L. Spatkay,
a true member of the All-Russian Heraldic Society
Since time immemorial, our ancestors, the Slavs-Krivichs, used various symbolic signs that served not only as markers of property ownership but also as protective symbols meant to assist their owners in everyday life or to defend them during military affairs. More often, these were geometric figures: straight or oblique (“Andreevsky”) crosses, stars with four, six, or eight rays; less frequently, real or mythical creatures.
The first coats of arms of Belarusian princes also had a simple appearance: most often, they were combinations of various lines, and emblems based on images of arrows, swords, crosses, horseshoes, or young men were frequently used. Thus, the coat of arms of Grand Prince Algirdas (1345–1377) featured an image of a cross with arrowheads at the top and bottom; Skirgaila’s coat of arms depicted the Andreevsky cross; the coat of arms of Jogaila (1377–1392) was a six-pointed cross, whose lower crossbar was almost twice as long as the upper one (by the way, such a cross mistakenly appears on the state coat of arms of the Republic of Belarus). The coat of arms of Vitaut was a modified emblem of the Kyiv princes – the “trident,” which later received the name “Gediminas’ Pillars” or “columns”: two large vertical pillars, with a small pillar in the middle on a quadrilateral, connected at the bottom by a horizontal beam. The “trident” itself is a stylized image of a diving falcon – a clan sign-totem from pre-Indo-European times. It corresponds to the ancient expression about the sun, as about a falcon, which has survived to our time in the riddle-acceptance: “When the wolf comes – the people are silent, when the bright falcon flies – the people rejoice,” where the wolf represents the dark night, and the “bright falcon” symbolizes the sun. The ancient god of fire and light, Rarog, was also falcon-like, and in some Slavic languages, this word has survived to our time, for example, the Polish “rarog” and Czech “raroh” translate to “falcon.” The stylized image of the diving falcon was a clan sign of the legendary prince Rurik or Rarog, from whom the Polotsk Izyaslavichs traced their lineage.
Trident
The heraldic signs of our ancestors, like the aforementioned “trident,” mostly had connections with pagan deities. Thus, the main deity of our ancestors was the God of Light and Sun – Dazhdbog or Kupala. His color was red, and his symbol was an eight-rayed star-flower. This symbol gained wide distribution and respect among Belarusians not by chance – according to ancient legends, our people trace their lineage from Dazhdbog-Kupala himself, which is why the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” refers to our ancestors as the grandchildren of Dazhdbog.
Quite often, on military artifacts, the emblem of the God of War, Thunder, and Lightning – Perun – is encountered: a six-rayed star or a circle with six spokes. This Perun’s sign can still be seen in many Belarusian villages – its image is placed on the walls of houses and outbuildings. This image, according to belief, protects homes and buildings along with their inhabitants from the wrath of Perun – from lightning strikes. The image of the Perun sign on shields and armor or chainmail of a warrior was also supposed to protect its owner from the wrath of Perun – from the enemy’s strike on the battlefield.
Long before the adoption of Christianity, our ancestors were familiar with the image of the cross or a four-rayed star, with the oblique or “Andreevsky” cross also serving as a protective sign for warriors. This symbol of protection and purification signified a purifying sacrificial Slavic hearth, a prayer that connects man with God. The straight cross or four-rayed star symbolizes prosperity and creation, the symbol of the all-encompassing power of God, radiating in all directions of the world, representing the symbol of a flourishing Universe.
No less than Dazhdbog, our ancestors revered the God Yaryla. In their view, Yaryla is the son of Dazhdbog, a young man who rides a white horse across the earth. He is dressed in a white shirt, barefoot, and holds ears of rye in his hands, with a wreath of field flowers on his head. By the word of his mother, the wife of Dazhdbog, the Goddess Lada, Yaryla opens the gates of heaven and descends from the sky to earth – at this time, spring begins.
God Yaryla
The acceptance of Christianity by the Slavs of Polotsk Rus was longer in time and more peaceful in method than it was in Kyiv Rus, where “Putyata baptized with a sword, and Dabrinya – with fire,” so in the consciousness of Belarusians, Christianity peacefully coexists with pagan beliefs and customs to this day. Thus, the thunder sign of Perun – the six-rayed star or circle with six spokes – under the influence of Christianity transformed into a six-pointed cross with rounded ends (double cross), which also became a protective sign for a warrior on the battlefield. Like lightning in the sky, the image of this six-pointed cross was silver (white) or, less frequently, gold (yellow) on a blue or dark blue field. This cross resembles the ancient Catholic cross “Svetits,” which has expanding ends, as well as the Orthodox patriarchal cross and the cross of Saint Euphrosyne of Polotsk, in which the upper crossbar is shorter than the lower one.
Gradually, the second pagan deity – Yaryla – was displaced from the consciousness of our ancestors. He was “replaced” by Saint George the Victorious, who is more often called Saint Yuri or Yury. This was facilitated to a considerable extent by both the similarity of their names and the coincidence of the feast day of Saint George with Yaryla’s day.
As Christian sources testify, Saint George – George – is a real historical figure. It is known that George was born in Cappadocia, served in the Roman legions under Emperor Diocletian (around 243–313 AD), and became a distinguished Cappadocian military leader, gaining deserved respect and fame, but renounced titles, nobility, and wealth, embracing Christianity. For exposing paganism and spreading Christianity, George suffered severe persecutions and terrible tortures. It is known that in 303 he was tortured to death after eight days of torment. For his sufferings and courage, his unwavering faith in the Savior, George was canonized.
The image of Saint George as a mounted knight has a deep meaning: the white (silver) color of the knight and his horse symbolizes the purity of Christianity and his fidelity to the commandments of Christ, the sword is a means of fighting for faith, and the red color represents the field soaked with the blood of the enemies of Christianity. The vexillological “synonym” of the image of Saint George – the straight cross on the banner of the flag – has been a symbol of many nations. The red cross of Saint George on a white field is the national symbol of England, the white cross of Saint George on a blue field is the national symbol of Greece, and the white cross of Saint George on a red field is the national and state symbol of Denmark. It is known that the white flag with the red cross of Saint George was the personal standard of Grand Prince Vitaut. By the way, on the canvas depicting the Battle of Orsha in 1514 (the original is in Warsaw, and a copy is in Orsha, in the local history museum), the banners with the image of Saint George fly over the Belarusian army, and on the flags: on a white field, the red George’s cross: the vertical stripe of which divides the horizontal in the proportions of 1:2. Banners with such a design were carried on the masts and flagpoles of the military ships of the Russian Empire, whose crews were awarded George’s flags.
In the coats of arms of some cities and countries, the iconographic image of Saint George-Yuri has been preserved. For example, the State Coat of Arms of Georgia, or the ancient coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow-Rus (now the coat of arms of Moscow): on a red field, a mounted warrior in white (silver) armor kills a dragon with a spear. As some historians believe, this coat of arms reflects the desire, and then the event of the liberation of the Russian principalities from the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Moreover, the knight is turned, contrary to the rules of heraldry, to his left side, which is associated with the East. Another well-known coat of arms with the image of Saint George-Yuri: on a red field, a mounted warrior in silver armor with a sword raised for a strike in his right hand. This is the ancient coat of arms of the Krivichs, and later of the Polotsk land and the Polotsk princes Izyaslavichs.
With the growth of the power of the Polotsk principality and the expansion of its borders, the territory of the use of the Polotsk coat of arms also expanded. In any country of that time, the coat of arms of its ruler became the coat of arms of the country; thus, the coat of arms of the Polotsk Izyaslavichs, wherever the prince of this lineage ruled, was always placed on the seal and on the military banner of the principality, serving as its state symbol. Thus, around the 1260s, the “Polotsk” Saint George became the coat of arms of the young Novgorod principality, and from 1313 this coat of arms was approved as the State Coat of Arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania-Rus and Samogitia. Perhaps at this time, the coat of arms received a short, battle cry name – the motto “Pahonia!” – which reflected the essence of the military affairs of the Belarusian state: to catch up and reclaim the goods seized by the invader and to liberate the captives taken by him – but the name “Pahonia” was documented for the first time only in the heraldry of B. Paprotsky, published in 1584.
Many historical sources testify to the Krivich-Polotsk origin of the coat of arms with the image of Saint Yuri. Thus, in several ancient chronicles, for example, in the Gustyn Chronicle or in the Addendum to the Ipatiev Chronicle, there are testimonies that ”…Prince Vitien began to rule over Lithuania and devised a coat of arms for himself and the entire principality… a seal: a knight in armor on a horse with a sword, which is now called Pahonia.” Here it should be noted that the word “devised” means not “invented” or “fabricated,” but “made” or “acquired,” as this word is cognate with such words as “craft,” “industry,” etc. In these same chronicles, there are also testimonies that Prince Vitien (1293–1316) is a representative of the Polotsk lineage of Izyaslavichs, a descendant of Grand Prince Kyiv’s Saint Vladimir in the ninth generation. These same data are confirmed by well-known Russian scholars-historians, such as A. Lakier and Ya. Kirkor, who used other historical sources, many of which, unfortunately, have not survived to our time. It is stated that “the coat of arms of White Rus has long been a knight in white on a red field, holding a sabre (sword) before him,” as mentioned in the historical studies of the famous Russian scholar-historian N. V. Tatischev.
Coat of Arms “Pahonia”
Unfortunately, there is a mistaken version that the coat of arms “Pahonia” appeared as a result of agreements between the Lithuanian princes and the knights of the order. Thus, some historians assert that Prince Narimont (who ruled in the early 14th century) received this coat of arms from the master of the Livonian Order, Fladher, to whose daughters the prince and his brother Daumont were married. However, it is more likely that Narimont and Daumont chose the coat of arms of the Polotsk princes even before marrying the master’s daughters, and the necessity of choosing this coat of arms was dictated by political calculations – it was necessary to show that Narimont and Daumont had an ancient coat of arms and descended from an ancient lineage, and therefore they considered themselves equal, and possibly superior, to the master of the order.
For several centuries, the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania-Rus and Samogitia remained the Polotsk Izyaslavichs: Vitien’s brother – Gediminas (ruled in 1316–1341), Gediminas’ son – Algirdas (ruled in 1345–1377), his nephew Vitaut (ruled in 1392–1430), his son Jogaila-Uladislaus (ruled and was King of Poland in 1377–1434), and thus the Polotsk “Pahonia” remained the coat of arms of their state.
Since 1386, when a union was concluded between Poland and the Grand Duchy, “Pahonia” became part of the common state coat of arms. In 1539, Sigismund Augustus made several changes to the image of “Pahonia”: on the knight’s helmet appeared a turban with feathers, and on the horse – a three-horned fur coat with a border. The final legal formalization of “Pahonia” was made by the Statutes of the Grand Duchy in 1566 and 1588, which also stated the mandatory use of the coat of arms image on the seals of the voivodeships and districts of the state.
In different periods of the history, the state coat of arms “Pahonia” had its distinctive features: on Gediminas’ seal, the knight holds a spear instead of a sword; on Jogaila’s seals, dated 1388, the knight’s shield features an image of a six-pointed cross with a longer lower crossbar; on Vitaut’s seals – the shield features the image of “Gediminas’ Pillars.” Thus, the shield of “Pahonia” contained the personal coats of arms of the rulers of the state. Since the time of Vitaut, “Pahonia” finally became the coat of arms of the state, while the “Pillars” became the coat of arms of the ruling dynasty. During the reign of the Jagellonians, instead of the Pillars, the six-pointed cross reappeared on the shield of “Pahonia,” and the “Pillars” began to be used as the personal coat of arms of the Grand Prince. Thus, the coat of arms “Pahonia” effectively became the official state coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania-Rus and Samogitia from the late 14th century until the final disappearance of this state in the late 18th century.
As for the State Coat of Arms of modern Lithuania (the historical coat of arms of Samogitia, as is known, is a black bear), approved on April 10, 1990, it was created based on the Polotsk coat of arms and initially had a red field with a knight’s shield. As the Polish medieval historian S. Akolsky states, the flag with the image of a silver six-pointed cross on a red field was presented to Grand Prince Mindaugas, who united the Lithuanian lands with the Belarusian in the 13th century, by the master of the Livonian Order on behalf of Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254) in gratitude for the alliance with the Order and the acceptance of Christianity. S. Akolsky notes that Mindaugas promised not to interfere in the activities of the Order in Prussia and Samogitia, which at that time were subordinate territories of the Teutonic Order, for which the crusaders promised the prince their military assistance in internal disputes. Soon, this image became the personal coat of arms of Mindaugas. Thus, the white six-pointed cross on a red field has entirely different origins and meanings than the white double cross on a blue field, so when this became known to the Lithuanian leadership, the color of the knight’s shield of the State Coat of Arms of Lithuania was changed from red, which did not correspond to the historical colors of “Pahonia,” to blue, while the cross, to distinguish it from the Belarusian “Pahonia,” remained golden. The name of the modern State Coat of Arms of Lithuania “Vytis” also has Belarusian origins: in the Lithuanian language, there is no word for an exact translation of the Belarusian word “Pahonia,” so in 1845, the Lithuanian historian S. Daukantas proposed a Lithuanian calque of the Belarusian word “vityaz.”
Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth
Until 1795, the coat of arms “Pahonia” was the state coat of arms of the Belarusian-Lithuanian principality. After the Third Partition of the Commonwealth and the abolition of the Grand Duchy, seals with the image of “Pahonia” and a two-headed eagle were used by the administrations and judicial institutions of Belarusian cities. In memory of the assistance that the Polotsk warriors provided to Dmitry Donskoy’s army at Kulikovo Field, after the inclusion of the lands of the Polotsk voivodeship into the Russian Empire, on September 21, 1781, coats of arms with the image of Saint George – “Pahonia” – were granted to the cities formed instead of it in the Polotsk governorate: Velizh, Vitebsk, Gorodok, Dvina, Drissa, Lyutsin, Nevel, Polotsk, Rezhitsa, Sebezh, and Surazh. Moreover, it was particularly emphasized that the image of this coat of arms is ancient, and in the descriptions of the coats of arms of the cities, it was emphasized that this is the Polotsk coat of arms, and to distinguish it from the Polotsk coat of arms – these coats of arms had a different field color. Polotsk itself was granted a special coat of arms: a knight and a horse of black color. The imperial decree noted that this coat of arms was granted to the city in memory of the valiant participation of the Polotsk people in the Kulikovo battle, and the black color of the knight and horse symbolized the independence that the Polotsk principality had within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania-Rus and its role in the history of the Eastern Slavs, as black color in the Middle Ages was a symbol of freedom and independence. The same coat of arms was granted on September 9, 1852, to another city of Polotsk region – Lepel, on December 8, 1856 – to the Vitebsk governorate formed instead of the Polotsk governorate, and on July 5, 1878 – to the Vilnius governorate. In addition, several images of “Pahonia” were also present on the state coat of arms of the Russian Empire, approved by the Russian emperor on November 3, 1882. Above the mantle of this coat of arms were placed around six shields with the coats of arms of ancient lands. One of them – “a shield of the combined coats of arms of the principalities and regions of Belarusian and Lithuanian”: a four-part shield with a small shield in the middle. In the small red shield, the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the third silver part – the Polotsk coat of arms. In the fourth part – the Vitebsk coat of arms. Overall, these coats of arms corresponded to the historical “Pahonia,” only the Russian heraldists replaced the incomprehensible to them in meaning double six-pointed cross with an eight-pointed Orthodox one.
During the uprising of 1863–1864, revolutionary manifestos and orders of the insurgent leadership had the corresponding seal. Thus, the “Letter to the Peasants of the Polish Land,” written in Belarusian and signed “Yas’ka the Master from Vilna,” had a round seal with the inscription around “Printing of the National Council” in Polish and a crowned shield in the center. This shield was three-part: in the first part, the eagle of Poland, in the second – “Pahonia” of the Grand Duchy, in the third, inclined downwards, the image of an angel – the coat of arms of the Kyiv voivodeship. This was the coat of arms of the new federative state that was supposed to arise on the territory of modern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine.
After the February Revolution of 1917, many peoples of the Russian Empire declared their right to self-determination, so from March 25 to 27, 1917, a congress of Belarusian national organizations took place in Minsk, which formed the Belarusian National Committee and entrusted it with the task of developing, in contact with the Provisional Government, the issues of autonomy for Belarus. At the meeting of the BNC, the issue of symbolism was also discussed, as it was known that some local councils were using seals with the image of “Pahonia.” Perhaps these were the seals of those cities that had the city coat of arms “Pahonia,” or perhaps they were independently made seals – unfortunately, this is unknown, but the BNC decided to approve this initiative of the councils and decided to consider the historical coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania-Rus as the national Belarusian emblem. This coat of arms became the state coat of arms of the proclaimed Belarusian People’s Republic on March 25, 1918.
State Coat of Arms of the Republic of Belarus (1991-1995)
Then for many years, the coat of arms “Pahonia” was banned in the Bolshevik BSSR. Only after gaining independence, on September 19, 1991, the Supreme Council of the Republic adopted the Law “On the State Coat of Arms of the Republic of Belarus,” which established that “the State Coat of Arms of the Republic of Belarus is the ancient Belarusian coat of arms ‘Pahonia,’ which represents the image of a knight on a white horse, directed to the left, with a raised sword and a shield with a cross.” At the same time, the question of the standard of the State Coat of Arms arose. Unfortunately, of the two existing paths, the adaptation of the image of the classical “Pahonia,” or the creation of a new image of “Pahonia” – “a novelty of the 20th century,” the working group under the leadership of A. Trusov chose the second path. As a result, on December 10, 1991, the Resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus approved the standard of the State Coat of Arms, which not only does not correspond to the colors of the flag (on a red field, a silver knight in silver armor holds a silver shield with a golden six-pointed patriarchal cross – meaning the flag should be red-white-yellow, or red-white, or white-red), but also has little resemblance to the ancient coat of arms of the Belarusian land, moreover, it has several gross violations of heraldic rules (perhaps that is why its existence was so short):
firstly, a golden cross on a silver shield, as metal cannot be placed on metal;
secondly, the six-pointed cross has the appearance as on the tombstone of Grand Prince Jogaila – this is only the personal coat of arms of the prince;
thirdly, the color of the knight’s shield of “Pahonia” is red, the same mistake was made by the coat of arms of Lithuania, but it was corrected.
It is known that there were attempts to place blue color on the white-red-white national flag to correspond to the colors of “Pahonia” and make it similar to the flags of other Slavic peoples. For example:
in 1917, at the First All-Belarusian Congress, a project of a red-white-blue flag was proposed as the State Flag of Belarus (similar to the current State Flag of Croatia), but for some reason, this project was not approved;
in a black-and-white photograph from the period of 1919–1925, when the government of the BNR was in exile in Vilna, the central stripe, without a doubt white-red-white, of the State Flag of the BNR has a border of narrow stripes of a darker color, approximately 1/16 the width of the flag itself. There were opinions that the color of these stripes was black – in mourning for the Motherland, where Bolshevik power was established. But more likely, the stripes were blue, as the shield of the knight of “Pahonia” would be blue, and, when breaking down the coat of arms into the colors of the flag, the flag should be three-striped, like the flags of other Slavic peoples, so as not to repeat the Slavic flags with white, red, and blue horizontal stripes of various combinations, blue stripes were placed between the red and white stripes.
In accordance with the historical colors of the national coat of arms “Pahonia,” the flag of the Belarusian Association of Military Personnel, reserve military personnel, retirees, and other citizens, which is better known as BZV, was created. The flag represents a white-red-white canvas of the national flag, at the hoist of which is placed a blue equilateral triangle (the length of its sides is equal to the width of the flag) in which is a white double cross. The flag was approved by the decision of the Coordinating Council of the Patriotic Movement on April 13, 1997, protocol No. 5.
Thus, the coat of arms “Pahonia” – the image of Saint George – is the heavenly protector of White Rus and the defender of its warriors. The origins of these symbols are lost in the depths of centuries, and in the very symbolism of the coat of arms, ancient pagan symbols of the Krivichs and symbols of Christianity are closely intertwined. In pagan symbolism, the red color of the shield of the coat of arms is the color of Dazhdbog, the color of the battle shields of our ancestors, who considered themselves the grandchildren of Dazhdbog; the silver (white) double cross on a blue field is a modified thunder sign of Perun, a symbol-protector of the warrior on the battlefield from the hands of the enemy; the white color of the knight and horse symbolizes the light that gives life; the knight is Yaryla, who opens the heavenly gates of life; the blue color symbolizes the firmness of the Universe. In Christianity, the blue color symbolizes God – the Holy Spirit and the Sophia of God’s Wisdom; the armed knight – George-Yury the Victorious, the protector of the warrior-defender of White Rus; the white color symbolizes the soul of the believer, and the red – the fiery truth of the word of God, which left its mark in this soul (hence the white ribbon with a red stripe in the middle is present in the clothing of Orthodox hierarchs).
Unfortunately, neither heraldry nor vexillology were required either in the creation of State symbols in 1991 or in the creation of State symbols in 1995.
Materials of the III Republican Conference on the Problems of Traditional Physical Culture of Belarusians. Minsk, 7.12.2000. Mins, BGPU, 2002, pp. 182–191.