The Coat of Arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 of Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

depicts a horseman with a spear in his hand slaying a basilisk

Basilisk

In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power to cause death with a single glance...

 and is identified with Saint George and the Dragon

Saint George and the Dragon

The episode of Saint George and the Dragon appended to the hagiography of Saint George was Eastern in origin, brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance...

. The heraldic emblem of Moscow has been an integral part of the Coat of Arms of Russia

Coat of arms of Russia

The coat of arms of Russia have gone through three major periods in their history, undergoing major changes in the transitions between the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation. They date back to 1472, when Ivan III began using the double-headed eagle in his seal, which,...

 since the 16th century. Its three colours – blue, red, and white – are believed to have inspired the colours of the Flag of Russia

Flag of Russia

The flag of Russia is a tricolour flag of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant and war ships and only became official in 1896...

.

Pre-Muscovite Russia

The emblem had its origins in the Byzantine tradition of depicting a patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

 of the ruling monarch on his seal and coins. Yaroslav the Wise was the first Russian ruler whose patron saint was Saint George. Accordingly, he built several cities and churches in the name of that saint.

Saint George was also the patron saint of his great grandson, Yury Dolgoruky, who founded the city of Moscow. The name "Yury" is Russian for "George

George

-People:*See George *See George *See Saint George -Places:Australia*Lake George, New South WalesCanada*George's Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador*George Street, St. John's, Newfoundland and LabradorSouth Africa...

". Yury is thought to have honored his patron saint on his coins which represent a standing warrior holding a sword in his right hand. Yury's elder brother, Mstislav the Great, also used a seal featuring a horseman slaying a basilisk. According to some theory, this might have been a reference to St. George as the patron saint of England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, since Mstislav's maternal grandfather was the last Anglo-Saxon king of that country, Harald II

Harold Godwinson

Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...

.

A century later, Alexander Nevsky

Alexander Nevsky

Alexander Nevsky was the Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Vladimir during some of the most trying times in the city's history. Commonly regarded as the key figure of medieval Rus, Alexander was the grandson of Vsevolod the Big Nest and rose to legendary status on account of his military...

 resumed this usage. A lot of his coins depict a horseman slaying a basilisk or dragon, though the latter is not always visible. Alexander's motivation for reverting to Mstislav's emblem is disputed. It is possible that the image referred to his own victories over the Swedish and German crusaders in the Battle of the Neva

Battle of the Neva

The Battle of the Neva was fought between the Novgorod Republic and Swedish armies on the Neva River, near the settlement of Ust-Izhora, on July 15, 1240...

 and Battle of the Ice

Battle of the Ice

The Battle of the Ice , also known as the Battle of Lake Peipus , was a battle between the Republic of Novgorod and the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights on April 5, 1242, at Lake Peipus...

.

Muscovite Russia

Alexander's great grandson, Ivan II, was the first ruler of Moscow to employ as his emblem the standing warrior with a sword in his hand. Ivan's son Dmitry Donskoy chose to represent this warrior riding a horse with a spear in his hand. Historians traditionally connect Dmitry's symbol with his victory over the Mongols

Mongols

Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

 in the Battle of Kulikovo

Battle of Kulikovo

The Battle of Kulikovo was a battle between Tatar Mamai and Muscovy Dmitriy and portrayed by Russian historiography as a stand-off between Russians and the Golden Horde. However, the political situation at the time was much more complicated and concerned the politics of the Northeastern Rus'...

, although historical clues are scarce. At about the same time, a similar symbol, the Pogonia

Coat of arms of Lithuania

The coat of arms of Lithuania, consisting of an armor-clad knight on horseback holding an olden sword and shield, is also known as Vytis . The Lithuanian coat of arms is one of the oldest national coats of arms in Europe...

, emerged as a state emblem in the rival Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...

.
The symbol of the horseman slaying the dragon passed down through the generations: from Dmitry to his son Vasily I, then to Vasily II and Ivan III. A coin which featured the image became known as kopeck

Russian ruble

The ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union prior to their breakups. Belarus and Transnistria also use currencies with...

, from kopyo, the Russian word for "spear".

Ivan III used the triumphant horseman as a state emblem of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 on his seal from 1479. In 1497, it was replaced with the double-headed eagle

Double-headed eagle

The double-headed eagle is a common symbol in heraldry and vexillology. It is most commonly associated with the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. In Byzantine heraldry, the heads represent the dual sovereignty of the Emperor and/or dominance of the Byzantine Emperors over both East and...

, popularly interpreted as a symbol of Ivan's marriage into the last ruling dynasty of the East Roman Empire, thus illustrating his claim to the Byzantine political and cultural heritage.

Both emblems had been used on state seals alternatively until 1562, when the first Russian tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

, Ivan the Terrible, combined them by placing a heraldic shield with the triumphant horseman to the chest of the double-headed eagle. This layout has become known as the Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire and then of the Russian Federation.

Imperial Russia

At first the charging horseman was interpreted as showing the figure of the ruling tsar slaying an enemy intruding into the Russian lands. This attitude was clearly expressed by the Muscovite statesman Grigory Kotoshikhin

Grigory Kotoshikhin

Grigory Karpovich Kotoshikhin was a Russian diplomat, podyachy of the Posolsky Prikaz, and writer....

, among others. On the title page of the 1663 Bible the heraldic horseman appears to have the face of Tsar Alexis. The foreigners visiting Muscovy were the first to notice the emblem's resemblance to the traditional iconography of Saint George and the Dragon

Saint George and the Dragon

The episode of Saint George and the Dragon appended to the hagiography of Saint George was Eastern in origin, brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance...

. Although during Peter I

Peter I of Russia

Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...

's reign the horseman was still represented with a crown and his face bore some resemblance to Peter's, this Westernizing monarch was the first to identify the heraldic horseman as St. George.

A learned Italian heraldist in Peter's service, Count Santi, associated the horseman with St. George as the patron saint of the prince who founded Moscow. In 1730, Santi prepared the first detailed description of the heraldic emblem of Moscow, which, drawing on the traditions of Western heraldry, named the horseman as St. George. In Santi's version of the emblem, set against the red field appears a white knight riding a silver horse and charging with his spear against a black dragon reminiscent of Zilant

Zilant

Zilant is a legendary creature, something between a dragon and a wyvern. Since 1730, it has been the official symbol of Kazan. This winged snake is a part of Tatar and Russian folklore and is mentioned in legends about the foundation of Kazan....

, a heraldic symbol of Muslim Kazan

Kazan

Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...

. With several minor modifications, this emblem was officially confirmed in 1781, during Catherine II's municipal reform which involved standardization of the municipal heraldry.

In 1883, it was decided to bring the colours of Moscow's emblem in line with the three colours of the Flag of Russia

Flag of Russia

The flag of Russia is a tricolour flag of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant and war ships and only became official in 1896...

. The colour of the dragon was changed from black to white and the horseman's cloak was altered from gold to azure. These colours do not appear to correspond to the colour scheme traditionally used in Russian icons depicting Saint George and the Dragon. In 1903, the ancient colour scheme was revived by painter Viktor Vasnetsov

Viktor Vasnetsov

Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov , 1848 — Moscow, July 23, 1926) was a Russian artist who specialized in mythological and historical subjects. He was described as co-founder of folklorist/romantic modernism in the Russian painting and a key figure of the revivalist movement in Russian art.- Childhood ...

 in his design of the Tretyakov Gallery

Tretyakov Gallery

The State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection,...

 facade, whose entrance also displays a large effigy of St. George and the Dragon.

20th century

After the Russian Revolution

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

, the heraldic symbols of the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 were banned. On September 22, 1924, the Moscow Soviet adopted a new emblem of Moscow which featured a red star, sickle and hammer, and the Revolution Monument in Moscow. The Soviet emblem failed to gain popularity, however, and was rarely used. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the heraldic representation of Moscow reverted to the version used between 1883 and 1918, with some minor modifications.

As the Russian Orthodox Church

Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...

 does not allow sculptural representations of saints, no statues of Saint George and the Dragon were erected in Moscow prior to the Revolution. After the emblem was restored on November 23, 1993, a cluster of statues on the subject were unveiled in Poklonnaya Gora, Tsvetnoi Boulevard, Manege Square

Manege Square

Manezhnaya or Manege Square is a large pedestrian open space at the heart of Moscow bound by the Hotel Moskva to the east, the State Historical Museum and the Alexander Garden to the south, the Moscow Manege to the west, and the 18th-century headquarters of the Moscow State University to the...

, and other places in Moscow. Most of these were sculpted by Zurab Tsereteli

Zurab Tsereteli

Zurab Konstantines dze Tsereteli is a Georgian-Russian painter, sculptor and architect who holds the office of President of the Russian Academy of Arts.- Life :...

, who also had other versions of the subject installed in such cities as New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.