hammer and sickle

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English[edit]

Hammer and sickle.

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

The symbol was developed by Yevgeny Kamzolkin in 1917, based on antetypes like hammer and pick (symbol of mining). The hammer represents workers, while the sickle represents farmers.

Noun[edit]

hammer and sickle (plural hammers and sickles)

  1. A depiction of a sickle crossed with a hammer, used as a symbol of communism and the Soviet Union.
    • December 7 2022, Simon Shuster, “2022 Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky”, in Time[1]:
      He remembers the [train] journeys fondly—the vast expanses of the Soviet empire rolling by, the glasses of tea served in metal cup holders embossed with the hammer and sickle.
  2. (metonymically) Socialism or communism itself.

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