p The designing of the arms of the Soviet state was a task of outstanding importance since it had to be a coat of arms that differed substantially in its implications from anything that had ever been in the arms of capitalist states.

p The office of the Council of People’s Commissars received a design for the arms done in water colours. It was round in shape and bore the same emblems as the present coat of arms, but through the centre ran a long, unsheathed sword. The sword seemed to cover the entire design; its hilt rested in the joined sheaves of corn at the base and the blade narrowed to a point in the sun’s rays that filled the entire upper part of the ornament.

p Vladimir Ilyich was in his office talking to Yakov Sverdlov, Felix Dzerzhinsky and several other comrades when the design was laid on his desk.

p “What’s that, a coat of arms? .. . Let’s have a look at it!" He bent over the desk and peered closely at the drawing. We all stood round Vladimir Ilyich, interested to see this design for a coat of arms that had been sent in by an engraver employed at Goznak, the printing works that produced banknotes.

p Outwardly the arms had been well done. The rays of the rising sun, surrounded by a semicircle of sheaves of wheat, gleamed against a red background; the hammer and sickle stood out clearly in this semicircle but the entire design was dominated by the sharpened steel blade that ran right through it from bottom to top, as though to put everyone on his guard.

p “Interesting! ...” exclaimed Vladimir Ilyich. “The idea is there, but what is the sword for?" He turned and looked at us.

p “We are battling, we are fighting and will continue to fight until we have consolidated the dictatorship of the proletariat and have driven the Whiteguards and interventionists out of our country, but that does not mean that war, war lords and violence will ever take the lead with us. We do not need any conquests. A policy of conquest is alien to us; we are not attacking but are defending ourselves against internal and external enemies; our war is defensive and the sword is not our emblem. We must hold it firmly to protect our proletarian state as long as we have enemies, as long as we are. attacked, as long as we are threatened, but that does not mean for ever. ...

p “Socialism will triumph in all countries, there is no doubt about that. The brotherhood of the peoples will be proclaimed and will become reality throughout the world, and we do not need the sword. It is not our emblem ...” Vladimir Ilyich repeated.

p “We must remove the sword from the arms of our socialist state,” Vladimir Ilyich continued. He took a black-lead pencil with a sharp point and made the proof-reader’s sign for “delete” over the sword, repeating it in the right-hand margin.

p “In other respects the design is a good one. Let us approve the sketch and then we can see it again arid discuss it at the Council of People’s Commissars; it must be done soon, however....”

p And he put his signature to the sketch.

p I returned the sketch to the Goznak engraver, who was in the building, and asked him to amend it.

p When the sketch was returned without the sword we decided to show it to the sculptor Andreyev. He. found it necessary to make some technical corrections, drew it again, made the sheaves of grain thicker, made the gleaming rays of the sun stand 31 out more clearly and, in general, produced the entire coat of arms in relief, making it more expressive. The coat of arms of the R.S.F.S.R. was approved at the very beginning of 1918.

Translated by George H. Hanna