A red star

A red star, five-pointed and filled (★), is an important ideological and religious symbol which has been used for various purposes, such as: state emblems, flags, monuments, ornaments, and logos.

Flags[link]

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  Flag of Birmingham, Alabama, United States

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  Flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

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  Flag of Nagasaki, Japan

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  Flag of Tunisia

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  Flag of California

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  Flag of New Zealand

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  Flag of Canton of Valais, Switzerland

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  Flag of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

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  Flag of 1836 revolt in Alta California, Mexico

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  A 1912 variant of the US presidental flag

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  Flag of Washington, D.C.

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  Flag of Algeria

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  Flag of Panama

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  Flag of North Korea

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  Flag of Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon)

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  Flag of Red Star Line

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  Flag of the Chief of Staff of the Royal Italian Army^{[citation needed]}

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  War flag of the Soviet Union.

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  Flag of the Syrian Republic (1930–1958).

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  Flag of Zimbabwe

Orders[link]

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  Gallipoli Star (Ottoman Empire) (1915)

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  L'insigne des blessés militaires (France) (1915)

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  De Orde van Liefdadigheid Osmaanse Rijk (1878)

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  Patriotic Women's Association merit badge (Japan)

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  Soviet Order of Victory (1945)

Architecture and stained glass windows[link]

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  Rockefeller Chapel – University of Chicago stained glass closeup

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  US National Christmas Tree Washington, D.C.

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  Stained glass windows in Berlin, painter Walter Womacka

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  One of the Kremlin stars atop Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin

Heraldry[link]

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  Coat of arms of Charles Darwin

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  Coat of Arms of New Zealand (1956)

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  Coat of Arms of Zimbabwe (1981)

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  Blason Pierre de Lannoy 1445 – 1510

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  Coat of Arms of Algeria (1971)

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  Coat of Syria (1930-1958 and 1961-1963)

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  Coat of arms of Djibouti (1977)

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  Coat of arms of Blason ville (Puy-de-Dôme)

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  Coat of Arms of Minas Gerais' State, Brazil

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  Coat of arms of Fontanella, Austria

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  Coat of arms of Tunisia

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  (1918) Coat of arms I Squadriglia Caproni

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  Coat of arms of Kaulsdorf (Saale)

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  Emblem of Italy

Symbol of communism[link]

The five-pointed red star is often used as a symbol of communism. It is sometimes understood to represent the five fingers of the worker's hand, as well as the five continents. A lesser known suggestion^{[citation needed]} is that the five points on the star were intended to represent the five social groups that would lead Russia to communism: the youth, the military, the industrial labourers, the agricultural workers or peasantry, and the intelligentsia. It was one of the emblems, symbols, and signals representing the Soviet Union under the rule of the Communist Party, along with the hammer and sickle. Across Europe, the symbol is treated very differently in different countries: some have passed laws banning it, claiming that it represents "a totalitarian ideology", while other countries hold a very positive view of it as a symbol of antifascism and resistance against Nazi occupation. In the Soviet heraldry the red star symbolized the Red Army and the military service as opposed to the hammer and sickle which symbolized the peaceful labour.

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  Red star, Red Army 1918

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  Red Cavalry poster with budenovka, 1920

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  Coat of arms of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic (1919–1920)

History[link]

The star's origins in a mass political movement are found in the Russian civil war and the end of the First World War, though its creator is unknown. It is most often thought that Russian troops fleeing from the Austrian and German fronts found themselves in Moscow in 1917 and mixed with the local Moscow garrison. To distinguish the Moscow troops from the influx of retreating Russians the officers gave out tin stars to the Moscow garrison soldiers, to wear on their hats. When those troops joined the Red Army and the Bolsheviks they painted their tin stars red, the color of socialism, thus creating the original red star.^[1] Another claimed origin for the red star relates to an alleged encounter between Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Krylenko. Krylenko, an Esperantist, was wearing a green star lapel badge; Trotsky enquired as to its meaning and received an explanation that each arm of the star represented one of the five traditional continents. On hearing this, he specified that a similar red star should be worn by soldiers of the Red Army.^[2] In a speech given by Trotsky in 1923, he mentions the red star:

For the seventh time since the overthrow of Tsardom, for the sixth time under the sickle and hammer of the Soviets and the Red star of battle^[3]

And the badge was used in the Red Army during the civil war:

Immediately after the October revolution all ranks of the 3rd Petrograd regiment wore their old uniforms but with shoulder-board removed and with Tsarist cap insignia replaced by the red star^[4]

Joseph Stalin is also known for wearing a pendant resembling the red star, as he did at the Teheran Conference.

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  Kremlin Star, Moscow, (1937)

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  Order Victory, (1945), USSR

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  Badge, Exhibition, (1952), USSR

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  Plate by Adamovich, (1921), USSR

Wider use[link]

Following its adoption as an emblem of the Soviet Union, the red star became a symbol for communism in a larger sense. The symbol became one of the most prominent of the Soviet Union, adorning all official buildings, awards and insignia. Sometimes the hammer and sickle was depicted inside or below the star. In 1930, the Order of the Red Star was established and given to Red Army and Soviet Navy personnel for "exceptional service in the cause of the defense of the Soviet Union in both war and peace".

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  Coat of arms of USSR (1923)

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  Coat of arms of Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic

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  Coat of arms of Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic

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  Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic

The red star was adopted by several Communist states and often placed on their respective flags and coats of arms, for example on the flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Separatist and socialist movements also sometimes adopted the red star, such as the Estelada flag in the Catalan countries.

In former Yugoslavia the red star was not considered a communist symbol, as were the hammer and sickle; but as a symbol of resistance against fascist and Nazi occupation and their ethnic policies instead. The red star was worn by Tito's partisans as an identification symbol, regardless of their worldview including people with a religious background. As the red star spread to communism in the East, it was adapted: while some states kept the star as it was, some used a yellow star, particularly on a red field, with the same symbolism. The Far Eastern Republic used a yellow star on its military uniforms, and the flag of the People's Republic of China has five yellow stars on a red field. The flag of Vietnam also has a yellow star on a red field. In Brazil, however, the red star remained as it was.

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  Emblem of North Korea

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  Coat of arms of the Federal State of Croatia

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  Coat of arms of Transnistria (1991)

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  National Emblem of Belarus

The Russian military newspaper is also called the Red Star (Russian: Krasnaya Zvezda). Several sporting clubs from countries ruled by Communist Parties used the red star as a symbol, and Crvena zvezda (Serbian Cyrillic: Црвена звезда), Belgrade, and Roter Stern, Leipzig, named themselves after it. Since the fall of the Warsaw Pact, the red star has been banned in some countries.

In 1970, the Rote Armee Fraktion or Red Army Faction (RAF) was officially founded. The RAF, which described itself as a communist "urban guerilla" group, was a postwar West Germany left-wing terrorist organisation. Its highly recognisable symbol was a red star and a Heckler & Koch MP5. The RAF operated from the 1970s to 1998, committing numerous crimes, especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as the "German Autumn". It was responsible for 34 murders—including secondary targets such as chauffeurs and bodyguards—and many injuries in its almost 30 years of existence.

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  Flag of the Italian Partisan 63rd Brigade

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  Catalan senyera

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  Galician estreleira

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  Castilian pendón comunero

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  Estrelada aragonesa

The red star was included in the flag of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) or Zapatista Army of National Liberation upon their formation in 1994. The EZLN, an armed revolutionary group based in Chiapas, Mexico, takes its name from the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and is most often represented by Subcomandante Marcos, though he is not their leader. The same flag, a black flag with a red star, was used by US rock band Rage Against the Machine – who were vocal supporters of the EZLN and other left causes – so much so that the symbol came to be associated with the band, separate from the EZLN. The red star is used by the Workers' Party (Brazil). It is also used by the militant South African shack dweller's movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Hugo Chávez and his supporters in Venezuela have used the Red Star in numerous symbols and logos, and have proposed including it in the logo of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). It was also used throughout 2007 as a symbol of the "5 Engines of the Bolivarian Socialist Revolution".

North Korea's Red Star OS takes its name and logo from the communist red star.

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  New Russian Red Star 2010

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  Soviet Red Star

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  Symbol of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus

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  The coat of arms of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan

By March 2010, the Russian government readopted the Soviet red star (but now with a blue outline representing the three colors of the Russian flag) as a military insignia. This star is used as Russian Air Force roundel and can also be applied on vehicles. The old Soviet Red Star is still in widespread use.

Armed Forces of Belarus still use the old Soviet red star. The coat of arms of Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan is also a modified version of the Soviet red star.

Red stars in labels and logos[link]

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  Logo of Martinazzi

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  Logo of RED STAR, France

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  A San Pellegrino bottle

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  Logo of Heineken

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  Logo of AKO, product of the Soviet Union

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  Sports club « Stella Rossa », Austria

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  Logo of Macy's department stores

The red star was used by the Texaco oil company prior to 1966. Its overseas division Caltex also used the red star.

Holiday usage[link]

Modern syncretism: a New Year tree with a red star in front of a church cupola in Volokolamsk, Russia, 2010.

The red star was commonly placed atop New Year trees in the Soviet Union, a tradition that continues to this day in Russia.

Legal status[link]

The red star and the hammer and sickle are regarded as occupation symbols as well as symbols of totalitarianism and state terror by several countries formerly occupied by the Soviet Union. Accordingly, Latvia^{[citation needed]}, Lithuania^[5] and Hungary^[6] have banned the symbol. In Poland, the Parliament passed in 2009 a ban that referred generally to "fascist, communist or other totalitarian symbols", while not specifying any of them.^[7] Following a constitutional complaint, it has been abolished by the Constitutional Tribunal as contrary to the art. 42(1) (construed here as requiring adequate precision of a law that imposes penal liability) in connection with art. 54(1) (the freedom of speech) and art. 2 of the Polish Constitution (effective from 03.08.2011). A similar law was considered in Estonia, but eventually failed in a parliamentary committee as too onerous for constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, most importantly, freedom of speech.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled, in a similar manner, against the laws that ban political symbols, which were deemed to be in clear opposition with basic human rights, such as freedom of speech.^[8][9], confirmed again in 2011 in case Fratanolo v. Hungary.^[10] The decision has been compared^[11] to the legislation concerning the symbols of Nazism, which continue to be banned in several European Union member states, including Germany and France.

There have been calls for an EU-wide ban on both Soviet and Nazi symbols, notably by politicians from Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The European Commissioner for Justice, Franco Frattini, initially expressed support for the idea, but the proposal was eventually withdrawn because there was no consensus on which symbols to ban.^[12]

In 2003, Hungarian politician Attila Vajnai was arrested, handcuffed and fined for wearing a red star on his lapel during a demonstration. He appealed his sentence to the European Court of Human Rights, which decided that the ban was a violation of the freedom of expression, calling the Hungarian ban "indiscriminate" and "too broad". ^[13]

In Slovenia the red star is respected as a symbol of resistance against fascism and Nazism. On March 21, 2011, Slovenia issued a two-euro commemorative coin to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franc Rozman, a partizan commander, featuring a large red star (which can not be red on the coin, for obvious reasons).

See also[link]

	Communism portal
	USSR portal

External links[link]

Flags with stars – Wikimedia Commons

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: red star