Keeping the red flag flying
QUESTION Why does Russia still use the hammer and sickle in its emblems?
THE hammer and sickle image that adorned the Soviet flag is probably the most recognisable symbol of Soviet Communist power and ideology.
Several variants were initially put forward: a hammer and sickle, a hammer and rakes, a hammer and pitchforks, and a hammer and plough.
The hammer was chosen for its traditional association with industrial workers in European countries. Together with an agricultural tool, it was supposed to illustrate the unity of the proletariat and peasants.
The definitive version of the emblem was approved in April 1918, designed by Moscow artist Yevgeny Kamzolkin. The Fifth Session of Soviets officially adopted the symbol that summer.
Kamzolkin wasn’t a communist, but a deeply religious man from a wealthy family who was a member for more than ten years of the mystical Society of Leonardo da Vinci and understood symbolism well.
Some think his design was developed from the Masonic symbol of the hammer and chisel, while others believe it came from various hammer-wielding mythical gods, such as Thor and Hephaestus.
Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Russian people have a strong affection for the motif. A 2008 poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre, VCIOM, found 65 per cent of those questioned thought Soviet symbols should remain while just 20 per cent felt they should be removed.
Its post-Communist popularity has seen the name hammer and sickle (Serp i Molot) given to numerous villages, streets and railway platforms in modern Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
The symbol has been incorporated in the flags of two major Russian federal districts, Vladimir Oblast and Bryansk Oblast, and the city of Oryol uses it on its flag.
In 2004, the regional administration of Vladimir Oblast adopted a flag featuring a hammer and sickle alongside the crest of Vladimir Gubernias, which was conferred by Catherine the Great — a curious mixture of Tsarist and Communist symbolism that caused much local debate.
The most recognisable hammer and sickle still in use is in the emblem of Russian airline Aeroflot, where the motif is supported by wings. In 2003, the airline, founded in 1923, attempted to rebrand itself due to negative international connotations prompted by its poor safety record and stern cabin staff. The company said it would drop the hammer and sickle on the advice of its British image consultant, Identica.
Six new designs were put forward and one was chosen, but its use was eventually overruled by the board. It was decided that the hammer and sickle logo should not be replaced because ‘everyone associates it with Aeroflot’, an ‘old Russian brand’.
Dan Levy, London E14.
QUESTION What is the longest lock-free stretch of canal in the country?
THE Lancaster Canal, which runs from Tewitfield near the Lake District to Preston, Lancashire, is a contour canal providing more than 42 miles of navigable waterway, the longest lock-free stretch of canal in the country. Originally opened in 1797, the canal was created to transport materials and produce for local industry.
Today, it’s a fabulous tourist destination, running through several aqueducts, the most impressive being the Lune Aqueduct, built by John Rennie, which stands high above the River Lune and is 660ft long.
The canal also boasts fabulous views of Morecambe Bay. Jim Burns, Warton, Lancs. QUESTION Why are there no trees on the Orkneys? ORKNEY was honed to its present smooth contours by the action of the retreating ice sheets, which disappeared 10,000 years ago. There’s evidence that trees grew in abundance there over the following millennia. Established shortly after the early Mesolithic period, they included thick forest in lowland areas and open woodlands of hazel, birch and willow.
The rapid spread of Neolithic culture up the western seaways brought early farming settlements to Orkney and by about 3,500BC the islands’ lowland forest cover was declining, due to human activity.
At the same time, a cooling climate and increasingly exposed conditions made it difficult for young trees to get established.
This loss of available wood for construction led to an increased use of stone as a building material and the arrival of megalithic culture characterised by Orkney’s famous prehistoric villages, brochs, souterrain structures, chambered cairns and standing stones.
Heath and upland woodland lasted through the Bronze Age (3,700 years ago), with pollen samples showing twice the current levels of woodland in Orkney.
But during that period temperatures dropped further and rainfall increased, making living and farming on the islands increasingly difficult.
By the mid-Bronze Age (around 1,500 BC), continued climatic deterioration saw much of the lost woodland become peat bog and open heathland.
Orkney was so lacking in tree cover that at the southern end of the main street in the capital, Kirkwall, surrounded by flagstones and almost in the centre of the road, stands a solitary sycamore, popularly known as ‘Big Tree’. It originally stood in the garden of a house in Albert Street. When the house was sold in the 1870s, the garden was removed, leaving the tree standing in the street.
This lonely tree is thought to be around 200 years old, but its age and position in paved ground — combined with years of extensive pruning — have left it in rather a poor condition. Amie Murray, Inverness.
QUESTION Did any British National Servicemen called up for two years, gain officer status?
FURTHER to earlier answers, I well remember the main yard address given by Regimental Sergeant Major Brittain to my intake at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot in 1952.
We were all seated in the classroom when this gigantic figure came in, flanked by two Irish Guards warrant officers. At first, he was like a genial uncle, putting us at our ease, until he pointed out: ‘While you are here, you will call me “Sir” — and I will call you “Sir”. The difference is that YOU WILL MEAN IT!’
It took days to recover — in fact, I’m still not sure if I have. The archetypal British Sergeant Major, RSM Brittain took a cameo role as himself in the film They Were Not Divided (1950).
A. V. Martin, Wigginton, York.
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