An interesting, but little-covered topic is the symbolism of the five-pointed star. This simple symbol is one of the oldest, it began to be used several thousand years before our era. It has become widespread in many cultures and has a great semantic load. The same star, differing only in color, is present in the symbols of the United States, the European Union, the Soviet Union, China and many other countries and social movements.
Since it is widely used to convey various meanings and ideas, for a better understanding of them, we will briefly consider some of its main meanings.
Andrey Rublev. Transfiguration. 1405 BC
In general, the first known use of the five-pointed star falls on the states of Sumer in Mesopotamia in 3000 BC. e. In their writing, such a pictogram denoted a corner, a small room, a pit.
Among the ancient Pythagoreans, the pentagram (from the word pentagramos - five-line), meant five shelters, where the primitive chaos was placed during the creation of the world, and they were in Tartarus. The darkness found in these shelters was considered the source of the soul of the world, as well as the source of wisdom. This pentagram was drawn with two rays upward.
The symbol of the goddess who rules this other world is an apple, since when cut in it you can see a pentagram. Therefore, the pentagram was also a symbol of health and the goddess Hygieia. In addition, Pythagoras argued that in geometry, the pentagram is mathematical perfection. But, without delving into the mathematical characteristics of this figure, let's go further.
In Kabbalah, the pentagram with one ray upward means the messiah. The pentagram is also a symbol of Solomon's seal and for some time was the official seal of Jerusalem.
For a Muslim, it can mean the five pillars of the Muslim faith and five daily prayers.
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In Christian Europe, the five-pointed star had a number of symbolic meanings. In addition to the symbol of health remaining from the times of the ancient world, it symbolized with five rays, five senses, five fingers. In religion, the pentagram was used as a symbol of the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary, which the perfection of her son Jesus brought her to her. She also symbolized the Star of Bethlehem at Christmas (in Russia, the Star of Bethlehem was seven-pointed).
One of the main meanings of the five-pointed star was the symbol of the human nature of Christ, therefore, in the Renaissance, when man and the human person began to take on more and more importance, this symbol also became more important. The five-pointed star resembles a person with arms outstretched to the sides and legs apart, like the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. With the development of humanism and atheism, the star began to mean simply a human personality, as the new highest value of a new era.
The five-pointed star and humanistic ideals were really widespread during the Great French Revolution. With the advent of a new theomachous ideology, a person was placed in the first place in the value system, and the star in the humanistic sense became one of the most important symbols. As a result of these changes, the star was also widely used in military symbols, first of the French Republic, and then of other countries. In this sphere, she symbolized the god of war Mars, according to legend, was born from a lily, which resembles a five-pointed star. This mark is used for both identification and various other designations.
With the spread of the values and social forces of the new era, the five-pointed star began to spread. She has always been an important sign in the symbolism of the Freemasons, a social force that began to gain global significance after the French and American revolutions. In addition to ancient and occult meanings, the star began to be widely used by them for the public expression of their ideas - the spiritual improvement of man and the elevation of man to the head of the entire value system in an atheistic version. Therefore, the star is widely used in the state symbols of many countries built according to Masonic drawings - the United States, where the stars on the flag also mean the Kingdom of Heaven, the European Union and others.
The five-pointed star is also used by many movements and organizations, while its symbolism is often associated either with the Masonic forces behind them, or with the communist movement that has adopted it in its symbolism.
The double-pointed star is used by the Latter-day Saints or Mormons. The inverted star with rays of different colors symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem is also a symbol of the largest fraternalist organization - the Order of the Eastern Star. This order unites about a million Freemasons with the rank of master or higher and is known for its charitable activities.
An inverted pentagram with two rays upward is one of the main symbols of Satanists. Such a pentagram means Tartarus or hell, the place where the fallen angels are imprisoned. Inside the inverted pentagram, the head of Baphomet is also often drawn in the form of a goat's head. All this symbolizes the anti-human nature and the worship of animal passion. The three downward-facing rays of the star also signify the rejection of the Holy Trinity.
The pentagram is also often found among the pagans, serving them as one of the symbols of faith - the five points of the star mean earth, water, air, fire and spirit. Although in ancient times the pagan pentagram was drawn with two rays upward, now it is usually depicted upward with one ray, so as not to cause associations with Satanists. Both in ancient times and today, the pentagram remains an important symbol for the Druids, Wiccans, Neo-Pythagoreans and other groups practicing paganism and practicing magic.
In the 20th century, when the communist movement began to acquire global significance, and a socialist revolution took place in Russia, the new state needed new symbols. Originally, a red star with a plow and a hammer was adopted as the emblem and identification mark of the Red Army. Here, the star symbolized the god of war, Mars, and this emblem personified the defense of peaceful labor.
After the February Revolution, the Provisional Government canceled the shoulder straps, but did not abandon the "Mars Star". On April 21, 1917, the Minister of War and Marine A. Guchkov places a five-pointed star on the rims of the sailors' caps - right above the anchor.
However, the “star of Mars” proved itself most vividly after another revolution - the Great October Revolution. No sooner had the young Soviet government started to form the Red Army than there was an urgent need for new symbols. This was in no small measure due to the fact that in the fire of the Civil War, the opposing sides were often dressed in clothes of the same cut, and it was not easy to distinguish strangers from their own in battle.
This is how the famous red five-pointed star appears for the first time in the symbolism of the Land of the Soviets.
Unfortunately, no accurate, documented evidence of the author of this symbol has survived. Some historians believe that the star was proposed by one of the commissars of the Moscow Military District N. Polyansky, others - that it was made by a member of the All-Russian Collegium for the Organization and Management of the Red Army - K. Eremeev.
However, in the early years, because of the anti-Christian and Zionist elements in the core of the Bolshevik organization, the image of the star was adopted with two ends up. The first Soviet Order of the Red Banner had just such an inverted image of a star.
But such a symbol caused such rejection in society that they soon abandoned it and officially approved the image of a star with one ray upward.
But the new country also needed new state symbols, and the red star turned out to be a fairly suitable and popular symbol for this. Therefore, it soon moved from the banners of the army carrying the liberation of the world proletariat to the coat of arms and banners of the first country building communism. In Soviet state symbols, the red star next to the hammer and sickle began to mean the unity of the working people of the five continents with a single beginning and goal. The red color symbolized brotherhood and blood shed for the freedom of working people around the world.
It is reliably known that for the first time the new symbol was mentioned in the Izvestia newspaper on April 19, 1918. There was published a note that the Commissariat for Military Affairs approved a drawing of a badge in the form of a red star with a golden image of a hammer and a plow. Initially, the red star also bore the image of the book, but it looked too clumsy and the book was removed.
Officially, the symbol called "the star of Mars with a plow and a hammer" was approved by the order of L. Trotsky on May 7, 1918. The following was also said there: "The Red Army badge is the property of persons serving in the Red Army. Persons not serving in the Red Army are invited to remove these signs immediately. For failure to comply with this order, the guilty will be brought to trial by a military tribunal."
At first, the "star of Mars" was worn on a triangular last, clinging to the left side of the chest. However, this shape turned out to be inconvenient, and the jewelry company suggested placing the stars on wreaths of laurel and oak leaves that were left over from the old signs.
The shape and location of the star varied greatly over time. On July 29, 1918, Trotsky issued another order, in which the red star was obliged to wear on the peg of his cap. Coated with varnish, the badge-cockade was more convex in shape, and the rays of the star had more rounded edges.
The greatest amount of misinterpretation, both then and now, caused the meaning of the red star symbol. Haters of Soviet power immediately remembered the Freemasons, and even Satanists. About the Freemasons. Of course, they have been in Russia for a long time. At first, the Masons carried enlightenment ideas, and after Radishchev and the Decembrist uprising, they began to express the interests of the pro-Western liberal nobility, the intelligentsia and the big bourgeoisie.
As you know, the Bolsheviks had long disliked liberals, and after the February Revolution they generally stood on the other side of the barricade. Well, the Masons were generally not favored. Whether it is the symbolism of the United States, which was really created by the Freemasons, and which no one really hid (hence the stars on the flag, and the pyramid with an eye on the dollar, etc.).
As for the red star, the Bolsheviks were guided in their choice by the relative novelty of the symbol and its completely traditional meanings - military ("Mars star"), protective (pentagram, as a talisman) and guiding (as a symbol of high aspirations).
Of course, the new symbolism (not without the propaganda of the opponents of the Soviet regime) at first aroused superstitious fear among some of the common people. No wonder that on February 11, 1919, at the conference of the 2nd Soviet (Ukrainian) division, the head of its political department I. Mints complained that "the peasant youth is full of prejudices against the" communes ", against the new" cockade "- the Red Army star …".
And then the Bolsheviks also made an oversight, placing the new symbol with two rays up. This can be seen both in the first badges and on some Bolshevik posters (for example, D. Moor's poster "Soviet Russia is a besieged camp. Everything is on the defensive!" 1919). And, as I already wrote, after the work of E. Levy, this position of the star began to be interpreted as a sign of Satanism. At the same time, it was completely forgotten that the inverted pentagram was on the seal of Emperor Constantine (the one who made Christianity the official Roman religion) and in general was interpreted for a long time as a symbol of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ (this can be seen, for example, on the icon of Andrei Rublev). Naturally, having discovered such a reaction, the Bolsheviks gave the star a more "decent" position.
Let's see how the commissars of the Red Army themselves explained to the common people the symbols of the Red Star in a 1918 leaflet:
“… The Red Star of the Red Army is the star of Truth … Therefore, the plow and the hammer are depicted on the Red Army star. Plow of a muzhik plowman. Worker hammer.
This means that the Red Army is fighting for the Star of Truth to shine on the peasant-plowman and the hammer-worker, so that they have will and share, rest and bread, and not just need, poverty and continuous work … She is the star of the happiness of all poor people, peasants and workers. This is what the red star of the Red Army means."
The story of the Red Star did not end there. On January 16, 1919, embroidered stars adorned the new headdress of the Red Army. In the form he copied the helmets of the Russian knights, and therefore at first he was dubbed the "hero". However, soon they began to call him by the names of the famous red commanders - "Frunzevka" and "Budenovka" (the latter name stuck).
There have been changes in the design of the star. On April 13, 1922, depicted on it, the plow was replaced with a more graceful sickle. And on July 11 of the same year, the shape of the star also changed - it ceased to be convex, and its rays straightened again. In this form, it finally established itself in the Red (and then Soviet) army.
In 1923, already without tools (so as not to repeat the military emblem), Krasnaya Zvezda crowned the coat of arms of the Soviet Union and the coat of arms of almost all Soviet republics. It is interesting that it got on the coat of arms of the RSFSR later than everyone else - in 1978! It is also interesting that in the 1930s, a project was proposed to make the star 11-rayed (according to the number of union republics).
Having switched to the coat of arms of the USSR, the five-pointed star has acquired a more global symbolism. It was already about five continents, where a bloody struggle is going on for the liberation of the working people from exploitation.
In 1924, a five-pointed star appears on the flag of the USSR, in 1928 (with a portrait of young Lenin) an Octobrist star appears, in 1935 a star decorated with gems crowned the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower, and in 1942 the pioneer badge takes the form of a star (before that it wore the form of a flag).
It would seem that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the time of the Red Star has ended. The fragments of the state chose new symbols for themselves, the star remained only in the symbols of the Communist parties. It was even said in Russia that it would not hurt to replace the Kremlin stars with two-headed eagles.
However, the growing social tension, moral and economic decline in the post-Soviet space forced some political leaders to treat Soviet symbols more cautiously. So in 2002, trying to somehow restore the "broken link of times", Russian Defense Minister S. Ivanov proposed, and President V. Putin approved the return of the five-pointed star to the symbols of the Russian army.