Emblems of the Soviet Republics

The emblems of the constituent republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics all featured predominantly the hammer and sickle and the red star that symbolized communism, as well as a rising sun (although in the case of the Latvian SSR, since the Baltic Sea is west of Latvia, it could be interpreted as a setting sun), surrounded by a wreath of wheat (except the Karelo-Finnish SSR with a wreath of rye). The USSR State motto, Workers of the world, unite!, in both the republic's language and Russian was also placed on each one of them. In addition to those repetitive motifs, emblems of many Soviet republics also included features that were characteristic of their local landscapes, economies or cultures.

USSR republics coat of arms display on USSR State Television.

The emblems are often called coats of arms, but since they (deliberately) did not follow the rules of heraldry, most of them cannot be considered coats of arms. However, they all did follow the same basic pattern, a pattern which sometimes has led to the use of the term "socialist heraldry".

The table below presents final versions of the renderings of the Soviet republics' emblems prior to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, as well as the arms of two republics that ceased to exist before that time. For comparison, national arms of present-day successor states of the Soviet republics are also shown. As can be seen, most Asian post-Soviet republics use arms based on or reminiscent of the Soviet-era emblems, with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have present-day arms nearly identical to the Soviet one. Most European republics, on the other hand, reverted to their traditional pre-Soviet heraldic arms. Belarus used the traditional Pahonia as its coat of arms from 1991 to 1995 when it was replaced by a new emblem closely resembling the Soviet-era design. Additionally, the secessionist Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria), internationally recognised as part of Moldova, uses an emblem based on the emblem of the Moldavian SSR (see Coat of arms of Transnistria) and the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, controlling part of the Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine, created the similar emblem.

Emblems of the Soviet Republics

Republic	Main article	Republic-specific features		Present-day national coat of arms
Russian SFSR	Emblem of the Russian SFSR	Plants	wheat	Coat of arms of Russia
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments	Baroque cartouche
Ukraine	Emblem of the Ukrainian SSR^[1]	Plants	wheat	Coat of arms of Ukraine
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments	Baroque cartouche
Byelorussia	Emblem of the Byelorussian SSR	Plants	wheat, clover, flax	Emblem of Belarus
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments
Uzbekistan	Emblem of the Uzbek SSR^[1]	Plants	wheat, cotton	Emblem of Uzbekistan
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments
Kazakhstan	Emblem of the Kazakh SSR^[2]	Plant	wheat	Emblem of Kazakhstan
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments
Georgia	Emblem of the Georgian SSR	Plants	wheat, grapes	Coat of arms of Georgia
		Landscapes, geographic features	Caucasus Mountains
		Industry
		Ornaments	Georgian ornament with a seven-pointed star from the pre-1921 Georgian coat of arms
Azerbaijan	Emblem of the Azerbaijan SSR^[3]	Plants	wheat, cotton	Emblem of Azerbaijan
		Landscapes, geographic features	Sun rising on Caspian Sea
		Industry	oil drilling rig
		Ornaments
Lithuania	Emblem of the Lithuanian SSR^[1]	Plants	wheat, oak	Coat of arms of Lithuania
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments
Moldavia	Emblem of the Moldavian SSR^[1]	Plants	wheat, maize, pears, grapes	Coat of arms of Moldova
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments
Latvia	Emblem of the Latvian SSR	Plants	wheat	Coat of arms of Latvia
		Landscapes, geographic features	Baltic Sea
		Industry
		Ornaments
Kirghizia	Emblem of the Kirghiz SSR	Plants	wheat, cotton	Emblem of Kyrgyzstan
		Landscapes, geographic features	Tian Shan Mountains
		Industry
		Ornaments	Kyrgyz embroidery
Tajikistan	Emblem of the Tajik SSR^[1]	Plants	wheat, cotton	Emblem of Tajikistan
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments
Armenia	Emblem of the Armenian SSR	Plants	wheat, grapes	Coat of arms of Armenia
		Landscapes, geographic features	Mount Ararat^[4]
		Industry
		Ornaments
Turkmenia	Emblem of the Turkmen SSR	Plants	wheat, cotton, grapes	Emblem of Turkmenistan
		Landscapes, geographic features	Turkmen landscape
		Industry	oil drilling rig
		Ornaments	gillam detail from a Turkmen rug
Estonia	Emblem of the Estonian SSR^[5]	Plants	rye, pine, spruce	Coat of arms of Estonia
		Landscapes, geographic features
		Industry
		Ornaments
Republics that dissolved before 1991
Karelo-Finnish SSR (1940–1956)	Coat of arms of the Karelo-Finnish SSR	Plants	rye, pine	Coat of arms of Karelia (constituent entity of Russia)
		Landscapes, geographic features	Karelian landscape
		Industry
		Ornaments	Karelian embroidery
Transcaucasian SFSR (1922–1936)	Emblem of the Transcaucasian SFSR	Plants	Wheat, cotton, maize, rice, grapes
		Landscapes, geographic features	Caucasus mountains
		Industry	Factory, oil drilling rigs
		Ornaments