Our enemies understand our symbols and are afraid of them. They and we are one.

Symbols, symbols, symbols ... Symbols enter our life so tightly that we do not always notice them. Markers "your-stranger": a cross on your chest - a Christian before you, a "St. George ribbon" - a quilted jacket, a "trident" pendant - a credulous user of "Facebook", Yury Gudymenko writes on TSN, For characters die and kill. Man is a non-rational being in this respect (as well as in many others). It would be difficult for us to explain to some unemotional aliens why the soldiers go under bullets just to hang their flag at a height, or why hundreds of people died during the Napoleonic wars because of the desire to repulse the "regimental eagle" from the French - or vice versa , Protect him. Honor is an irrational feeling.

We will talk about the state symbols of Ukraine. There are not so many of them, but they constitute an integral, understandable, centuries-old system - which in itself is strange for our chaotic nation.

The first-ever symbol of Ukraine - its small coat of arms, the trident of Vladimir the Great. The trident was his personal seal, something like a signature and a coat of arms at the same time. Toothed coats of arms were from his father Svyatoslav (a two-tooth) and from his descendants - and each tried to add some elements to the image in order to differ from his ancestors.

Trident marked in history and dived into the abyss for nine centuries. We remembered him and temporarily forgot.

A couple of centuries later, a "Russian lion" appears, which will become a symbol of Western Ukraine (yes, Russia at that time was there). The golden lion, frozen in time, climbs on a rock - against the blue sky. You can also forget about the lion for a while - especially since new characters appear on the arena of history: Zaporozhye Cossacks.

They have their own symbols: a crescent, a six-pointed star, a special cross and a coat of arms - "lyar iz samopalom". The crescent and six-pointed star are now not used in Ukrainian heraldry for an understandable reason: the first became a recognized symbol of Islam, the second - the Jewish nation. But on the cross and the "face" we will dwell in greater detail.

"Lizar" is an image of a half-turned Cossack with a musket ("samopalom") on his shoulder. At first this symbol was used mainly on seals, then moved to the banner and then - with the destruction of the Zaporozhye Sich - also dived into the abyss of history, joining the trident. Forget about it for a while.

The Cossack cross is a kind of Greek (equilateral) cross, crux quadrata. But in this specific form the Ukrainian cross is practically not found in other cultures: the widening ends, not converging in the center, have become a recognizable symbol of Cossacks flashing on flags and banners. Remember? Forget.

And now we are transported to the middle of the nineteenth century. And we start to remember.

1848. "Spring of the Peoples" in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which includes Lviv and Western Ukraine. From the darkness emerges a bright golden rising lion on a blue field - he becomes the emblem of the revolutionary Ukrainian nation. But you need a flag. The lion is yellow, the field is blue - there are not many options. And the flag that was raised in Ukrainian speeches is blue-yellow (or yellow-blue - there were variants, yeah). After the suppression of the uprisings, the next splash occurred already at the beginning of the twentieth century - and these events became irreversible for the Ukrainian nation. As an avalanche, extracting old stones and throwing them into the air.

1914. The Beginning of the First World War. Everything in the same Austro-Hungary is formed Ukrainian division - Sich Riflemen. Part of the coat of arms of the division is the same blue-yellow shield with a rising lion. 1917 - the beginning of the revolution in the Russian Empire, the proclamation of the Central Rada, later - the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic, UNR. Nations Need Symbols. The state needs symbols. And they already are - in the depths of history.

From the West comes the flag - blue-yellow. It becomes the unchangeable flag of the Ukrainian nation - ever since then. UPR is changed by the Ukrainian state, then again by the UNR, then for a long time by the red-blue Soviet rag - and from the late eighties again the blue-and-yellow colors symbolize our nation. From there, from the West, comes from the nineteenth century and the song "Shche did not die of Ukraine", which will become the official anthem of an independent country (alas, without a couplet about the "Muscovites of the filthy").

From the Center, from Kiev, comes the "trident", the trident of Vladimir, to become the coat of arms first of the UNR, then the ZUNR, and later of the independent Ukraine.

From the East, from the Cossack steppes comes the Cossack cross and the figure of a Cossack with a musket. Kozak painted on the coat of arms of the Hetman Ukrainian state in 1918, then disappears, and then it will appear already in the symbols of the places that were formerly the Wild Field: on the arms of the Zaporozhye and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the city of Cherkasy, other towns built on the site of Cossack freemen. Kozatsky cross already under independent Ukraine regains its original meaning - the symbol of people defending the country - and gets on the chevrons of army divisions, the SBU, the Air Force and the Emergencies Ministry, and later the National Guard.

From now on, the blue-yellow flag and the trident are symbols of the Ukrainian nation. With them we are associated in the world. We live with them - and they can not be erased from memory, while only one Ukrainian is alive. From our history they go like the roots of a tree - and while one branch is green, there will be these symbols too. For a tattooed trident, our enemies cut off their hands. Over blue-yellow flags are planted, tortured and shot. Our enemies understand our symbols and are afraid of them. They and we are one.

There remains only one unfinished business: the Big Coat of Arms. It is registered in the Constitution of the country, but so far it does not exist in nature. Trident is a small coat of arms.

The big one should enter and he - in the center, on the shield - and the Cossack with a musket as a symbol of the East, and the rebellious golden lion as a symbol of the West. They will support the shield on the right and left. West, Center, East. Slender system. A clear story.

Millennium symbols of our nation.

Draft of the Great Emblem of Ukraine artist Alexander Ivakhnenko, 1996 Editorial site is not responsible for the content of blogs. The editorial opinion may differ from the author's.

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