“Stema muncii care a înlocuit stema fiarelor”. O incursiune în istoria adoptării stemei de stat a României comuniste
“The Labour’s Coat-of-arms that Replaced the Beasts’ One”. An Investigation in the History of Adopting the Coat-of-Arms in Communist Romania

Summary/Abstract: Along with the abolition of Monarchy at the end of 1947, the coat-of-arms had to be also changed in Romania. This article investigates the struggles of the Romanian Communist regime to find a new symbol for the Romanian People’s Republic. At the beginning of January 1948, a new coat-of-arms was established, that depicted a tractor, three chimneys and a sun, all surrounded by a wheat garland tied with a three-coloured ribbon. However, by the end of that month, the Romanian Government prepared the ground for a competition in order to establish a new coat-of-arms of the Republic. This creation had to follow the description of the new Constitutional Project: “wooded mountains above which the sun rises. In the middle there is an oil well, and all around a garland of wheat”. Among the hundreds of projects sent to the authorities, it was one that was declared as winner, set up by Ioan Mițurcă, Iosif Cova and Emil Parascan. It eventually became the new emblem of Romania. The arms were revised three times: in 1952, when a red star was added on the top; in 1965, when the inscription on the ribbon was modified to reflect the new name of the country: the Socialist Republic of Romania; and in 1968, when the field’s colour, at the bottom of the woodland, was changed to blue. In the end, this article presents a little known project of Romanian heraldist Jean Nicolas Mănescu, which combined elements of the traditional coat-of-arms from 1921 with communist symbols. The appendices include 12 memos that accompanied various projects of coat-of-arms sent in the spring of 1948.

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