Thematic conversation in elementary school. For younger schoolchildren about the coats of arms of Russian cities

Alla Alekseevna Kondratyeva, primary school teacher, Zolotukhinsk Secondary School, Kursk Region
Description of material: Nowadays, patriotic education takes up quite a lot of time in the educational environment, so I have developed a program for extracurricular activities “Your Russia”. I offer teachers of secondary schools and additional education institutions a material - a reference book on the coats of arms of cities. The material can be used in a wide variety of forms: conversation, class hour, quiz, game hour, extracurricular event, virtual trip, etc. The material is designed to help any student answer such important questions as:
1) How and when did the distinctive signs of Russian cities appear?
2) What were the distinctive signs of medieval knights?
3) What personal insignia did noble people of Russia have?
Target: acquaintance with the distinctive signs (coats of arms) of Russian cities, creation of a short, colorful, interesting reference book about the coats of arms of cities.
Tasks:
1. Create a vivid figurative idea of ​​the era of medieval knights and Ancient Rus', contribute to the formation of ideas about the first insignia of Russian cities.
2. To arouse students’ interest in the history of Russia, expand their understanding of the history of Russia, develop a cognitive interest in reading, and instill a strong interest in books.
3. Cultivate a respectful attitude towards the spiritual and moral traditions of the Fatherland, pride in belonging to the roots of Russia.
Teacher:
The life of medieval knights was not easy. Wear heavy armor, endure the whims of your lady love, and endless tournaments. Don't miss it even if it's for a good reason! Suddenly everyone will think that he chickened out. They'll laugh again.

In the helmet behind the visor it is cold in winter, hot in summer and you can’t hear the squire. It was difficult to communicate in armor. One day someone came up with an idea: so that the knights would not be confused with each other and ordinary people would recognize them from afar, they decided to paint their shields. Each has its own design, its own figures, colors and identification marks. Such armor is far visible both in the tournament and on the battlefield.

Coats of arms of medieval knights

The design on the shield began to be called the “coat of arms”. The coat of arms was assigned to each knight, and they stopped being confused. Gradually, rules emerged according to which it was possible to come up with various new coats of arms. Many people liked the idea of ​​a personalized insignia. Noble people decorated their outfits, castle rooms, and carriages with their family coats of arms. The fashion for coat of arms came to Russia. But only nobles and ... cities received the right to have their own family coat of arms.

Remember, you probably saw the coat of arms of your city? Maybe it depicts a beautiful crown and anchors, or a horseman in armor who kills a snake, or maybe some other animal?
Even the simplest drawing-symbol can tell a lot. The main thing is to be able to “read” it.

Do you know what the color on the coat of arms means?

Red color called “scarlet” and serves as a symbol of bravery and courage, and also symbolizes the blood shed for the faith, the sovereign and the Fatherland.
Coat of arms of the city of Tula

Blue called “azure” and symbolizes beauty.
Blue- a symbol of beauty, greatness, loyalty, trust, impeccability, as well as the development of forward movement, hope, dreams.
Coat of arms of the city of Kolomna

Green– means hope, youth, joy, abundance, fertility, freedom, peace and tranquility.

Black- speaks of sadness, prudence and humility. In addition, it is a symbol of education, modesty, and caution.
Yellow and white– compared to precious metals – gold and silver. Gold most often symbolizes wealth, and silver – purity.

Violet- a symbol of royal or royal origin. Purple dye was obtained from very expensive and rare shells. Due to its high cost, it could only be used in royal and royal courts.

Coat of arms of the family of princes Trubetskoy

Coat of arms of the Potemkin family

Coat of arms- this is an emblem, a distinctive sign, passed on by inheritance, which depicts objects symbolizing the owner of the coat of arms (city, country, class, clan, etc.). Heraldry deals with the study of coats of arms.

What do the animals on coats of arms mean?

Bull- a symbol of labor and patience, fertility and cattle breeding.

Coat of arms of the city of Engels, Saratov region

Wolf-symbol of greed, anger and gluttony. Placed on coats of arms as a sign of victory over a greedy, evil enemy.
Coat of arms of the city of Volkovysk

Pigeon- a symbol of humility and purity, the holy spirit.
Coat of arms of the city of Blagoveshchensk

Snake- a symbol of wisdom, kindness and precaution.
Coat of arms of the city of Zmeinogorsk (Altai)

Wild boar- a symbol of fearlessness and power.

Wild cat-symbol of independence.
Coat of arms of Vologda

a lion- a symbol of power, strength, courage and generosity.
Coat of arms of the city of Vladimir

Coat of arms of the city of Belgorod

Bear- a symbol of forethought and strength.
The bear is depicted on the coats of arms of many cities: Ekaterinburg, Novgorod, Norilsk, Perm, Syktyvkar, Khabarovsk, Yaroslavl and many others.

Coat of arms of the city of Yaroslavl

Sheep- a symbol of meekness, kindness and rural life.
Coat of arms of the city of Evpatoria (Crimea)

Coat of arms of the city of Samara

Deer-symbol of a warrior in front of whom the enemy is running.

Coat of arms of the city of Nizhny Novgorod

Eagle- symbol of vigilance.
Coat of arms of the city of Orel

Bee- a symbol of hard work and tirelessness.
Coat of arms of the city of Tambov

Owl- a symbol of wisdom, ingenuity and efficiency.
Altai

On ancient reliefs you can see many different monsters: dragons. winged bulls and lions, people with the heads of crocodiles and hippos, mermaids with fish tails. But it was not the hydra, sphinx or griffin, but the double-headed eagle that became the symbol of Russia.
The image of a double-headed eagle appeared three thousand years BC. In the civilization of the ancient Sumerians who lived at that time, an eagle with two heads was a divine symbol.
It is generally accepted that the double-headed eagle appeared on the coat of arms of Russia immediately after the marriage of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III and Princess Sophia (Zoe) Palaiologos, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. Sofia Paleolog brought with her some regalia with the image of a double-headed eagle. Thus, Ivan III inherited not only the royal title, but also the coat of arms of the Palaiologan dynasty.

The country's coat of arms is a double-headed eagle
Spread his wings proudly.
Holds the scepter and the orb,
He saved Russia.
There is a red shield on the eagle's chest.
Dear to everyone: you and me.
A handsome young man gallops
On a silver horse.
Confirms the ancient coat of arms
Independence of the country.
For the peoples of all Russia
Our symbols are important.

STATE EMBRACE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

We are so accustomed to the coat of arms of Moscow with the image of St. George the Victorious on a horse, slaying a serpent. How and when did he get to Russia? St. George the Victorious is a common Christian saint, revered in many countries.

The culmination of city coats of arms in the Western European tradition dates back to the 15th century. In Russia, we can only talk about city coats of arms as symbols of self-government since the 18th century. According to well-known experts in the field of heraldry, in Rus' in the pre-Mongol period there were emblems - the “progenitors” of city coats of arms.

The term “city coat of arms” first appeared in a royal decree of 1692 in connection with the coat of arms of the city of Yaroslavl.

coat of arms of the city of Yaroslavl from the Great State Book - “Titular Book” of 1672:

The coat of arms depicted a bear with a protazan. It is believed that this image is associated with the ancient cult of the bear, characteristic of the Upper Volga region back in the 9th-10th centuries. Perhaps the image corresponds to the legend about the founding of Yaroslavl on the site where Yaroslav the Wise killed a bear with an axe.

It has already been mentioned that the appearance of Russian city coats of arms dates back to the appanage period and their origin is associated with signs of property and princely dignity of the owners of appanages. A typical diagram illustrating this situation is as follows:

Sign of the prince's property ---- Sign of the land ---- Sign of the main city of this land ---- Signs of princely families from this land.

Coat of arms of the city of Vladimir.

This ancient city coat of arms not only of Rus', but also of Europe arose in the 12th century.

In the 12th century, during the pre-Mongol period, the city of Vladimir became the first unifying center of appanage Rus' - the capital of the Vladimir-Suzdal princes. The inevitability of the appearance of the capital's coat of arms is due to the rise of this city. The Grand Dukes of Vladimir Andrei Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod Yurievich the Big Nest needed a symbol larger than the personal heraldic sign of the Rurikovichs of the previous (Kyiv) period - a trident and a bident. The new symbol was the lion. According to a number of researchers, the lion was the emblem of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky.

A lion - personified power, courage, strength, mercy, generosity.

In Christian symbolism, the lion is a symbol of the Evangelist Luke and, according to biblical tradition, the tribe of Judah; a symbol of the royal, God-given power of the great princes; symbol of defeated evil; a symbol of a claim to royal power and a symbol of evidence of royal power.

This symbolism coincided both with the policy pursued by the Grand Dukes of Vladimir, which had a clear ideological design, and with their self-esteem.

The ancient coat of arms of the city of Vladimir, the description of which is given in the “Titular Book” of 1672, represented a lion walking on its hind legs in profile, with an ancient crown on its head and a long 4-pointed cross in its front paws. From the point of view of the rules of heraldry, the ancient Vladimir lion had an incorrect heraldic pose, since it did not “attack” the enemy, but “ran away” from him. This heraldic inaccuracy was eliminated in the 18th century.

The lion on the coat of arms of the city of Vladimir was not a single symbol. His cultural surroundings were the white stone carvings of the 12th-13th century cathedrals of Vladimir, Suzdal, and Yuryev Polsky.

Currently, some specialists in the field of heraldry give the Vladimir coat of arms the status of the first state emblem in the history of the fatherland.

Coat of arms of the city of Vladimir from the Great State Book - “Titular Book” of 1672:

Coat of arms of the city of Moscow.

All versions of the history of the coat of arms of the city of Moscow indicate a long period of its formation.

Originally it was an image of a white horse on a scarlet field. The horse will remain a permanent figure in the Moscow coat of arms.

Horse- a cult creature with many sacred functions, which include: the courage of a lion, the vigilance of an eagle, the speed of a deer, the agility of a fox. The horse is sensitive, loyal, noble.

It is known that the Moscow ideological tradition placed this city as the successor of Kyiv through Vladimir. Then the lion of Vladimir would be logical for the emblem of Moscow. He may have been the main figure or somehow featured on the coat of arms. Experts in the field of heraldry explain the absence of a lion for two reasons. Firstly, the Moscow princes under the Mongol-Tatar yoke were more modest than the pre-Mongol Andrei Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod Yuryevich the Big Nest. Secondly, Vladimir, with the symbol of a lion, nevertheless ended up under the Tatars, with whom Moscow, from the end of the 14th century, learned to wage a successful fight.

Then in the coat of arms of the city of Moscow appeared rider on horseback. The rider saddled and subjugated to his will not just an animal, but a cult creature - a horse. Hence the status of the rider is very high. After the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380, the rider was personified with St. George on horseback, slaying the serpent. Later - with an equestrian warrior with a sword, then - with a horseman with a spear (rider), then - with an equestrian warrior striking a winged serpent or dragon with a spear, as a symbol of independence from the Tatars. At the same time, “portrait” princely features gradually began to appear in the silhouette of the equestrian warrior. During the reign of Prince Vasily II the Dark (1425-1462), who had the title “Sovereign of All Rus',” the horseman turns into a prince. Under Ivan III (1462-1505), a rider in armor, in a flowing cloak, stabs a snake stretched out under the hooves of his horse with a spear. This is already the coat of arms of the Moscow sovereigns, the sovereigns of all Rus'. It is very close to the state one. Heraldry experts believe that the Moscow princes were looking for a more state symbol than a dynastic one. During the reign of Ivan III, after his marriage to Sophia Palaeologus in 1472, a second, in addition to the horseman, image of a crowned double-headed eagle appeared on the state double-sided seal in 1497. Ivan III already had the title “By the grace of God, Lord of All Rus', Grand Duke.” And the Grand Duke of Vladimir, Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, Tver, Ugric, Vyatka, Perm, Bulgaria.” So the Moscow coat of arms came even closer to the state one. In the 16th-17th centuries there was a clear interpretation of the horseman as a grand duke, king or heir.

Animals in the coats of arms of Russian cities

In a silver field on an azure extremity, burdened with two pairs of facing silver fish, one above the other, supported on the sides by two black bears, a golden chair with a red cushion and a back, crowned with a golden candlestick with three silver candles burning with scarlet flames; on the pillow are placed a crossed golden scepter and a cross crowned with a cross.

Approved on August 16, 1781. Description of the coat of arms: At the top of the shield is the coat of arms of Vladimir. At the bottom are two hares sitting in a green field, of which there are many animals in the vicinity of this city.

The coat of arms depicts two golden herrings in a black field “as a sign that this smoked fish is being traded.”

The Rybinsk coat of arms is a red shield divided into two parts. At the top there is a bear with an ax coming out from behind the river, showing that the city belongs to the Yaroslavl region. At the bottom there are two sterlets, indicating an abundance of water and fish. There are two staircases leading up the hill from the water, marking the pier.

The heraldic symbol of this regional center near Moscow has been the peacock for more than 200 years! At the end of the 18th century, by order of the already mentioned Empress Catherine, a campaign began in the country to massively assign coats of arms to cities; the then chief herald of the empire, Count Francisco Santi, sent out questionnaires to all corners of the country, wanting to find out what special thing each city and town had - so that it then display it on the coat of arms. In the response received from Serpukhov, Santi’s attention was attracted by the phrase: “in one monastery peacocks will be born...” (This meant the Vysotsky Monastery, to whose monks back in 1691 the okolnichy Mikhail Kolupaev gave a peacock and a peacock as a contribution, from which the Serpukhov peacock family began.) Such an insignificant remark in the questionnaire became the reason for the “enshrinment” of the peacock on the coat of arms of Serpukhov.

Approved on September 21, 1781. Description of the coat of arms: At the top of the shield is the coat of arms of Voronezh. At the bottom there is an animal called a ferret, in a golden field, of which there are a lot in the vicinity of this city.

The silver shield is crossed diagonally by a blue ribbon-sash, on which three flying partridges are depicted. The coat of arms was approved in February 1992 by the city Council of People's Deputies.

Approved on January 8, 1780. Description of the coat of arms: In the first part is the coat of arms of Kursk. In the second part of the shield, an animal called a ferret is in a golden field, for the reason that many of them are caught in the vicinity of this city.

LGOV, in the Kursk region, regional subordination, regional center, 85 km west of Kursk. Located in the southern part of the Central Russian Upland, along the banks of the river. Seim (tributary of the Desna).

A black fox in a golden field is a sign that the inhabitants of that city are practicing catching those animals. Approved October 2, 1781

Black sable and marten

Golden shield holders - bear and sable with collars made of squirrel fur, with a silver druse of five crystals. The bear is a symbol of the European part of Russia, the sable is the symbol of the Asian part. Under the Demidovs, sable was a mark of Ural metal.

In a silver field on green ground there is a black stump with a branch with green leaves extending to the right; on the stump there is a scarlet woodpecker sitting with its wings raised and turned to the left, having golden eyes and a beak.

Coat of arms of Cheboksary. At the top of the shield is the Kazan coat of arms. At the bottom are five wild ducks flying in a golden field, as a sign that they are very abundant in the vicinity of this city. Supremely approved 10/18/1781

Marten. Often, marten furs were used by the population to exchange with southern tribes for iron and other necessary things.

Description (1785) At the top of the shield is the coat of arms of Tobolsk. At the bottom, in a golden field, is a bundle of different animal skins, on which lies the Mercury Rod: as a sign that in this city there is a major trade in furs, to which merchants come from all over the world.

The silver bear is a symbol of the natural resources surrounding the city of endless lands, containing many “metals, salt mines, multi-colored marbles and other stones” and “full of forests”, in which “there are a considerable number of various kinds of wild animals”

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Presentation on the topic: Coats of arms of Russian cities

Slide no. 1

Slide description:

History of the fleet in the coats of arms of cities Completed by: 4th grade student of secondary school No. 289 in Zaozersk, Murmansk region Alina Lyashenko Scientific supervisor: primary school teacher Pulina Svetlana Evgenievna Secondary school No. 289 in Zaozersk, Murmansk region Interregional distance conference - competition for students 1 – 7 - classes “First steps into science” Section “History” 2011 5klass.net

Slide no. 2

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Slide no. 3

Slide description:

Introduction A coat of arms is an emblem of a state, a city, or even a clan or family. The coat of arms is depicted on flags, coins, seals, state and other documents. For any city, the coat of arms is of great importance; it reflects the history and is the calling card of the city. I live in the ZATO (closed territorial entity) city of Zaozersk, Murmansk region - a city of submariners. Like any other city, ours has its own coat of arms. The coat of arms reflects the features of the city: specifics, geographical location.

Slide no. 4

Slide description:

Heraldry is the science of coats of arms. A coat of arms is an inherited emblem, which is characterized by the presence of a shield as the main visual element. The very origin of the term “coat of arms” emphasizes its meaning as a symbol of family ties. In the West Slavic and Upper Germanic languages, the word “herb” means “inheritance”, “dowry”. Heraldry is a science that studies and explains already created coats of arms and signs, determines the rules for drawing up new ones. In the modern world there were more than two hundred states. Almost each of them has its own official symbols. The history of many state emblems goes back hundreds of years.

Slide no. 5

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In heraldry, five main forms of the coat of arms have been established: Varangian, Italian, Spanish, French and German. The most widely used in the design of coats of arms is the French shield. It is he who is present on all the coats of arms of Russian cities. The main figures of the coat of arms are the images placed on the shield. The shield can be crossed vertically in the middle by a wide strip - a pillar, horizontally - by a belt, and along an oblique - by a sling. If the bands intersect to form an angle, they are called rafters. There may be a cross on the shield - an image of an intersecting pillar and belt. Also, images of humans, animals, birds, fish, geographical objects, etc. are placed on the shield. Sometimes mythological creatures can also be seen on the shield.

Slide no. 6

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Knight's shields were covered with bright colors - enamels. According to the rules of heraldry, when composing coats of arms, a limited number of colors are used: red, blue, green, purple, black, as well as heraldic metals - gold and silver, which are yellow and white colors, respectively. Heraldic colors had symbolic meanings: gold signified wealth, strength, loyalty, constancy, greatness, strength, generosity, providence and sunlight; silver is a symbol of perfection, nobility, purity of thoughts, peace; azure - grandeur, beauty, clarity; scarlet color means bravery, courage, fearlessness, maturity and energy; greenery is a symbol of joy, hope, nature, prosperity, prosperity, hope, abundance, freedom; black color is prudence, wisdom, honesty, humility; purple - dignity, strength, courage.

Slide no. 7

Slide description:

Voronezh In a scarlet (red) field with a golden head, burdened with a black double-headed eagle with golden beaks, paws and eyes, with scarlet tongues, crowned with three golden imperial crowns and holding a golden scepter in the right paw, and a golden orb in the left, emerging from the right golden a mountain made of boulders, on the slope of which there is an overturned silver jug ​​pouring out silver water. The shield is crowned with a golden tower crown with five visible teeth, surrounded by a hoop with a golden laurel wreath. Shield holders are knights on the green earth in silver chain mail, mirror armor, helmets with arrows and open aventails in front, in scarlet cloaks pinned on the right shoulder with silver, in shirts and boots of the same enamel and ports of the same metal; the right one holds a golden sword in his right hand, pointing downwards, and on his belt is a golden sheath; left - holds in his left hand in front of him a golden ancient (almond-shaped) shield, on which is placed the emblem from the regimental banner of the infantry regiment, approved on March 8, 1730, on his belt is a sword in a sheath of the same metal. The shield is framed with order ribbons: on the right - the Order of Lenin, and on the left - the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

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Slide description:

St. Petersburg The coat of arms of St. Petersburg is a heraldic red shield with an image on its field of two silver anchors - sea (obliquely from left to right of the viewer, with claws in the upper left corner of the shield from the viewer; has two claws and a transverse detail on the anchor rod) and river ( diagonally from the right to the left of the viewer, with paws in the upper right corner of the shield from the viewer; has four paws and lacks a transverse detail on the anchor rod), placed crosswise, and on them is a golden scepter with a double-headed eagle. The shield is crowned with an imperial crown with two St. Andrew's azure ribbons emerging from it. Behind the shield are two crosswise gold Russian scepters, decorated with diamonds and enamel, connected by St. Andrew's azure ribbon.

Which of our settlements was “sent to the soap”, and which one “received the pumpkin”?

With the approval of the leadership of the Chelyabinsk region, a competition was organized there for the best idea to immortalize the day when a meteorite exploded over the region. Among the most “creative” proposals from citizens is changing the region’s coat of arms, on which it is proposed to place a meteorite next to a camel.

Coat of arms of Chelyabinsk.

MK studied the strangest coats of arms of Russian regions and cities. What we didn’t find there: from a Negroid tiger to a sacrifice, an opium poppy and fragments of cellulose.

Let's start with the Chelyabinsk residents. Now the main element of the coat of arms of this region and its capital is the camel. The image of the “ship of the desert” appeared on the heraldic shield during the time of Empress Catherine the Great. The description of the coat of arms of Chelyabinsk, approved on July 6, 1782, says: “In... the lower part of the shield there is a loaded camel, as a sign that they are brought to this city with goods.” The authors meant that from ancient times a caravan route passed through this Ural city along which goods from Mongolia and China were delivered to the European part of the country. So, from a historical point of view, the existence of the Chelyabinsk “coat of arms” camel is quite logical and justified.

The same cannot be said about the “hero of animal origin” who settled on the coat of arms of the city of Serpukhov. The heraldic symbol of this regional center near Moscow has been the peacock for more than 200 years! (I just want to spread the slogan among the people: “The Moscow region is the homeland of peacocks!”)

Coat of arms of Serpukhov

But how did the exotic bird of paradise “build a nest” in our northern regions, on the banks of the Oka? It turns out that when at the end of the 18th century, by order of the already mentioned Empress Catherine, a campaign began in the country to massively assign coats of arms to cities, the then chief herald of the empire, Count Francisco Santi, sent out questionnaires to all corners of the country, wanting to find out which “exclusive” was available in each city and town. “- so that it can be displayed on the coat of arms. In the response received from Serpukhov, Santi’s attention was attracted by the phrase: “in one monastery peacocks will be born...” (This meant the Vysotsky Monastery, to whose monks back in 1691 the okolnichy Mikhail Kolupaev gave a peacock and a peacock as a contribution, from which the Serpukhov peacock family began.) Such an insignificant remark in the questionnaire became the reason for the “enshrinment” of the peacock on the coat of arms of Serpukhov.

However, a peacock at least “sounds proud.” Some other settlements received much less “top” birds. For example, the city of Elabuga in Tatarstan, now famous for automobile production, 232 years ago was awarded a coat of arms on which “... in the lower part of the shield in a silver field there is a woodpecker sitting on a stump, pecking at it, for there are many birds of this kind there.”

But Irkutsk acquired an animal on its coat of arms, which in reality does not exist at all. This unique specimen is a “Negroid” tiger, equipped with webbed paws and a flat “fleshy” tail, like a beaver.

Coat of arms of Irkutsk

Where did such a mutant come from? – We read the description of the coat of arms, approved in the fall of 1790: “There is a running tiger in the silver field of the shield, and a sable in its mouth.” Well, there is nothing supernatural here, because in those ancient times, in the east of the vast Siberian province, tigers were not uncommon. However, this very name of the animal somehow did not catch on among the Siberians, and instead of it, the locals called the mighty tabby cat babr. It’s easy to imagine the further development of events: officials, far from Siberian exoticism, easily confused the local babr with the widespread “aquatic animal” - the beaver. So it turned out later, according to official documents, that the inhabitants of Irkutsk have a running beaver (!) on their coat of arms, holding a sable in its mouth. In order to somehow fit the “picture” to this awkward description, the tiger from the Irkutsk coat of arms was painted with “beaver” hind legs and tail, and the striped coloring of the skin was removed, replacing it with plain black.

Among other Russian coats of arms, equipped with images of animals, there was one very “sadistic” one. The coat of arms of the Kargopol district of the Arkhangelsk region flaunts, according to the description approved in June 2004, “in an azure field, a silver ram with golden horns, lying on golden brands; everything is engulfed in scarlet (red) flame.” That is, the process of roasting a ram is actually depicted - uncut, right in all its naturalness. The explanation for the appearance of such a “horror” on the coat of arms is that the ritual of sacrificing a ram has been widespread in the Russian North since pagan times. In some villages of the Kargopol district, “Ram Sunday” even existed before the revolution, during which peasants slaughtered a ram and sacrificed it to Elijah the Prophet.

Among hundreds of Russian city emblems, there are some whose images, in modern times, can be interpreted as prohibited propaganda.

On the coat of arms of the village (formerly a city) Epifan in the Tula region you can see the drug - hemp.

Epifan village coat of arms

According to the ancient description of the coat of arms, it represents “a shield, a silver field with black soil below, from which three hemp epics grow, showing that the surroundings of this city, among other works, abound in hemp.” It is clear that our great-grandfathers, when drawing hemp on the coat of arms of Epifani, did not even think about the narcotic properties of this “weed”. In those days, this plant was actively cultivated to obtain hemp from it for weaving strong ropes and useful hemp oil.

The same “criminal” hemp is depicted on the coat of arms of some other territories where the cultivation of hemp for economic needs flourished in the past - the Kimovsky district of the Tula region and the city of Novozybkov in the Bryansk region (in this latter case, hemp stems are depicted rolled into a green sheaf, and in 1980s, when hemp was already on the “black lists”, instead of a sheaf they began to draw a more “harmless” heraldic element - a cannon).

Another narcotic “object” also made its way into heraldry. Here is a description of the coat of arms of the city of Derbent, approved in March 1843, in what is now Dagestan: “...In the lower half of the shield, divided into two parts and having a silver field, on the right side there is an old fortress wall with a gate...; on the left side are the intertwined roots of a madder plant and several stems of poppy, tied with a golden rope, as a sign that the residents are processing madder with great success and breeding poppies to make opium (shiryak) from it.”

Coat of arms of Derbent

The opiate is also depicted on the coat of arms of the city of Karachev (present-day Bryansk region), which was approved in 1781. “...In the lower part of the shield of the coat of arms there is in a silver field a bunch of blossoming poppies tied with a golden rope, of which there are quite a few in the fields around this city they sow and trade with it.”

Some coats of arms are “equipped” with rather unexpected elements. For example, in the old (1781) description of the coat of arms of the city of Shuya (Ivanovo region) it is written: “... In the lower part of the shield there is a bar of soap in a red field, meaning the glorious soap factories located in the city.” True, in the modern version of the coat of arms, approved in 2004, this bar of soap has turned into a kind of abstract “golden bar with three visible sides - the front, facing straight, the top and the left.”

Coat of arms of the city of Shuya

By the will of the capital's kings of arms, the city of Sengilei (present-day Ulyanovsk region) received a pumpkin. In the literal sense of the word: “...At the bottom of the shield are two large pumpkins with branches in a silver field, signifying the abundance of this kind of fruit.”

Sometimes the very names of old Russian settlements became a “hint” to the creators of coats of arms. Here, for example, are two cities in the current Penza region - Verkhniy and Nizhny Lomov. Here you don’t need to strain your imagination too much - in both cases, in the city coats of arms, in their lower part, there appear “five iron crowbars placed in a star, with sharp ends up, meaning the name of this city.”

Come on, most savvy readers, guess how to illustrate the name Dukhovshchina on the coat of arms? For those who did not cope with this task, we quote a fragment from the description of the coat of arms approved in 1780 for this city in the territory of the present Smolensk region: “...In the lower part of the shield in a white field there is a rose bush producing a pleasant spirit.”

Of course, the creativity of the inventors of coats of arms “from the time of the construction of developed socialism in the country” has moved away from all this archaism. In the USSR, cities and towns received “propaganda” coats of arms – in the spirit of propaganda posters. They depicted power plants, factories, turbines, icebreakers, steel ladles, gears (well, the heraldic element was very popular!), pipes, ears of corn, hammers... On the coat of arms of the city of Bratsk, approved in 1980, where the largest pulp mill was built paper mill, among other things, even “stylized fragments of the chemical formula of cellulose” were depicted.