The State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or simply the Soviet flag, was a red banner with two communist symbols displayed in the canton: a gold hammer and sickle topped off by a red five-point star bordered in gold. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from several sources, but emerged during the Russian Revolution. It has also come to serve as the standard symbol representing communism as a whole, recognized as such in international circles, even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Raising a Flag over the Reichstag
The Soviet flag along with an assortment of Russian and Soviet military flags
Flags of the Soviet Republics flown during a parade in Chișinău, the capital of the Moldavian SSR
One of the last Soviet flags flown on the Kremlin, displayed at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin
In politics, a red flag is predominantly a symbol of left-wing politics, including socialism, communism, Marxism, labour movement, and anarchism. The originally empty or plain red flag has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution (1789–1799).
"Lamartine, before the Hôtel de Ville, Paris, rejects the Red Flag," February 25, 1848. By Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux (1815–1884). Lamartine said that the red flag represented revolutionary violence, and "has to be put down immediately after the fighting."
Plain red banners for the Sultan's retinue. From the Turkish Costume Book by Lambert de Vos, 1574
Commemoration March of the 1831 Merthyr Rising in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, 2012
Red flags in Tian'anmen Square in the front of Great Hall of the People.
