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Soviet commemorative flag "for peace" (Soviet Union)

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 March 2024

The flag

See also:

Soviet Union

The flag

At https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Za_mir.jpg is a 1951 Soviet postage stamp for 40 kopecks, issued on ocassion of the “3rd All-Union Conference of Peace Champions” (catalog ЦФА №1658): It shows a crowd on Moscow’s Red Square with people on the foreground signing a petition, with with a large flag on background. This is shown as a plain red flag with an inscription on the upper hoist, shown in white — but might be meant to be yellow instead, since the stamp is printed as two-color on white paper, showing in red the flag itself, staff and finial included, and also the Spasskiĭ tower top star and some of the text background, with the rest in black. This stamp was designed by E. Gundobin.

The inscription reads "За мир!" (= "Za mir!"), litt. "For peace!", and is set in a sophisticated yet cursive style, almost handwritten. This is part of the Stalin era Soviet foreign policy of portraying its nuclear warfare capabilities as an effort for world peace, with matching propaganda merchandise circulated home and aboard.

I am not sure whether this flag was created ad hoc to show on this one stamp (and wherever else this artwork might have been used) or whether this was based on an pre-existing Soviet style commemorative flag with the same design (cf. su_praz.html).

António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 March 2024

This flag never existed in reality. It was drawn especially for the stamp.

Flag with slogans were in great request in that time, but usually they had more complex designs. Artists used the "flag motive" often to show any ideas without real prototypes in flag-world.
For example stamps:
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/...Stalingrad_Tractor_Plant).jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/...Stalingrad_Musical_Comedy_Theater).jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/...May_Day_parade_of_workers_in_Red_Square_in_Moscow).jpg
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/...USSR_stamp_1957_CPA_2067.jpg

Victor Lomantsov, 20 March 2024