Petrovskoe time
During the reign of Peter I, a new emblem entered the state heraldry of Russia - the chain of orders of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. This order, approved by Peter in 1698, became the first in the system of the highest state awards in Russia. The Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, one of the heavenly patrons of Peter Alekseevich, was declared the patron saint of Russia.
The blue oblique St. Andrew's cross becomes the main element of the badge of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called and a symbol of the Russian Navy. Since 1699, there are images of a two-headed eagle surrounded by a chain with the sign of the St. Andrew's Order. And already next year, the St. Andrew's Order is placed on an eagle, around a shield with a rider.
It should be noted that already from 1710 (a decade earlier than Peter I was proclaimed emperor (1721), and Russia - an empire), imperial crowns were depicted over the eagle.
Since the first quarter of the 18th century, the colors of the double-headed eagle have become brown (natural) or black.
The era of palace coups, Catherine's time
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by the decree of Empress Catherine I of March 11, 1726, the description of the coat of arms was fixed:
"A black eagle with outstretched wings, in a yellow field, on him is George the Victorious in a red field." The Empress Anna Ioanovna invited a Swiss engraver in 1736, who engraved the State Seal by 1740. The central part of the matrix of this seal with the image of a two-headed eagle was used until 1856. Thus, the type of two-headed eagle on the State Seal remained unchanged for over a hundred years. Catherine the Great did not make any changes to the state emblem, preferring to preserve continuity and traditionalism.
Paul the First
Emperor Paul I, by a decree of April 5, 1797, allowed members of the imperial family to use the image of a two-headed eagle as their coat of arms.
During the short time of the reign of Emperor Paul I (1796-1801), Russia pursued an active foreign policy, faced with a new enemy for itself - Napoleonic France. After French troops occupied the Mediterranean island of Malta, Paul I took the Order of Malta under his protection, becoming the Grand Master of the Order. On August 10, 1799, Paul I signed a decree to include the Maltese cross and crown in the state emblem. On the eagle's chest under the Maltese crown was a shield with St. George (Paul interpreted it as "the root coat of arms of Russia"), superimposed on the Maltese cross.
Paul I made an attempt to introduce the full coat of arms of the Russian Empire. On December 16, 1800, he signed the Manifesto, which described this complex project. Forty-three coats of arms were placed in the multi-field shield and on nine small shields. In the center was the above-described coat of arms in the form of a two-headed eagle with a Maltese cross, larger than the others. A shield with coats of arms is superimposed on the Maltese cross, and under it again appeared the sign of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. The shield holders, the archangels Michael and Gabriel, support the imperial crown over the knight's helmet and mantle (cloak). The entire composition is placed against the background of a canopy with a dome - a heraldic symbol of sovereignty. From behind the shield with coats of arms, two standards with two-headed and one-headed eagles emerge. This project has not been finally approved.
Soon after accession to the throne, Emperor Alexander I, by a decree of April 26, 1801, removed the Maltese cross and crown from the coat of arms of Russia.
First half of the 19th century
The images of the two-headed eagle at this time are very diverse: it could have one or three crowns; in the paws - not only the traditional scepter and orb, but also a wreath, lightning (peruns), a torch. The wings of an eagle were depicted in different ways - raised, lowered, spread. To a certain extent, the image of the eagle was influenced by the then European fashion, common to the Empire era.
Under Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich the First, the simultaneous existence of two types of state eagle was officially confirmed.
The first type is an eagle with spread wings, under one crown, with the image of St. George on the chest and with a scepter and orb in its paws. The second type was an eagle with raised wings, on which the title coats of arms were depicted: on the right - Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian, on the left - Polish, Tauride, Finland. For some time, there was another version in circulation - with the coats of arms of the three "main " Old Russian Great Principalities (Kiev, Vladimir and Novgorod lands) and three kingdoms - Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian.
An eagle under three crowns, with St. George (as the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow) in a shield on his chest, with a chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, with a scepter and orb in his paws.
Mid 19th century
In the years 1855-1857, during the heraldic reform, the type of the state eagle was changed under the influence of Germanic designs. Then Saint George on the eagle's chest, in accordance with the rules of Western European heraldry, began to look to the left. The drawing of the Small Coat of Arms of Russia, executed by Alexander Fadeev, was imperially approved on December 8, 1856. This version of the coat of arms differed from the previous ones not only by the image of an eagle, but also by the number of "title" coats of arms on the wings. On the right were shields with the coats of arms of Kazan, Poland, Tauric Chersonesos and the united coat of arms of the Great Principalities (Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod), on the left - shields with the coats of arms of Astrakhan, Siberia, Georgia, Finland.
April 11, 1857 was followed by the Supreme approval of the entire set of state emblems.
It included: Big, Medium and Small, coats of arms of members of the imperial family, as well as "title" coats of arms. At the same time, the drawings of the Great, Middle and Small state seals, arks (cases) for seals, as well as seals of the main and lower public places and persons were approved. In total, one hundred and ten drawings were approved by one act. On May 31, 1857, the Senate published a decree describing the new coats of arms and the rules for their use.
Great State Emblem of 1882
On July 24, 1882, Emperor Alexander III approved the drawing of the Great Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire, on which the composition was preserved, but the details were changed, in particular the figures of the archangels. In addition, the imperial crowns began to be depicted like real diamond crowns used at the coronation.
The final drawing of the Great Emblem of the Empire was approved on November 3, 1882, when the coat of arms of Turkestan was added to the title arms.
Small State Emblem of 1883
On February 23, 1883, the Medium and two versions of the Small coat of arms were approved. In January 1895, it was imperatively ordered to leave unchanged the drawing of the state eagle, made by academician A. Charlemagne.
The most recent act - "The Basic Provisions of the State Structure of the Russian Empire" of 1906 - confirmed all the previous legal provisions concerning the State Emblem.
National emblem. The provisional government
After the February Revolution of 1917, Masonic organizations received power in Russia, which formed their own Provisional Government, including a commission for the preparation of a new coat of arms of Russia. One of the leading artists on the commission was Nicholas Roerich (aka Sergei Makranovsky), a well-known Freemason who later adorned the design of the American dollar with Masonic symbols. The Masons plucked the coat of arms and deprived it of all the sovereign attributes - the crown, scepter, orb, the eagle's wings were limply lowered downward, which symbolized the submission of the Russian state to Masonic plans … adopted in February 1917, it was supposed to once again become the official emblem of Russia. The Masons even managed to place the image of their eagle on the obverse of modern Russian coins, where it can be seen to this day. The image of an eagle, sample of February 1917, continued to be used as an official one after the October Revolution, until the adoption of the new Soviet coat of arms on July 24, 1918.
State emblem of the RSFSR 1918-1993
In the summer of 1918, the Soviet government finally decided to break with the historical symbols of Russia, and the new Constitution adopted on July 10, 1918 proclaimed in the state emblem not the ancient Byzantine, but political, party symbols: the two-headed eagle was replaced by a red shield, which depicted the crossed hammer and sickle and the rising sun as a sign of change. Since 1920, the abbreviated name of the state - the RSFSR - was placed at the top of the shield. The shield was bordered by ears of wheat, fixed with a red ribbon with the inscription "Workers of all countries, unite." Later, this image of the coat of arms was approved in the Constitution of the RSFSR.
60 years later, in the spring of 1978, the military star, which by that time had become part of the coat of arms of the USSR and most of the republics, entered the coat of arms of the RSFSR.
In 1992, the last change in the coat of arms came into force: the abbreviation above the hammer and sickle was replaced by the inscription “Russian Federation”. But this decision was almost never implemented, because the Soviet emblem with its party symbols no longer corresponded to the political structure of Russia after the collapse of the one-party system of government, the ideology of which he embodied.
State emblem of the USSR
After the formation of the USSR in 1924, the State Emblem of the USSR was adopted. The historical essence of Russia as a power passed precisely to the USSR, and not to the RSFSR, which played a subordinate role, therefore it is the coat of arms of the USSR that should be considered as the new coat of arms of Russia.
The Constitution of the USSR, adopted by the Second Congress of Soviets on January 31, 1924, officially legalized the new coat of arms. At first, he had three turns of a red ribbon on each half of the wreath. At each turn there was a motto "Workers of all countries, unite!" in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Georgian, Armenian, Turkish-Tatar languages. In the mid-1930s, a round was added with the motto in Latinized Turkic, and the Russian version migrated to the central sling.
In 1937, the number of slogans on the coat of arms reached 11. In 1946 - 16. In 1956, after the liquidation of the sixteenth republic within the USSR, Karelo-Finnish, the motto in Finnish was removed from the coat of arms, until the end of the existence of the USSR 15 ribbons remained on the coat of arms with mottos (one of them - the Russian version - on the central sling).
State Emblem of the Russian Federation 1993
On November 5, 1990, the Government of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on the creation of the State Emblem and the State Flag of the RSFSR. To organize this work, a Government Commission was created. After a thorough discussion, the commission proposed to recommend to the Government a white-blue-red flag and a coat of arms - a golden two-headed eagle on a red field. The final restoration of these symbols took place in 1993, when by decrees of President Boris Yeltsin they were approved as the state flag and coat of arms.
On December 8, 2000, the State Duma adopted the Federal Constitutional Law “On the State Emblem of the Russian Federation”. Which was approved by the Federation Council and signed by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on December 20, 2000.
The golden double-headed eagle on a red field preserves the historical continuity in the colors of the coats of arms of the late 15th - 17th centuries. The drawing of the eagle goes back to the images on the monuments of the era of Peter the Great. Above the heads of the eagle are depicted three historical crowns of Peter the Great, symbolizing in the new conditions the sovereignty of both the entire Russian Federation and its parts, subjects of the Federation; in the paws - a scepter and orb, personifying state power and a single state; on the chest there is an image of a rider striking a dragon with a spear. This is one of the ancient symbols of the struggle between good and evil, light with darkness, defense of the Fatherland.
The restoration of the two-headed eagle as the State Emblem of Russia embodies the continuity and continuity of Russian history. Today's coat of arms of Russia is a new coat of arms, but its components are deeply traditional; it reflects different stages of Russian history, and continues them in the third millennium.