In 1918, which Russian designed the hammer and sickle emblem?

In Russia, the historical time period from 1917 to 1923 witnessed a political and social revolution resulting in the abolishment of the Russian monarchy. The establishment of the Soviet Union is typically identified with the end of this revolution.

It was at this time that the hammer and sickle, a symbol emerged to represent proletariat solidarity, described as a union between the peasantry and working class. The hammer represented the workers and the sickle represented the peasants.

Vladimir Lenin (1870- 1924), the Russia revolutionary, politician and political theorist served as the head of government of the Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924. Lenin and Anatoly Lunacharsky (1875-1933), a Russian Marxist revolutionary, held a competition to design a Soviet emblem. The winning design was a hammer and sickle on top of a globe in rays of the sun, surrounded by a wreath of grain and under a five-pointed star.

The winning design was made by Yevgeny Kamzolkin (1885-1957), a Russian and Soviet artist-decorator and photographer. Born into the family of a Moscow merchant, between 1904 and 1912, he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

In 1918, he proposed a ‘hammer and sickle’ symbol as a decoration for the May Day celebrations in a district of Moscow. Other designs that were rejected include a hammer and anvil, a plough with a sword and scythe with a wrench.