Yaroslavl - Symbols

Symbols

Yaroslavl currently has a municipal coat of arms and a flag which are both made up of two heraldic symbols. Both of these items are intrinsically linked with the legend surrounding the foundation of the city; the bear and halberd.

The first coat of arms of Yaroslavl was officially granted on 31 August 1778. At that time it was made up of a silver field upon which the form of a bear was placed, and which, with its left forepaw held a golden halberd. In 1856 the coat of arms was modified slightly, which left the traditional image of the halberd-carrying bear as it was, but added an imperial crown surmounted on top of the shield. In addition to his a sprig of golden oak leaves was added to surround the shield, intertwined with the blue ribbon of the Order of Saint Andrew. This form of the coat of arms was then left unaltered until 1918, just after the Bolsheviks came to power as a result of the October Revolution. After the abolition of the tsarist municipal and provincial symbols by the newly installed Soviet administration in Yaroslavl, the city received no new official symbols, and thus the situation remained until the end of the twentieth century. The third and current version of the city's coat of arms was adopted on 23 August 1995 by the municipal council. The coloring and form of the arms are taken from those of 1856, however the sprig of oak and ribbon of St Andrew were removed and have, as of yet, not been reintroduced to the symbols of the city. In addition to this, the imperial crown which previously surmounted the whole design has been replaced, in the current version by the Cap of Monomakh – a symbol of the Russian autocracy and an otherwise powerful symbol of the Russian state.

The municipal flag or banner of Yaroslavl was adopted on 22 May 1996. It is a simple design which simply depicts the coat of arms of the city (1995 version), which must take up at least one third of the flag's entire size, upon a light blue background. The whole flag is rectangular in shape.