned to him. Instead of gold, the mantle of St. George became “azure” - blue. (O.A. Revo presumably connects this with the possible desire of the heraldry to bring the colors of the Moscow coat of arms into line with the colors of the national flag of Russia: white horse, blue cloak, red shield). Instead of a black serpent, a golden dragon with green wings appeared. In the old days, they did not separate the serpent and the dragon - they were one and the same creature, the image of the biblical enemy. Historian G.I. Korolev, who wrote the brilliant study “The Serpent or the Dragon,” considers one of the possible reasons for remaking the serpent into a dragon in the 19th century to be the same desire to bring Russian heraldry into harmony with Western European heraldic rules.

Domestic heraldists were very upset by these changes, because it was the Moscow coat of arms, as the most solid and earliest established in Rus', that should have been protected from arbitrary innovations. Formally applied Western heraldic rules without taking into account the features of the national coat of arms seemed to be alien principles, a disregard for national traditions.

The iconographic image of St. George the Victorious, which was perceived as a holy symbol of ancient Moscow, remained a favorite among the people. Writer Ivan Shmelev cites a conversation he overheard between two Moscow apprentices: “St. Yegory guards our Moscow with a shield and a spear, that’s why it’s written in Moscow... What’s in our eagle’s heart? Moscow is written on the coat of arms: Saint Yegory himself, ours, therefore, Moscow. I went from Moscow to all of Russia.”

Victorious

After the revolution, the coat of arms of Moscow was abolished. On February 27, 1925, the Presidium of the Moscow City Council approved the first Soviet coat of arms, drawn up by the architect D. Osipov - Moscow became the first city to receive a coat of arms with revolutionary, proletarian symbols. The place of St. George was taken by a five-pointed star - the victorious symbol of the Red Army. Against the background of the star was an obelisk, which was the first revolutionary monument of the RSFSR, a symbol of the firmness of Soviet power. (This obelisk, a monument to the first Soviet Constitution, stood on the site of the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky). The hammer and sickle is the emblem of the workers' and peasants' government. A gear wheel and rye ears, depicted along the oval of the shield, symbolized the link between the city and the countryside, and at the bottom there was a dynamo - the emblem of electrification.

The image of St. George the Victorious as a warrior crushing the enemy was turned to during the Great Patriotic War. Both the cavalryman on the poster, striking a swastika with snake heads with a spear, and Kukryniksy’s cartoons, where a Soviet soldier stabs a fascist reptile with a bayonet or into Hitler’s skull, are inspired by the motifs of the Moscow coat of arms. It is significant that the battle for Moscow began on the eve of the winter holiday of St. George, and the capture of Berlin took place on the eve of the spring one. May 6, 1945 fell on Easter, which believers perceived as a sign of imminent victory, and a day later the surrender of Nazi Germany was signed. The medal “For Victory over Germany” was worn on a St. George ribbon.

On November 23, 1993, by order of the mayor of Moscow “Restoring the historical coat of arms of Moscow”, its historical coat of arms was returned to the capital, modeled on the first officially approved coat of arms of Moscow in 1781: on a dark red shield, St. George the Victorious, in silver armor and an azure mantle, on a silver horse, striking with gold spear of the black serpent. And although it is a pity that our coat of arms retains the appearance of a medieval knight, far from the Orthodox image of St. George, now it is at least turned to the left heraldic side, traditional for Russia. And most importantly: Saint George the Victorious returned to the Moscow coat of arms again.

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