Thursday 30 April 2020

courtesy ensign

Via our fellow internet peripatetic Dark Roasted Blend, we are directed to a gallery of the funny and fearsome beasts that grace the regional and municipal (see previously) flags of Russia.
Starting out with a bang with the flag of Zheleznogorsk (Железного́рск), the closed and formerly secret town purpose built for the production of weapons-grade plutonium features a bear ripping apart an atom. Presently the local economy is focused on the manufacture of commercial satellites.
The rest of the flags in the collection (see also) do not disappoint, indeed not flagging in quality and iconographic narrative, like this one for the village of Volchansk (Волча́нск) that features a patriotic squirrel and many other that stylise native fauna as to make them seem like heraldic chimera, double-headed birds, griffins and unicorns, though less rarefied creatures.