Image copyright Hulton Archive Image caption Is it possible to rehabilitate the swastika, which for many has become a symbol of fascism?
In the West, the swastika has become an integral symbol of fascism. But few remember that for thousands of years and in different cultures of the world, it was considered a symbol that brings good luck.
Will the ancient sign ever be able to shake off the stigma of Nazism and the negative associations associated with it?
In the ancient Indian literary language, Sanskrit, "swasti" means a wish for prosperity and good luck. This symbol has been used by Hindus, Buddhists and followers of Jainism for thousands of years. Most researchers believe that the symbol itself was born in India.
The first travelers from Western countries who reached Asia favorably reacted to the positive associations that the swastika carried with them, and began to actively use this symbol at home.
American graphic artist and designer Steven Heller in his book The Swastika: A Symbol Without Redemption? shows how popular it was in architectural motifs and advertising before Hitler came to power.
Image copyright BBC World Service Image caption Packaging on a fruit crate, Coca-Cola token and a deck of cards from the USA, early 20th century"She was decorated with bottles of Coca-Cola and Carlsberg beer. It was adopted by the Boy Scouts, and the American Young Girls Club called its magazine "Swastika". Its editors sent swastika badges to readers who participated in the distribution of the magazine as a small gift" Heller says.
American military units used the swastika during World War I. Her images adorned the wings of some aircraft of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain until 1939. However, the "peaceful" swastika came to an end after fascism came to power in Germany in the 30s of the last century.
The Nazis appropriated the swastika for a reason. In the 19th century, the French romantic writer and sociologist Joseph Gobineau wrote a work entitled: "A Study on the Inequality of the Human Races", in which he introduced the term "Aryans". So Gobineau called the fair-haired and blue-eyed representatives of the white race, whom he considered as the highest level of all mankind.
In the second half of the 19th century, German scientists, translating texts from Sanskrit, discovered similarities between it and the Old Germanic dialects, from which it was concluded that both the ancient Indians and the ancient Germans had common ancestors: the same god-like race of warriors - the Aryans.
Image copyright BBC World Service Image caption Hindu boy with shaved head and a vase at a Buddhist temple in JapanThis idea was enthusiastically taken up by nationalist groups, who declared that the swastika was a symbol of the Aryans, and a clear demonstration of the ancient roots of the German nation.
A black cross with bent ends (the so-called "rotating cross" with rays directed clockwise), on a white circle located on a red square, has become one of the most hated emblems of the 20th century, inextricably linked with the crimes of the Third Reich.
Image copyright BBC World Service Image caption Freddie Knoller, Holocaust survivor“For the Jewish people, the swastika remains a symbol of fear, oppression and destruction. We can never change this symbol,” Holocaust survivor Freddy Knoller told the BBC. “When nationalists paint the swastika on our tombstones and synagogues, we become afraid. This should never happen again."
The swastika became a banned symbol in Germany after the end of World War II. In 2007, Germany tried to extend this ban to all EU countries, albeit without success.
The irony is that the European roots of the swastika go much deeper than many people realize. Archaeological finds have long shown that this is a very ancient symbol, which was used not only in India. It was found in ancient Greece, it was familiar to the Celts and Anglo-Saxons, and the oldest samples were found in general in Eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Balkans.
One of the oldest ornaments depicting a swastika is kept in the State Historical Museum in Kyiv.
Image copyright BBC World Service Image caption The oldest swastika ornament was carved 15 thousand years agoAmong the most valuable exhibits of the museum is a small bone figurine of a bird carved from a mammoth tusk. It was found in 1908 during excavations of a Paleolithic site near the village of Mizin in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine.
The bird's body is engraved with a complex pattern of intertwining swastikas. It is the oldest officially recognized swastika ornament in the world. Radiocarbon analysis showed that the bone bird was carved 15,000 years ago. During excavations, the bird was found among a number of phallic objects, which, according to scientists, supports the theory that the swastika also served as a symbol of fertility.
Image copyright BBC World Service Image caption The swastika is one of the oldest symbols in the world.In 1965, Soviet paleontologist Valentina Bibikova discovered that the swastika meander ornament may be a conscious reproduction by ancient artists of a natural cut on a mammoth bone. Maybe the inhabitants of the Paleolithic simply reproduced what they saw in nature? And the huge mammoth logically became a symbol of prosperity and fertility?
Single swastikas began to appear in the Vinca Vinca Neolithic culture in Eastern Europe about 7,000 years ago. However, this symbol became truly widespread in Europe only in the Bronze Age.
In the collection of the Kyiv Museum there are clay pots with swastikas circling the upper part of the vessel, which is about 4 thousand years old. When fascist troops occupied Kyiv in World War II, the Germans were so convinced that these pots proved the existence of their own Aryan ancestors that they took them with them to Germany. After the war they were returned to Kyiv.
In the Greek collection of the museum, the swastika is widely present in the form of a widespread meander ornament, which is still used to this day.
Image copyright BBC World Service Image caption "Meander" ornament on an ancient Greek vase and at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New YorkIn ancient Greece, pots and vases were decorated with a swastika motif.
But, perhaps, one of the most unexpected exhibits of the museum in Kyiv is a dilapidated piece of fabric, miraculously preserved from the 12th century. It is believed that it was part of the collar of the dress of some Slavic princess, and the decorations of swastikas and gold crosses were supposed to ward off evil.
Image copyright BBC World Service Image caption Embroidery with swastikas and crosses on the collar of a 12th-century dressThe swastika remained a popular motif in Eastern European embroidery until World War II. Associate professor at the Smolny Institute Pavel Kutenkov, who manages the Russian Museum of Ethnology in St. Petersburg, counted about 200 varieties of swastikas in the region.
At the same time, the swastika remains one of the most emotionally negative symbols of our world. In 1941, at Babi Yar in Kyiv, the Nazis killed, according to the most minimal estimates, more than 150 thousand people - Jews, prisoners of war, the mentally ill, gypsies, and so on. The swastika is not to blame for the fact that the National Socialists chose it as their symbol, but few manage to get rid of this association.
Some sincerely believe that the swastika can be revived as a positive symbol. Copenhagen tattoo parlor owner Peter Madsen says the swastika is an important element in Scandinavian mythology.
Madsen was one of the initiators of the action called "Learn to love the swastika", which took place on November 13 last year. The idea was that tattoo artists all over the world offered clients to apply three swastikas on their skin for free on this day, as a symbol of its glorious cultural past.
"The swastika is a symbol of love, which Hitler ruthlessly distorted. We are not trying to revive the" rotating cross, it would be impossible. And we do not want people to forget about the horrors of Nazism, "says Madsen.
Image copyright BBC World Service Image caption Supporter of the action "Learn to love the swastika"“We want people to know that the swastika exists in many forms, none of which have been used for something terrible before. We also want to demonstrate to all these right-wing fascists that they have no right to use this symbol. And if we can teach people to understand the true meaning of the swastika, then maybe we will be able to take it away from the Nazis.
But for those who, like Freddie Knoller, experienced all the horrors of fascism, learning to love the swastika is almost impossible.
"For people who survived the Holocaust, it is impossible to forget what a swastika is. For us, it is a symbol of absolute evil."
"However, we did not know that the swastika was born many millennia ago. Maybe people will be interested to know that it was not always a symbol of fascism," concludes Noller.
Slavic swastika, its significance for us should be the subject of special attention. It is possible to confuse the fascist swastika and Slavic only with complete ignorance of history and culture. A thoughtful and attentive person knows that the swastika is not originally a "brand" of Germany from the time of fascism. Today, not all people remember the true history of this sign. And all this thanks to the world tragedy of the Great Patriotic War, which thundered across the Earth under the standard of a subordinate swastika (enclosed in an inextricable circle). We need to figure out what this swastika symbol was in Slavic culture, why it is still revered, and how today we can put it into practice. Remember that the Nazi swastika is banned in Russia.
Archaeological excavations on the territory of modern Russia and in neighboring countries confirm that the swastika is a much more ancient symbol than the emergence of fascism. So, there are finds with images of a solar symbol dating back to 10,000-15,000 years before the advent of our era. Slavic culture is replete with numerous facts, confirmed by archaeologists, that our people used the swastika everywhere.
vessel found in the Caucasus
The Slavs still retained the memory of this sign, because embroidery patterns are still transmitted, as well as ready-made towels, or homespun belts and other products. In the photo - the belts of the Slavs of different regions and dating.
Looking up old photographs, drawings, you can make sure that the Russians also massively used the swastika symbol. For example, the image of swastikas in a laurel wreath on money, weapons, banners, sleeve chevrons of Red Army soldiers (1917-1923). The honor of the uniform and the solar symbol in the center of the symbolism were one.
But even today you can find both a straight and stylized swastika in the architecture preserved in Russia. For example, let's take only one city of St. Petersburg. Take a closer look at the mosaics on the floor of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, or the Hermitage, to forged vignettes, moldings on buildings along many streets and embankments of this city.
Paul in St. Isaac's Cathedral.
Paul in the Small Hermitage, Room 241, History of Ancient Painting.
Fragment of the ceiling in the Small Hermitage, Room 214, "Italian Art of the Late 15th-16th Centuries".
House in St. Petersburg on Angliyskaya embankment, 24 (the building was built in 1866).
Slavic swastika - meaning and meaning
The Slavic swastika is an equilateral cross, the ends of which are equally bent in one direction (sometimes along the movement of the clock hands, sometimes against). On the bend, the ends on the four sides of the figure form a right angle (straight swastika), and sometimes - sharp or blunt (oblique swastika). They depicted a symbol with pointed and rounded bends of the ends.
Such symbols may mistakenly include a double, triple ("triskelion" with three rays, the symbol of Zervan - the god of space and time, fate and time among the Iranians), an eight-ray ("kolovrat" or "rotary") figure. These variations are incorrectly called swastikas. Our ancestors, the Slavs, perceived each symbol, albeit similar to something else, as a force that has its own separate purpose and function in Nature.
Our native ancestors gave the meaning to the swastika like this - the movement of forces and bodies in a spiral. If this is the sun, then the sign showed vortex flows in the heavenly body. If this is the Galaxy, the Universe, then the movement of celestial bodies in a spiral within the system around a certain center was understood. The center is, as a rule, "self-radiant" light (white light without a source).
Slavic swastika in other traditions and peoples
Our ancestors of the Slavic families in ancient times, along with other peoples, revered swastika symbols not only as amulets, but also as signs of sacred significance. They helped people get in touch with the gods. So, in Georgia they still believe that the roundness of the corners in the swastika means nothing more than the infinity of movement in the entire Universe.
The Indian swastika is now inscribed not only on the temples of various Aryan gods, but is also used as a protective symbolism in household use. They draw this sign in front of the entrance to the dwelling, draw it on dishes, and use it in embroidery. Modern Indian fabrics are still produced with designs of rounded swastika symbols, similar to a blossoming flower.
Near India, in Tibet, Buddhists are no less respectful of the swastika, drawing it on Buddha statues. In this tradition, the swastika means that the cycle in the universe is endless. In many respects, even the whole law of the Buddha is complicated on the basis of this, as recorded in the dictionary "Buddhism", Moscow, ed. "Respublika", 1992 Back in the days of Tsarist Russia, the emperor met with Buddhist lamas, finding much in common in the wisdom and philosophy of the two cultures. Today, lamas use the swastika as a protective sign that protects against evil spirits and demons.
The Slavic and fascist swastikas differ in that the former is not included in a square, circle, or any other outline, while on the Nazi flags we observe that the figure is most often located in the center of a white circle-disk located on a red field. The Slavs never had the desire or purpose to place the sign of any God, Lord or power in a closed space.
We are talking about the so-called "subjugation" of the swastika so that it "works" for those who use it at will. It is believed that after A. Hitler drew attention to this symbol, a special witchcraft rite was performed. The motive of the ceremony was as follows - to begin to rule the whole world with the help of heavenly forces, subjugating all peoples. As far as this is true, the sources are silent, but on the other hand, many generations of people were able to see what can be done with the symbol and how to denigrate it and use it to their advantage.
Swastika in Slavic culture - where it is used
The swastika among the Slavic peoples is found in different signs, which have their own names. In total, there are 144 species of such names today. The following variations are popular among them: Kolovrat, Charovrat, Salting, Inglia, Agni, Svaor, Ognevik, Suasti, Yarovrat, Svarga, Rasich, Svyatoch and others.
In the Christian tradition, swastikas are still used, depicting various saints on Orthodox icons. An attentive person will see such signs on mosaics, paintings, icons, or attire of a priest.
Small swastikas and double swastikas depicted on the robe of Christ Pantocrator the Almighty - a Christian fresco in the St. Sophia Cathedral of the Novgorod Kremlin.
Today, swastika symbols are used by those Slavs who continue to honor the horses of their ancestors and remember their Native Gods. So, on the celebration of the day of Perun the Thunderer, round dances are held around the swastika signs laid out on the ground (or inscribed) - “Fash” or “Agni”. There is also a well-known dance "Kolovrat". The magical meaning of the sign was passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, understanding Slavs today can freely wear amulets with swastika signs, use them as talismans.
The swastika in Slavic culture was perceived differently in different places in Russia. For example, on the Pechora River, the inhabitants called this sign "hare", perceiving it as a sunbeam, a ray of sunlight. But in Ryazan - "feather grass", seeing in the sign the embodiment of the elements of the wind. But the people also felt the fiery power in the sign. So, there are the names "solar wind", "flinters", "saffron milk cap" (Nizhny Novgorod region).
The concept of "swastika" was transformed into a semantic meaning - "what came from Heaven." Here are concluded: "Sva" - Heaven, Svarga Heavenly, Svarog, rune "s" - direction, "tika" - running, movement, the arrival of something. Understanding the origin of the word "Suasti" ("Swasti") helps to determine the strength of the sign. "Su" - good or beautiful, "asti" - to be, to abide. In general, we can summarize the meaning of the swastika - "Be good!".
One Russian tourist, having visited Southeast Asia, shared his impressions on social networks. In Bangkok, he saw a man with a large swastika on the front and back of his T-shirt.
The tourist rushed to the head with blood. He wanted to immediately explain to the stupid aborigine what kind of muck he was wearing. But, having cooled down a bit, the Russian decided to refrain from communication: maybe the local resident simply doesn’t know anything about “German fascism”? Nevertheless, the shock from what he saw was so great that, upon returning home, he turned to the forum visitors with the question: “What to do in such a situation?”
Swastika past and present
Indeed, most Asians do not know who Hitler is. Some may have heard of World War II. But even the most educated people are unlikely to be able to say exactly who fought with whom and because of what. But in India, almost everyone knows well that the swastika is a symbol of prosperity, the sun, a sign of auspicious destinies. Not a single wedding in India, Nepal, South Korea is complete without this symbol.
The swastika appeared in antiquity and was widespread throughout Eurasia. It is an integral part of Buddhism, with which it came to China, Siam and Japan. This symbol is also used by other religions. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, due to the enthusiasm for the culture of the East, the swastika became very popular in Europe.
In the summer of 1917, the Provisional Government of Russia even placed a large swastika on the 250-ruble bill, against the backdrop of a double-headed eagle. The swastika was placed on their shoulder straps by some detachments of whites. The Bolsheviks also did not escape the general craze and used the swastika as a revolutionary symbol.
The seal of the Moscow Provincial Council of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies of 1919 in the form of a swastika looks especially impressive today. The red sleeve patch of the Red Army of the South-Eastern Front with a star and a swastika is also impressive. In the end, the People's Commissar Lunacharsky in a harsh manner stopped this "outrage" in 1922.
At present, Europeans perceive the swastika only as a symbol of Nazism (the National Socialist Party of Germany) with all its horrors. Today it is difficult to imagine that our distant and not very ancestors found something attractive in this symbol, it seems so sinister to us.
The denial of the swastika is firmly soldered into the minds of most European peoples. But humanity consists not only of Europeans, and this must be taken into account, especially when traveling abroad. As they say, they don’t go to a foreign monastery with their charter.
Fascia of the Nazis
The symbol of fascism, the fascia, unlike the swastika, is not a sign that irritates the post-Soviet space. Yes, and in Europe they are treated very tolerantly. One of the reasons, apparently, lies in the fact that the Nazis did not do as much trouble as the Nazis. At the very least, they were going "only" to conquer other peoples, but by no means to destroy them.
Fascia on the facade of the Central Station, Milan.
Here it is necessary to note the different understanding of the term "fascism" in the former USSR and the rest of the world. On the initiative of I. Stalin, the Comintern (an international association of communist parties under the control of the Soviet leadership) proposed calling the National Socialists "German fascists." Fascists are members of the Italian radical party created by B. Mussolini.
The fact is that then there were certain difficulties in identifying the enemy. Hitler's party, the NSDAP, was listed as both socialist and workers, had a red flag and celebrated the May 1 proletarian holiday. To explain to not very literate people how Hitler's socialism differs from Stalin's was simply an unbearable task. And there were no problems with the term "German fascists". In Soviet Union.
But in Europe it did not take root, despite all the efforts of the Comintern. People there simply did not understand what was at stake when, instead of the usual word "Nazi", they heard the long and indigestible "German fascism." Therefore, the European Communist Parties, in order to be understood by their compatriots, were forced to use the generally accepted term - “Nazi”.
Fascia - a symbol of power in ancient Rome
The term "fascism" itself comes from the word "fascia". Fascia was a symbol of power in ancient Rome. It was a bundle of birch rods, into which an ax was stuck. Fasces were worn by lictors - accompanying persons and at the same time guards of high-ranking officials.
Lictor with fasciae
Later, in heraldry, fascia became a symbol of state and national unity, a symbol of state protection. This symbol is widely used today. Fascia is present in the symbols of the Russian federal penitentiary services and bailiffs. It is also on the emblem of the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations. And in the coat of arms of France, the fascia is even a central element.
Mussolini used the fascia on the banner of the Fascist Party as a symbol of the unity of the state and the people, of all sectors of society - from the rich and noble to the poorest. In general, something similar to the well-known slogan "The people and the party are united."
Of course, one cannot call all structures, and even more so states, fascist because of the presence of fascias on their banners and coats of arms. Fascia was more fortunate than the swastika. - She does not cause such rejection. Although on the territory of Moscow from 1997 to 2002 there was a law that provided for punishment for promoting fascia.
Red Star
A very popular symbol is the red star. After the October Revolution, when the question arose about the symbols of the Red Army, they settled on a five-pointed red star. The red star in May 1918 was officially, by order of Trotsky, declared the emblem of the Red Army. In this order, she was called "Mars star with a plow and a hammer."
The god of war Mars in the then Soviet tradition was considered the protector of peaceful labor. The plow after some time was replaced by a sickle. Wearing the red star emblem was supposed to be on the chest. But later the star began to be worn on headdresses, instead of a cockade.
The five-pointed star (pentacle, pentagram) has been known for almost 6000 years. She was a symbol of safety and protection from all sorts of adversities. The pentagram was used by different religions and peoples. But during the time of the Inquisition, the attitude towards the pentagram in Europe changed radically, and it began to be called the "witch's leg." Later, a clarification followed that the symbol of Satan is only an inverted star - when one ray is directed down, and two rays looking up form, as it were, horns.
And a star “standing on two legs” is quite pleasing to God. The "flaming" pentagram, with flames between the rays of the star, is one of the main symbols of the Masons. Already from the beginning of the 19th century, stars “climbed” onto epaulettes and shoulder straps.
The stars on the American flag were originally eight-pointed. But under the influence of local Masons, they were very quickly replaced by five-pointed ones. The US military, like its Soviet counterparts, uses the pentacle to indicate the nationality of military equipment.
"George Ribbon"
IN Lately the red star, the only symbol of the Soviet army and its victories, has a competitor - the orange and black "St. George's Ribbon". For all its external attractiveness and even resemblance to the St. George ribbon, it is unlawful to call it so. On a real St. George ribbon there are three black and two yellow stripes, which symbolizes three deaths and two resurrections of St. George the Victorious.
From 1917 until 1992, the St. George ribbon was not used in any Soviet award. But she was involved in the White Army and the Russian Corps, which fought on the side of Hitler. A person with such a ribbon, who fell into the hands of the NKVD or Smersh during the war years, would at best be sent to a concentration camp. The current "St. George's Ribbon" repeats the colors of the blocks of the Order of Glory and the medal "For the Victory over Germany" and has nothing to do with the life and death of George the Victorious.
In any case, the Russians liked the ribbon and are perceived today as a symbol of the Great Patriotic War. It is perceived in the same way in Belarus. But in Ukraine, the perception of this symbol is ambiguous.
People who are nostalgic for the USSR, although they claim that this is a symbol of the past war, still perceive the ribbon as a symbol of the Soviet past. Another part of the population has a sharply negative attitude towards the ribbon, considering it an element of "imperial" propaganda, along with other Soviet symbols.
Anatoly PONOMARENKO
"Secrets of the XX century"
Half a century has passed since the end of the Second World War, but until now, the two letters SS (more precisely, of course, SS), for the majority, are synonymous with horror and terror. Thanks to the mass production of Hollywood and the Soviet film factories trying to keep up with it, almost all of us are familiar with the uniforms of the SS men and their death-head emblem. But the actual history of the SS is much more complex and multifaceted. In it one can find heroism and cruelty, nobility and meanness, selflessness and intrigue, deep scientific interests and a passionate craving for the ancient knowledge of distant ancestors.
The head of the SS Himmler, who sincerely believed that the Saxon king Henry I "Birdcatcher" was spiritually reincarnated in him - the founder of the First Reich, elected in 919 the king of all Germans. In one of his speeches in 1943 he said:
"Our order will enter the future as a union of an elite that unites the German people and all of Europe around itself. It will give the world leaders of industry, agriculture, as well as political and spiritual leaders. We will always obey the law of elitism, choosing the highest and discarding the lowest. If we If we cease to follow this fundamental rule, then we will thereby condemn ourselves to and disappear from the face of the earth like any other human organization.
His dreams, as you know, were not destined to come true for completely different reasons. From a young age, Himmler showed an increased interest in "the ancient heritage of our ancestors." Associated with the Thule Society, he was fascinated by the pagan culture of the Germans and dreamed of its revival - of the time when it would replace the "stinking Christianity." In the intellectual depths of the SS there was a development of a new "moral" based on pagan ideas.
Himmler considered himself the founder of a new pagan order, which was "destined to change the course of history", carry out "cleansing of the rubbish accumulated over the millennia" and return humanity to "the path prepared by Providence." In connection with such grandiose plans for a "return", it is not surprising that the ancient one was widely used on the SS order. On the uniforms of the SS men, they stood out, testifying to the elitism and camaraderie that prevails in the organization. From 1939 they went to war singing a hymn that included the following line: "We are all ready for battle, we are inspired by runes and a dead head."
According to the plan of the Reichsführer SS, the runes were to play a special role in the symbols of the SS: on his personal initiative, the Institute of Runic Writing was established as part of the Ahnenerbe program - the Society for the Study and Dissemination of the Cultural Heritage of Ancestors. Until 1940, all recruits of the SS order underwent mandatory instruction regarding runic symbolism. By 1945, 14 basic runic symbols were used in the SS. The word "rune" means "secret script". Runes are the basis of the alphabets carved on stone, metal and bone, and which became widespread mainly in pre-Christian Northern Europe among the ancient Germanic tribes.
"... The great gods - Odin, Ve and Willy carved a man from ash, and a woman from willow. The eldest of the children of Bor, Odin, breathed soul into people and gave life. To bestow them with new knowledge, Odin went to Utgard, the Land of Evil ", to the World Tree. There he pulled out an eye and brought it to, but this seemed not enough to the Guardians of the Tree. Then he gave his life - he decided to die in order to resurrect. For nine days he hung on a branch pierced by a spear. Each of the eight nights of Initiation opened him new secrets of being. On the ninth morning, Odin saw runes-letters inscribed on a stone. His mother's father, the giant Belthorn, taught him to carve and color runes, and the World Tree became known from then on - Yggdrasil ... "
So tells about the acquisition of runes by the ancient Germans "Snorrieva Edda" (1222-1225), perhaps the only complete review of the heroic epic of the ancient Germans, based on legends, divination, spells, sayings, cult and rituals of the Germanic tribes. In the Edda, Odin was revered as the god of war and the patron of the dead heroes of Valhalla. He was also considered a necromancer.
The famous Roman historian Tacitus in his book "Germany" (98 BC) described in detail how the Germans were engaged in predicting the future with the help of runes.
Each rune had a name and a magical meaning that went beyond purely linguistic boundaries. The inscription and composition changed over time and acquired magical significance in Teutonic astrology. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. the runes were remembered by various "folkische" (folk) groups spread in Northern Europe. Among them was the Thule Society, which played a significant role in the early days of the Nazi movement.
Hakenkreutz
SWASTIKA - the Sanskrit name of the sign depicting a hook cross (among the ancient Greeks, this sign, which became known to them from the peoples of Asia Minor, was called "tetraskele" - "four-legged", "spider"). This sign was associated with the cult of the Sun among many peoples and is found already in the Upper Paleolithic era and even more often in the Neolithic era, primarily in Asia (according to other sources, the oldest image of the swastika was found in Transylvania, it dates from the Late Stone Age; the swastika found in the ruins of the legendary Troy, this is the Bronze Age). Already from the 7th-6th centuries BC. e. it enters into symbolism, where it means the secret doctrine of the Buddha. The swastika is reproduced on the oldest coins of India and Iran (before our era it penetrates from there to); in Central America it is also known among the peoples as a sign indicating the cycle of the Sun. In Europe, the distribution of this sign dates back to a relatively late time - to the Bronze and Iron Ages. In the era of the migration of peoples, he penetrates through the Finno-Ugric tribes to the north of Europe, to Scandinavia and the Baltic, and becomes one of the supreme Scandinavian god Odin (Wotan in German mythology), who suppressed and absorbed the previous solar (solar) cults. Thus, the swastika, as one of the varieties of the image of the solar circle, was practically found in all parts of the world, as the solar sign served as an indication of the direction of rotation of the Sun (from left to right) and was also used as a sign of well-being, “turning away from the left side”.
It is precisely because of this that the ancient Greeks, who learned about this sign from the peoples of Asia Minor, changed the turn of their “spider” to the left and at the same time changed its meaning, turning it into a sign of evil, sunset, death, since for them it was “alien” . Since the Middle Ages, the swastika has been completely forgotten and only occasionally met as a purely ornamental motif without any meaning and significance.
Only at the very end of the 19th century, probably on the basis of the erroneous and hasty conclusion of some German archaeologists and ethnographers that the swastika sign can be an indicator for determining the Aryan peoples, since it is supposedly found only among them, in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century they began to use the swastika as anti-Semitic sign (for the first time in 1910), although later, at the end of the 20s, the works of English and Danish archaeologists were published, who discovered the swastika not only in the territories inhabited by Semitic peoples (in Mesopotamia and Palestine), but also directly on the Hebrew sarcophagi.
For the first time as a political sign-symbol, the swastika was used on March 10-13, 1920 on the helmets of the militants of the so-called “Erhard Brigade”, which formed the core of the “Volunteer Corps” - a monarchist paramilitary organization led by Generals Ludendorff, Seeckt and Lutzow, who carried out the Kapp putsch - counter-revolutionary the coup that planted the landowner V. Kapp as “premier” in Berlin. Although Bauer's Social Democratic government fled ignominiously, the Kapp Putsch was liquidated in five days by the 100,000-strong German Army created under the leadership of the Communist Party of Germany. The authority of the militaristic circles was then severely undermined, and the sign of the swastika from that time began to mean a sign of right-wing extremism. Since 1923, on the eve of Hitler's "beer putsch" in Munich, the swastika has become the official emblem of the Nazi Nazi Party, and since September 1935 - the main state emblem of Nazi Germany, included in its coat of arms and flag, as well as in the emblem of the Wehrmacht - an eagle holding in its claws wreath with swastika.
Under the definition of "Nazi" symbols, only a swastika standing on an edge at 45 °, with the ends directed to the right, can fit. It was this sign that was on the state banner of National Socialist Germany from 1933 to 1945, as well as on the emblems of the civil and military services of this country. It is also desirable to call it not "swastika", but Hakenkreuz, as the Nazis themselves did. The most accurate reference books consistently distinguish between the Hakenkreuz ("Nazi swastika") and the traditional swastikas in Asia and America, which stand on the surface at an angle of 90°.
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Symbols of the Third Reich
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Half a century has passed since the end of the Second World War, but until now, the two letters SS (more precisely, of course, SS), for the majority, are synonymous with horror and terror. Thanks to the mass production of Hollywood and the Soviet film factories trying to keep up with it, almost all of us are familiar with the black uniforms of the SS men and their death-head emblem. But the actual history of the SS is much...
The version that it was Hitler who had the brilliant idea to make the swastika a symbol of the National Socialist movement belongs to the Fuhrer himself and was voiced in Mein Kampf. Probably, for the first time, nine-year-old Adolf saw a swastika on the wall of a Catholic monastery near the town of Lambach.
The swastika has been popular since ancient times. A cross with curved ends has been featured on coins, household items, coats of arms since the eighth millennium BC. The swastika personified life, the sun, prosperity. Hitler could see the swastika again in Vienna on the emblem of Austrian anti-Semitic organizations.
By christening the archaic solar symbol the Hakenkreuz (Hakenkreuz is German for hook cross), Hitler claimed the priority of discoverer, even though the idea of the swastika as a political symbol had taken root in Germany before him. In 1920, Hitler, who was an unprofessional and mediocre, but still an artist, allegedly independently developed the design of the party logo, proposing a red flag with a white circle in the middle, in the center of which a black swastika was rapaciously spreading hooks.
The red color, according to the leader of the National Socialists, was chosen in imitation of the Marxists, who also used it. Seeing the one hundred and twenty thousandth demonstration of the left forces under the scarlet banners, Hitler noted the active influence of the bloody color on the common man. In Mein Kampf, the Fuhrer mentioned the "great psychological significance" of symbols and their ability to powerfully influence emotions. But it was precisely by controlling the emotions of the crowd that Hitler managed to introduce the ideology of his party to the masses in an unprecedented way.
By adding a swastika to the red color, Adolf gave a diametrically opposite meaning to the favorite color scheme of the socialists. By attracting the attention of the workers with the familiar color of the posters, Hitler was "re-recruiting".
The red color in the interpretation of Hitler personified the idea of movement, white - the sky and nationalism, the hoe-shaped swastika - labor and the anti-Semitic struggle of the Aryans. Creative work was mysteriously treated as anti-Semitic.
In general, it is impossible to call Hitler the author of National Socialist symbols, contrary to his statements. He borrowed the color from the Marxists, the swastika and even the name of the party (slightly rearranging the letters) from the Viennese nationalists. The idea of using symbols is also plagiarism. It belongs to the oldest member of the party - a dentist named Friedrich Krohn, who submitted a memorandum back in 1919 to the party leadership. However, in the bible of National Socialism, the book Mein Kampf, the name of the quick-witted dentist is not mentioned.
However, Kron put a different content into the decoding of symbols. The red color of the banner is love for the motherland, the white circle is a symbol of innocence for unleashing the First World War, the black color of the cross is grief over losing the war.
In the interpretation of Hitler, the swastika became a sign of the Aryan struggle against "subhumans". The claws of the cross seem to be aimed at Jews, Slavs, representatives of other peoples who do not belong to the race of "blond beasts".
Unfortunately, the ancient positive sign was discredited by the National Socialists. The Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946 banned Nazi ideology and symbols. The swastika was also banned. Recently, she has been somewhat rehabilitated. Roskomnadzor, for example, admitted in April 2015 that displaying this sign outside of a propaganda context is not an act of extremism. Although the "reprehensible past" cannot be deleted from the biography, the swastika is used by some racist organizations.
