Voronezh coat of arms – history

The history of Voronezh coat of arms originated at the beginning of the XVIII century – at that time the Russian empire was for the first time divided into provinces following a territorial-administrative reform by Peter the Great. Actually, a certain emblem of Voronezh had been in existence even in the XVII century. It was depicted at souvenir herald badges, but the emblem status is presently unclear and hardly should be referred to as a first self-governance symbol.

Voronezh coat of arms, XVII century

The reformist tzar conducted enormous work to bring the state and local governance to order and paid special attention to execution of documents, and, particularly, to stamp-related issues.

In 1722 a king-of-arms chancellery was set up, in 1724 the Senate decreed “to make stamps in all jurisdictions, namely, in provinces and towns; existing coat of arms should be carved in, or new ones should be drawn in a king-of-arms office”. The decree implied an obvious desire of the tzar to pay attention to the existence of coats of arms in towns.

Count Francisk de Santi took to develop symbols of power in towns. Being a well-known specialist in the area of heraldry, he was invited from Amsterdam as an assistant of a king-of-arms to make coats of arms. In his address to Peter the Great he wrote: “If your Emperor Highness would be kind enough to bestow coats of arms to towns where there are none, a king-of-arms chancellery would follow traditional laws and European standard usage in making new coats of arms”.

Voronezh coat of arms, 1730

Francisk de Santi authored, corrected and drew about one hundred coats of arms in Russia in line with heraldry rules. The first symbol of Voronezh was among them. The coat of arms was based on an emblem, depicted on the banner of Voronezh infantry regiment, described in the armorial of 1712: “The banner is black and red, crossed by a cross of the same two colors with a golden cloud at the top corner, and a bird on the shooting cannon”. The new coat of arms was described in the armorial of 1730: “A golden shield with two copper cannons on the red field with a white one-headed eagle sitting on one of them. The earth under the cannons is green”. The depiction is very symbolic. The eagle is a brave victorious warrior. The green surface implies well-known fertility of black-earth of our territories. The double-barrel cannon personifies the Russian glory since 1699 - a first foundry was built at the time in Voronezh to cast copper cannons.

After the death of Peter the Great domineering feudal-serfdom and bureaucratic tendencies resulted in termination of nominal self-government rights, presented to Russian towns by the deceased emperor. As a result, town symbols lost their significance. Preparation of coat of arms for towns had to be postponed indefinitely.

Voronezh coat of arms, 1781

In 1775 another government decree proclaimed a new reform of local self-government all over Russia. The reform singled out towns as separate administrative units and made a town coat of arms a must. The Voronezh emblem was changed by a king-of-arms A.Volkov. Possible reason for the change was a similarity between coats of arms in Voronezh and Smolensk. The both had a bird sitting on the cannon. Small or unclear depiction might bring about some confusion. The new official coat of arms was approved by the Russian Senate – its depiction and a sketch came to Voronezh on Decemver 29, 1781.

The new symbol presented a shield divided into two parts. The top golden part showed a two-headed eagle, and the bottom red part — an overturned jug on a hillside with the water pouring out. At the old stamps the eagle was not seen very well, and, due to pronunciation similarity between Voronezh and voron (raven), many people took an eagle for a raven. Since a raven is not a proper bird for a coat of arms, only a jug with silver water, symbolizing river of Voronezh, was left at the coat of arms.

Voronezh coat of arms, 1881

New rules for town coats of arms were established in 1857. The rules were elaborated by a king-of-arms Kene and provided for new decorating elements of coat of arms — framing of crowns, leaves, ears of wheat, anchors, bands etc. outside a shield.

Voronezh coat of arms, 1965

The details helped you to specify the town type — provincial, district, out-of-the-way, port or something else. In 1881 the Voronezh coat of arms was made anew, with the new version approved on September 23, 1881: “A dark red shield right side depicts a mountain with a silver jug pouring out silver water”. The shield was topped by a golden trident tower crown, which implied a provincial center, and framed with ears of wheat, tied by the Aleksander’s band. Following practices of heraldry, framing ears of wheat implied agricultural nature of a town.

In 1965, in the Soviet era, a new town emblem was introduced – ears of wheat, electron orbits and a sail. The colors of the design were not known for sure. The shield might be dark red, electron orbits – golden, a sail – silver. Later the elements were made a part of the official Voronezh coat of arms, approved on March 24, 1969 by the decree of the I session of the XII convocation of the Voronezh town council.

Modern Voronezh coat of arms, 1994

The design was authored by V.Didenko. A coat of arms was based on a shield in line with traditions of Russian heraldry. The state flag of the RF is placed at the shield top part. At the central golden-yellow field there are symbols of Voronezh industry: a semi-pinion symbolizing engineering and a semi-conductor symbolizing electronics, and rays of wheat symbolizing agriculture.

The fortified wall pinions at the lower part of the coat of arms are remindful of the town-fortress, standing a reliable vigil at the southern borders in time of nomads’ raids, and of hard war-time labor during the Civil and the Great Patriotic Wars. A red square with a white three-mast sail is in-drawn into the brown wall to make reference to the town being a cradle of the Russian military fleet. The shield lower part presents a blue wavy field to symbolize Voronezh-river and a water reservoir – “Voronezh Sea”.

The modern Voronezh coat of arms is approved by the Voronezh administration on June 19, 1994. A historic town coat of arms of 1881 was restored to symbolize the town. The coat of arms is described in the town charter: “The Voronezh coat of arms presents a French shield with a golden mountain from the right (left from an observer’s point of view) against dark red background. On the mountain slope there is a silver jug pouring out water of the same color. The shield is topped by a tower crown with three pinions and encircled with three golden ears of wheat, tied by the Aleksander’s band”.