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Concept
Hammer and sickle
Summary
The hammer and sickle (Unicode: ☭) is a symbol meant to represent proletarian solidarity, a union between agricultural and industrial workers. It was first adopted during the Russian Revolution at the end of World War I, the hammer representing workers and the sickle representing the peasants.
After World War I (from which the Russian Empire withdrew in 1917) and the Russian Civil War, the hammer and sickle became more widely used as a symbol for labor within the Soviet Union and for international proletarian unity. It was taken up by many communist movements around the world, some with local variations. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, the hammer and sickle remains commonplace in Russia and other former Soviet republics. In some other former communist countries, as well as in countries where communism is banned by law, its display is prohibited as part of decommunization policies. The hammer and sickle is also commonplace in later self-declared socialist states such as Cuba, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos.
Farm and worker instruments and tools have long been used as symbols for proletarian struggle.
The combination of hammer and sickle symbolised the combination of farmers and construction workers. One example of use prior to its political instrumentalization by the Soviet Union is found in Chilean currency circulating since 1894.
An alternative example is the combination of a hammer and a plough, with the same meaning (unity of peasants and workers). In Ireland, the symbol of the plough remains in use. The Starry Plough banner was originally used by the Irish Citizen Army, a socialist republican workers' militia. James Connolly, who co-founded the Irish Citizen Army with Jack White, said the significance of the banner was that a free Ireland would control its own destiny from the plough to the stars. A sword is forged into the plough to symbolise the end of war with the establishment of a Socialist International. That was unveiled in 1914 and flown by the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Easter Rising.
Official source
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